KENDRICK LAMAR: MARKETING GENIUS

I was planning to write my first Marketing flavored post about how Anthony Weiner destroyed his brand but I decided that was more suited for my political blogs. The Kendrick Lamar verse is a much sexier subject and an example of great Marketing.

So 2 weeks ago, on my way to work I pull out my mobile device to check out what’s going on with social media and I see my boy posted several Instagrams about this cat named Kendrick and how he claims to be the king of New York. Now I didn't think anything of it, especially since I didn't even know who he was. 

Hip Hop heads don't hate me. 

I haven't been keeping up with what's going on in the world of Hip Hop. My most recent awareness included Jay Z's Magna Carta and a few artists lamenting the sorry state of Hip Hop. Even Chris Brown who made a comeback from his domestic violence debacle is talking about the lack of faith in Hip Hop as a brand. My boy and musician Heron Demarco has been in mourning for the death of this American art form for a while now.

Anyway for the next couple of days Kendrick’s stunt dominated not only the Twittershpere but Intstagram and Facebook, sparking debates, comments and memes from everyone. He single handedly set the Hip Hop world on fire in way I haven't seen in years, so I had to investigate.

Now even before I went in search of the now infamous verse I thought he was a Marketing genius. I mean consider this: in one day he was able to expand his reach to a potentially new audience of listeners that never even heard of him either because they're not into Hip Hop or they're more main-stream like I've been for too long. Since Hip Hop transformed from an art form to a business it's been dominated, at least radio play has been, by a few at the top like 50 and Lil Wayne and if you haven't been paying attention you'd believe Hip Hop was only Jay's new album or Kanye's Yeezus but not so. The ability to impact social media as a whole the way he did without dropping a ton of cash on a complicated promotional strategy takes talent. The man got everyone from Big Daddy Kane to Phil Jackson (who he mentioned on his verse) talking about him. Anyone can say or do something outrageous and get attention but this sustained attention that has grown into discussion and become viral, cannot be ignored because it marks what could possibly be a paradigm shift in the mass produced industry driven process of making music; especially when the message resonates so deeply with listeners. And that message is-

 Hip Hop needs to step its game up.

Well the verse wasn't hard to find and it was more than lyrically sound and masterfully executed. The shit was fucking hot and no I ain't asking nobody to excuse my French ‘cause there is no other way to say it. I can see what all the buzz was about and why every Hip Hop head lost it.

This felt like the opening salvo of a civil war in the rap community, only here we're not talking about the North and the South, it's East Coast vs. West Coast and I hope the first casualty is the mediocrity and industry duplication that have created little room for true creativity. This artist sent a letter to the industry saying BRING YOUR A GAME OR DIE. But why is that Marketing genius?

Well, like I said the big summer news up until this dropped was Jay Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail. Now I'm not taking anything away from Jay, but I was a little disappointed with where I saw Hip Hop going. Don’t get me wrong, the teaser for Magna Carter got me amped. The release was great! But it seemed to solidify this new era of big deals that would keep indie artists and underground rappers from being heard. The new business model appeared to be – build a brand durable and persuasive enough to create a brand alliance… ie the Jay Z/Samsung deal where they bought a million of his albums for distribution alongside their mobile devices to make Magna Carta gold before it even hit the shelves.

From a Marketing perspective I LOVED it! It's a win win. Samsung ups it “cool factor” and increases market share through its affiliation with Jay. Jay continues to confirm his brand as “established” by penning this unique deal and ohhh yeah… he gets a ton of cash for doing it.

Now the impact to the industry is not so good because only a few artist can even think about putting together a deal like that and retain creative control, leaving most new comers out in the wilderness and prey to record executives that want to perfect a duplicatable template that they can then license to any brand seeking to improve it's cool factor. By the way such an environment is toxic for creativity.

Kendrick kicked open the door for creativity by issuing his challenge and it was done strategically by doing 4 things.

• First thing – I'm not sure why most people seemed to have missed this but he acknowledged the giants in the game and just says don't get involved, because starting a war with an establishment can be more than dangerous to your brand if you can't bring it, just ask Hammer. Lol.  
• Second - he establishes his love for his opponents which include Big Sean, whose track he was rapping on but then goes on to name names of rappers he's calling out. Brilliant because he knows this will be the draw, their inevitable response will continue to fuel this resurgence of creativity and he has to get it out there that there's no real beef, it's just competition.
• Third and probably most important in any Challenge, he lays down his dominance, the whole King of New York line. Come on, he ain’t the King… yet but he just set the goal for all and any disputes need to be handled in verse. Big Daddy Kane, still defending his response, Tweeted for M.C.s to get in the studio and off Twitter if they had a problem with Kendrick.
• Last but definitely not least he announced his intention with the line I like the best. Sorry if the N word offends you but this is real talk.

“I got love for you but I’m trying to murder you niggas. Try to make sure your core fans never heard of you niggas. They don’t wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you niggas. What is competition I’m trying to raise the bar high. Who wanna get it?”

This, my friends is the essence of rap. Before this uniquely American art form there was something called “The Dozens” where ego driven boasts and verbal assaults were exchanged until somebody broke down or was judged the winner. It evolved into rap as explained here by KRS 1.

This lyrical sparring has been an effective Marketing tool in that it generates buzz, shines the spotlight on performers which translate into dollars. Of course the most famous ongoing battle has to be between Biggie and Tupac which I won't weigh in on except to say Biggie made you dance and Pac made you think.

You don't have to be a Hip Hop aficionado to know the battle has a long and enduring history in Hip Hop. Hell it was the main story line in the movie “8 Mile” and even now the responses to Kendrick are making their debut. I hope it will inject a dose of creativity back into Hip Hop.

Peace!