How 50 Cent Applies Marketing Knowledge to Himself
I read an article recently that appealed to me, mainly because it contained a strange hybrid of two topics, both which I find extremely interesting: hip hop and marketing. After reading the article, it made me realize that 50 Cent is a lot smarter than what people make him out to be (heck, even what he makes himself out to be) and that he could rightly be defined as a sort of hip-hop marketing guru.
A few takeaways:
1) His street cred, which was carefully cultivated after being shot multiple times, was starting to fade away. Ironically, his two immensely successful albums that center around this street cred started erode his tough image.
2) As typical with a lot of young rap stars or athletes who become immensely rich in a short period of time, hands begin appearing. Palms up. Asking for money. 50 Cent found himself surrounded with people who were only looking for their own interests, and not his.
3) Fifty Cent found that his social circle increasingly consisted of white guys, in suits. Corporate label guys in suits don't necessarily give you a good sense of new trends in the street, where Fiddy came from.
After some introspective thinking, what did he do? He recorded a track without his label's knowledge and released to the public and watched for feedback (very Web 2.0). The public wanted harder stuff! He continually shortened the distance between himself and his fans with technology, and his "hustler's mentality" now applied to Internet marketing with great success. Greene's great article explains more, but with Twitter, the Internet, and all the marketing knowledge rap stars are now in possession of, the audience has less patience for rap stars who don't get it. Except Lil' Wayne, who can do whatever he wants.