Hip Hop Artists Reinventing the Music Video

There exists a romantic, if slightly inaccurate image of the poor bluesman living in a Louisiana shotgun house, paying his dues by playing in dive bars for low pay, simply because he loves the music. In fact, "Artistic works have value and the artists, music publishers and record labels should be fairly compensated," said Shelly Liebowitz, CEO of SRI Label Group, a Los Angeles record company that specializes in jazz, blues, country and rock. But musicians have always struggled to find a way to earn money from their art that doesn't involve waiting tables – and there have always been plenty of people ready to take advantage of a hit at the musician's expense. "Take for instance, televised political events – artists and labels have had to issue cease and desist orders for unauthorized use of their songs," said Liebowitz. "Too often, advertisers and other marketers try to use songs that they believe will touch the emotions of their target audience without having to pay for them."

The online download phenomenon hasn't helped, leaving newer and untested artists to struggle without the possibility of yesterday's model of signing with a label and selling vinyl records, or even CDs. That is, until hip hop started to emerge during one of the most challenging times in the music industry's history, and they figured out a way to make it work by partnering with brands for product placement within the context of music videos and lyrics.

Hip hop artist Boogz Boogetz, in his music video "Bodega," has found the perfect setting for a product placement-driven video. With the entire scene shot inside of an inner-city market, there are plenty of opportunities to show product. And while presumably the thousands of products on the shelves are incidental to the video and not promotional – including some strangely lingering shots of two boxes of Arm & Hammer baking soda – there are a few standouts. Boogz is wearing a "Born Fly" shirt from the New York company's streetwear collection throughout the production, an urbanwear brand that specifically targets hip hop, graffiti, and skate subcultures.

Most prominent in the Boogetz video however, are multiple intentional placements of KandyPens vaporizers, one of several brands that use product placement in hip hop video as a marketing strategy. Within the video, there are two separate close-ups of the vaping device with prominent logo, as well as a shot of Boogz wearing a KandyPens bill cap, followed later by one of his female entourage wearing the same cap.

Possibly one of the most prominent brands in the hip hop marketing machine is Ciroc vodka, the marketing of which is run by Sean "Diddy" Combs in an equal-share venture with Diageo. Diddy, besides single-handedly re-invigorating what was once a minor brand, has also done more to elevate the hip hop music video genre than any other artist, not just because of his talent as a musician, but due to his marketing savvy as well. Diddy understood early on what Madison Avenue didn't – that fans of hip hop would be accepting of product placement, particularly luxury brands and liquor. That understanding broke new ground, allowing the music video in this genre to flourish in an era where producers and record labels aren't ponying up the cash needed to make high-quality music videos, and even well-established artists struggle to figure out how to earn money with their work.

Brands like Born Fly, Ciroc, and KandyPens are part of a growing trend in product placement that is keeping the hip hop music video genre alive and flourishing – and keeping paychecks flowing to the artists – in an era where the music industry as a whole is struggling, while re-invigorating an age-old tactic that Madison Avenue has been using ever since silent films. Hip hop artists faced several unique challenges in the early days of the genre, which began to rise up just as artists struggled to find a revenue model in an environment where revenue from record sales is at an all-time low, and online downloads provide significantly smaller royalties.

"As a marketing tactic, product placement in music videos in this genre allow us to establish a connection with the artists who promote us, and allows us to actually become part of the community we sell to," said Graham Gibson, founder of KandyPens. "We become part of the music, part of the culture as a result, and it becomes more of a meaningful partnership between us, the artist, and the fans than we could ever hope to achieve through traditional one-directional print and broadcast advertising."

The newfound partnership between brand and artist benefits both – and was instrumental in helping a new genre of music find a home.