The Blog Era: How a Golden Era of Hip-hop Changed Marketing Forever

Miriam Webster defines a ‘golden era’ as a period of great happiness, prosperity, and achievement.

There are two times in hip-hop history where fans can (mostly) agree that a golden era happened.

The first golden era was in the ‘90s. This 10-year stretch had acts like OutKast, Wu-Tang, Pac, Biggie, etc. and the albums that were released during this era are considered foundational to hip-hop fans of all ages.

Publications like The Source and tv programs like Yo! MTV raps were the vehicles to stardom. If you didn’t have the right buzz or connections to secure those looks? Well. You were out of luck.

Nevertheless…

The second golden era of hip-hop happened around 2009. People thought hip-hop was dying; the records labels were putting out watered-down trash, JAY-Z was semi-retired, and one-hit wonders were running rampant. In short, Hip-hop was in bad shape.

But then something amazing happened.

A group of websites powered by music aficionados started premiering music from the underground, and with social networks in full swing people, began to latch on to a new era emerged.

This period was defined by several burgeoning underground acts who made their way to the mainstream by amassing a cult-like following on the internet. Artists like J. Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale, Wiz Khalifa, & Curren$y all made a name for themselves in this era.

Their main vehicle for growth? Music blogs.

And thus the Blog era was born. Peep some of the blog era magic below courtesy of Wiz Khalifa:

Websites like 2dopeboyz, DJBooth, OnSmash, The Smoking Section, XXL, etc. suddenly became the best way to get music to the masses, and their impact changed the way music was marketed forever.

IT CHANGED THE CONSUMER JOURNEY & CREATED A NEW DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

Before the blog era, there really wasn’t a way for consumers to discover music or for musicians bring it to the masses. For fans the journey was pretty much:

Radio > PR > Buy the album > go to the concert > repeat

The radio exposed fans to new artists, then the media was used to push them further down the funnel in hopes that they would buy the album/concert ticket & then repeat.

Conversely, for artists, making it in the music industry meant securing major label backing. They were the only entities who would be able to front the costs associated with releasing music, and they had a monopoly on access to the media. For them, the journey was:

Radio > PR > pray it does well > drop the album (or possibly be shelf’d)

Though both of these journeys will always exist to some extent, the blog era became the accessible model of distribution for musicians & music discovery for fans. On top of that, fans now had dedicated websites to visit for music discovery culminating in a perfect marriage.

It was a huge deal. Listen to rapper Mickey Factz reminisce on the blog era if you don’t believe me (go to the 20sec mark).

Because of the blog era, record labels realized that the next wave of superstar musicians would be found online and brands also followed suit by moving the bulk of their publications online.

Moreover, it proved that the internet could break an artist, especially in hiphop, and if you were lucky enough to get a placement on one of the bigger ones, your career was forever changed.

THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE SHIFTED… FOR GOOD

In music, there are few key ingredients to superstardom. However, the two most important are generally radio play and PR (public relations). In hip-hop, PR meant going on shows like 106 & Park or MTV’s Spring Bling.

But in the Blog era, a generation of journalists who could’ve made their names writing for print publications like Billboard, and Rolling Stone, soon realized that it wasn’t just about print, it was about creating a hub for the music being missed by the major labels.

So, rather than wait for the gatekeepers to cover the music they liked, they created a place for the other hiphop heads to flock. This meant a change in the consumer journey again. Now instead of radio being the first touch point, or 106 & park being the next step. The consumer journey started with blogs. It looked like this:

Blogs (the new PR) > Buy the album > go to the concert > repeat

This new funnel ties into the next change that emerged from the blog era which is that…

IT PROVIDED PROOF OF CONCEPT TO INVESTORS (AND RECORD LABELS)

As Mickey Factz basically says in the video above, blog basically became the co-sign for indie artists. Getting on the right blog gave you the push needed to get into the right rooms. By mid-2010 submitting to blogs over chasing a deal was the new cadence. So much so, that it eventually became hard for indie artists to get a spot on those platforms. If you didn’t know the right person who was also interested in your art, you could go undiscovered for years.

Rapper Russ is a prime example of a rapper who the blog era propelled (and somewhat ignored). 2dopeboyz was the publication that many music fans, including me, first discovered his music on. He talks about his disdain for blogs below (listen to like the first minute and some change):

IT FURTHERED THE ADOPTION OF STREAMING

Blogging also had a hand in streaming adoption too (in my opinion). While streaming was already a concept, Spotify wasn’t a thing just yet.

But, by 2009, everyone had some kind of mp3 player. Music pirating was at an all-time high, and services like Napster gave people entire albums for free-ski. That coupled with the fact that shows like 106 & Park (a show dedicated to covering musicians) were now being canceled to make way for reality TV, a gap needed to be filled; and blogs filled that gap.

With so many disparate singles being released and iPods constantly running out of space, it was only a matter of time before someone had the idea to move music consumption (and content) to the cloud where it could truly thrive. My hypothesis is that the blog era is the reason that record labels are financially invested in Spotify.

COOL STORY… BUT WHAT’S THE POINT?

The biggest point is that the current media landscape wouldn’t exist without the blog era. The big publishers of the world, like Complex wouldn’t exist as they do today either.

Because of the Blog era, record labels realized that they would have to have a stake in publications in order to get their artists the visibility they wanted – hence some of the larger holding companies have now become… partners… in some of the biggest blogs from that era.

Some blogs are still around and under the ownership of parent media companies, and a few are defunct. But regardless, this pivotal time in hip-hop set the stage for what we see today, and the biggest stars in music like Drake and J. Cole owe their growth to the blog era.

But wait until you hear what fueled the blog era… Next week we’re gonna talk about it.

Peace.