Despite many well publicized marketing partnerships with corporations to help capitalize on the influence hip hop artists have on the sales of various products, rappers continue to squander potential revenue opportunities by “name checking” brands, without being compensated for the resulting increase of sales.
Not that corporate endorsement of hip hop is necessarily a good thing. Many feel the extreme commercialism of hip hop has contributed to its artistic downfall, but at the same time, the hip hop influence on brands is a phenomenon not readily found in other genres of music. And if product placement is OK in TV and movies, shouldn’t it be OK for hip hop, or at least for more mainstream artists, which is usually more about “entertaining” than clinging to artistic integrity?
This is in response to the recent news that the hip hop “name-checking” of Moscato has helped catapult sales of the wine more than 80% in 2011. Of course, there are several instances of Moscato being used in mainstream hip hop, most notably by folks like Drake, Kanye West, Ab-Soul/Kendrick Lamar and Waka Flocka Flame, and Moscato isn’t a particular brand, rather, a “genre” of product. Still, no one in particular (to our knowledge anyway) seems to have taken the increased Moscato/hip hop synergy and capitalized off of it.
Seems like a wasted opportunity in today’s age.
So, the question is:
Should rappers refrain from “name-checking” brands in their music, unless there’s a payday attached?
