Transmedia: Hip-Hop Artists

Out of all the genres, hip-hop artists are always at the forefront in new medias. The know how to perfectly execute their message to their audience. Multimedia is someone telling a story over one specific platform. Transmedia uses many different lane/platforms. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, artists would simply record their album, shoot music videos, and go on tour. Now, artists, specifically hip-hop artists are using pretty much every form of media at once to get their message across.

Kanye West while usually leading the pack with his fashion designs, prides himself on being the most innovative out. His record, "Only One" dedicated to his late mother, was recently turned into a video game and is expected to be released sometime in the future. The song is sung as if West's mother was talking to him and the goal of the video game is to find the gates of heaven. West tries to make his music and video as creative as possible. He once released the music video for his song, "Black Skinhead", the point of the video was that the user can speed up or slow down the rate of the song. West has now taken fans  to play a virtual game with listening to his music.

Many rappers now have their own mobile app to accompany their music. The app above is Meek Mill's bike app where you can race on motorcycles. You often see Meek and his group riding bikes as a part of the lifestyle they like. The app is transforming Meek Mill's message into a virtual game similar to Kanye. Many hip-hop artists also have emoji apps, which have become extremely popular with all celebrities.

As mentioned, artists used to just record their music and overtime release the videos to their records. While not a new trend, but something that has gotten popular are visual albums. Frank Ocean released "Endless" this past summer, Endless is a movie-length music video. It of course features Ocean's new record, but having visuals that the whole album versus one track. Beyonce has done the same for her album Lemonade. While Frank Ocean pulls a large audience, Beyonce is on another level. Her visual album was broadcasted on HBO, almost like a new movie release. Not the first to do it, but Kanye made this trend popular when he released "Runaway", a short film in which he stars in. While it's obvious the acting is sub-par, the visuals help the listener better understand and feel the music.

Early 2000s rapper, N.O.R.E. has a wildly popular podcast called Drink Champs. NORE sits down with hop-hop acts and they simply drink together while talking. NORE isn't really relevant with his music in today's world, but has found new success in the podcasting game. He know uses that medium to convey his message. The most popular and well known hip-hop blog site, RapRadar.com started off about 5 years ago and also has a very popular podcast called The RapRadar podcast. They use the blog, video, social media, and podcasting to inform the public of the current news in music.

Lastly, Hip-Hop has transformed rappers into reality stars. The Game recently had a reality show on VH1. There are many other hip-hop shows as well, Love and Hip-Hop is another widely popular one. The reality show offers fans an inside look inside the life of a rapper which is often rapped about to be lavish and luxurious.

Hop-Hop artists always find a way to get their music and ideas across. From Apps, Tv, and podcasting, the digital world has no boundaries for music artists. They will use all of these platforms to effectively get their message across.