Jay-Z The Business Man

http://www.theskinnyc.com/2012/not-a-businessman-
a-business-man/ (2013)

While the rest of the Hip Hop world was anticipating Kanye West's Yeezus, J. Cole’s Born Sinner, and Wale’s The Gifted, a new list of Hip Hop heavy weights chose to release their projected release dates.

One of the most talked about upcoming albums is Jay-Z’s Magna Carter Holy Grail. Jay-Z gave the world a class session on Marketing and Deal making all in one night. The Hip Hop mogul chose to air an unexpected commercial promoting his album during the 2013 NBA Finals. This was the perfect opportunity for him to air his commercial for a couple of reasons. 

First of all, this game just so happened to be played on Father’s Day, so you automatically know the male population was definitely glued to the TV screen. This was a perfect opportunity for Jay-Z to reach his core fan base.

Secondly, over the years there has been a unique trend between the NBA and the Hip Hop industry, whether it’s through fashion, mentioning NBA players in rap lyrics, Hip Hop artists sitting courtside at NBA games, and even Jay-Z recently being a shareholder for the Brooklyn Nets. As a result, one can’t help but to assume that most NBA fans are also Hip Hop fans.

 Lastly, when most artists are publicizing their albums they only mention their producers in interviews. Jay-Z went against the grain, considering the fact that music producers have a great following too. He featured some of the industries top Hip Hop producers in this commercial, which totally raised the anticipation level for the album. These producers were Rick Rubin, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, and Timbaland. All of these producers have previously worked with Jay-Z on past albums.

Jay-Z then gave us a lesson in Deal making with his win-win opportunity with Samsung. The electronics corporation purchased 1 million copies of Magna Carter Holy Grail with the intent to give them away for free to Samsung Galaxy smartphone users 72 hours before the release date. Users will not be able to share the music until the actual release date, which is set for July 4^th, 2013.

This was a genius deal both on Jay-Z’s part, as well as Samsung. Jay-Z automatically has 1 million in album sales before they even hit the shelves, which isn’t a bad number to start with. Also, Samsung is a winner in this deal because it shows strides in their obvious competition with Apple Inc.

Although I’m not a fan of Jay-Z’s album title, and the word play with “Holy grail”, I must say that this deal with Samsung, as well as his marketing strategy was Genius!

This album is said to change the entertainment industry for ages, but don’t take my word for it. Go out on July 4^th and decide for yourself.