The document discusses establishing brand identity through links between ancillary products like album artwork and music videos. It provides examples from the artist Riley's proposed video, magazine ad, and album cover, showing consistency in settings, costumes, fonts, and themes to immerse the target audience. Censor strips and rural/urban dichotomies reflect Riley's background and goals to innovate within hip hop. Analysis of Joey Bada$$'s work also demonstrates how effectively linking visual elements across formats can cultivate a dedicated fan base.

1. The
Combination Of
My Video
Production and
Ancillary
Products.

2. BRAND IDENTITY
Riley is a conscious Hip Hop artist who’s music explores the
normalities, pressures and reasoning behind modern
societal and personal behaviour. His ethos is to subvert
genre and culture conventions by becoming a part ,and
making a spectacle of, everything he wishes to change
within the industry. He does this through his musical alter
ego, “Black Chalk”, who is an incarnation of everything Riley
finds stale, uninspiring, wrong and negatively influential in
the Hip Hop genre. Riley himself, raps using extremely
advanced techniques within the Hip Hop scene, constantly
trying to innovate with flow, wordplay, relatable topics and
complex and memorable instrumentals. Overall, he wants to
put the art form and focus on music, back into the UK rap
industry. This idea has been developed largely in Riley
listening to influential artists before him, such as Outkast,
MF DOOM, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. Each of these
artists have gained success and legendary (or near
legendary) status within the genre for breaking genre
boundaries and conventions with their music and identity.
For instance, Outkast’s duality allows them to manipulate
their music, and thus the size of their audience. Not only can
they appeal to the average rap listener through making
music about crime and violence, but also offer thought
provoking reasoning as to why the black youth feel
pressured to commit these acts, and why we should change.
This formula worked, and allowed Outkast to the increase
their audience substantially, even impressing critics.

3. Ancillary Products
X
Video Production
X
Brand Identity

4. Links within the ancillary product
and video production help establish
and promote Riley’s brand identity.
Aesthetic coherency is key in
establishing a consistent idea to a
target audience, and I have used
many techniques to achieve this. An
example of such consistency would
be my use of editing in both the
ancillary product and video
production.
The use of the censor strip is a stylised
symbol that Riley wishes to use as a
recurring aesthetic in his material. It
signifies crime, the taboo and enigma,
relevant themes and concepts within
Hip Hop music. In blanking out how
others look around Riley, it diverts
attention to him, potentially helping him
attract members of his target audience.
It adds to Riley’s brand identity through
exaggerating conventions of the genre,
with notions of danger and crime
suggested by the simple inclusion of a
black strip.

5. Links in setting and costume
also play a integral role in
establishing consistent
aesthetic brand identity.
Making sure the audience
actually visualises in motion
what they saw on paper helps
them see the vision the artist is
trying to create. In doing this,
they will appreciate the artist
more, as it makes the artist’s
work more memorable. Again
censor strips are used on the
magazine advert to further the
aesthetic style Riley aims to
achieve.
Riley is wearing the same costume on the
magazine advertisement as he wears
within the dilapidated car park and hazy
rooms scenes within the video. Every link
generated between media helps keep a
constant image of the artist and his
product in the minds of the audience.
Using the same costume in both the
music video and the magazine advert for
the album reminds the audience of the
album itself, potentially boosting sales
and helping it hold it’s relevance in the
eyes of the consumer. Crew necks
jumpers are a common costume choice
for rappers, as they are comfortable,
casual and notably urban looking.
Through these qualities, they connote
masculinity, a theme exploited in most
rap music. This appeals to Hip Hop’s core
target audience of working class males.
The magazine advert shares the
same setting as that of the slow
zoom on the X during the music
video for Malcolm Middle. The X
is directly correlated to the
chorus of the track “leaving you
cross like Malcolm X”. The
visual representation of this line
helps make the video more
memorable, and it’s use on the
album advert will remind the
audience of the ancillary
product. The consistency and
links in these products can
potentially be a powerful tool
for marketing, as the audience
will be constantly reminded of
all three products.

6. Part of Riley’s identity is his
association and ties with
where he grew up. The rural
backdrop he features on his
album cover is explored in the
music video for Malcolm
Middle. Though the bandana
font, masculine red hue of his
T-shirt and the crucifix chain
all connote attributes of Hip
Hop and it’s urban roots, the
tree, radio mast, and power
lines signify a country
landscape. In the music video,
he performs on a country road.
The high angle shot directly
contrasts the low angle shot of
the album cover, adding a
different perspective of the
environment. Where as on the
cover Riley seems like the main
focus, within the video, the
high angle shot portrays Riley
as almost lonely in the breadth
and span of the rural setting.
The setting subverting genre
conventions anyway, the
inclusion of it’s symbolic
meaning also subverts
conventions by becoming
attuned with the artist’s
feelings. This will reach out to
a larger audience who care
less about genre conventions
and more about what the artist
is trying to convey, and what
they can relate to.
I believe it is a good idea
to establish the setting
and character through the
use of artwork and
advertisement, so as to
draw an audience in.
Once your ancillary
products have interested
people with the artist’s
aesthetic, the music and
visuals will flesh out and
explore the setting and
character they were
reeled in by. Essentially,
the ancillary product is
there to gain the
audience; the music and
video elements of the
project will keep them
hooked. I believe my
product does this well,
with many settings and
themes that are conveyed
on the ancillary product
being explored in the
music video, such as
Riley’s conflict in growing
up in a rural setting, but
loving a genre that is
indubitably urban.

7. Font is an integral aspect of both my ancillary products and
video production. Certain font styles and colours give a visual
boost to aspects of mise-en-scene, such as costume, setting
and lighting. For instance, the bandana font used on my front
cover for the album is a dual connotation for the urban and
the rural, which are the divided themes of my music video.
Bandanas are representative of both popular urban fashion
and the plantation working rural work force, paying homage
to Riley’s African American roots. Elsewhere, the font is sanserif, plain, styled formally in an understated tone, yet
presented in an unusual fashion. The magazine advert and the
ancillary product’s images consist of this typography, which is
often used in conjunction with the black bar masking feature.
This is a highly stylistic choice, and fits in with themes of
crime, identity (or a lack of), neutrality and the unknown,
which are all relevant themes of Hip Hop music and the
newer, self-aware artists that inhabit it.

8. A brief overview of how other artist’s within the industry link
their ancillary products to their music video productions. This
analysis will show that the route I’ve taken will be successful in
establishing and maintaining a fan base for Riley.

9. BRAND IDENTITY
The ethos of Joey Bada$$ and his Pro
Era crew is to bring modern Hip Hop
back to it’s roots. A large majority of his
tracks, along with his image, visuals
and style, are all influenced by the
Boom Bap and Golden Age eras of Hip
Hop music. Thus, his products will
always have an authentic, vintage and
gritty aesthetic. Being such a young
rapper, the decision to market music
before his time was a bold but clever
one, as it appeals to the older
generation of Hip Hop listeners and the
younger listeners, due to his age. As
such, Joey’s audience and fan base is
very large for an underground rapper.

10. The album cover for “Summer Knights” by Joey Bada$$ clearly presents links to it’s lead music
video. The setting and props are the main focus, and their relevancy is portrayed in key,
memorable scenes of the video. Joey’s old school Hip Hop aesthetic is supplemented by the black
and white visuals, prop bicycle, afro-centric fashion sense and graffiti font. The bicycle shared by
the front cover and music video, connotes a rebellious teenage attitude and an urban lifestyle,
which are both major conventions of the Hip Hop genre, along with being tied in to Joey’s own life
as a young rapper. The film grain effect on the front cover is also similar to the black and white
filter within the music video, signifying that Joey was taught by a time preceding his years, fitting
in with the old school ethos he is trying to present. The graffiti font ties in with Joey’s afrocentricity within fashion and style, with each of these elements falling under the bracket of Hip
Hop. The setting of the American Football Stadium also links to the album cover, with Joey
walking around inside the setting on the video, whereas on the album cover, the audience’s
perspective is outside of it. This isn’t dissimilar to my decision to have a low angle shot on my
album cover of Riley in a rural setting, coupled with a low angle of the country road setting within
the video. Joey builds upon genre conventions and staples in nearly every way, linking the most
prevalent elements within his artwork of the ancillary product and video to create a cohesive
vision and product that will appeal to the core audience of Hip Hop in nearly everyway, while also
leaving his target audience with room to grow by exploiting his youth.