Jay-Z can sell a wide range of everyday commodities, from crack to denim jackets. Now he’s being enlisted for the next presidential election to sell Obama to American youth and minorities.
When “The Black Album” was released, Jay-Z stated that it would be the last studio album he would put out. He said he was dedicating his energies to other parts of his life, which is the multifaceted life of a serious entrepreneur.
But that wasn’t his last album, and when he did finally release “Kingdom Come” a few years later, I felt betrayed. Jay-Z was officially a liar.
But my feelings of betrayal aside, he proved that he knew how to market himself. He was selling his self-assurance as an artist consciously ending his career as much as the actual album tracks. And the brilliant marketing plan for “Decoded,” his new autobiography, means that his brand is associated with the most innovative marketing campaign for any book, ever.
Now, word is that the Obama Administration, facing a branding problem of their own, is enlisting Jay-Z for guidance in the 2012 presidential campaign. They know as well as I do that he can sell just about anything, even to a listener who feels cheated (I still bought the next two albums).
Jay-Z markets himself much in the same way as Obama did leading up to the 2008 election: as a self-made man making a run at success, as a man that has always stayed true to who he is. If anyone knows how to market this narrative as a second act, it’s the man who kept on coming after “The Black Album.”
Maybe ‘who you are’ is always changing? Obama seems to have changed plenty over the last two years. Just check out the recent double-dealing surrounding the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” legislation.
What’s crucial isn’t what’s sold, but how it’s marketed. Jay-Z turned his shady past as a drug dealer into a story of obstacles overcome, which he then turned into large stacks of money. Lets see just how exactly Obama and Jay-Z choose to market the president’s past years in office, turning adversity into hope, yet again.
America’s greatest salesman:
October 26, 2010 at 4:09 am, Carmel Lobello said:
Matthew, I'm a fan of your posts, but I must object: Jay-Z is a master salesman, but he's never tried to sell himself as wholesome. Rags-to-riches by any means necessary is way different from wholesome, and he's been rapping about bricks of coke for as long as I can remember. Just sayin'.
November 04, 2010 at 8:51 am, MC Hammer Disses Jay-Z With Possibly The Worst Battle Rap Song Ever | Death and Taxes said:
[...] ago, Kanye West released a G.O.O.D. Friday track titled “So Appalled” featuring a few Jay-Z bars that upset MC Hammer. The exact part of the song in question was Hov’s rap: “And [...]