Market Research Analysis

In question 1 I found out that 70% of the people I asked would buy a Hip Hop magazine which means that it is a popular genre. This however cannot be representative of the whole population as my sample consists of people aged 14-29. 

90% of the people like the color scheme of White, Black and Gold meaning it's appealing to the customers. I'm most likely to use this color scheme now that it attracts a wider range of customers. 

3rd question was "Do you like the idea of a upcoming artists talking about a album they recently released as a DPS" I found out that 80% of people liked it and therefore I will still stick to it, as it can be very interesting topic. 

The sample group had the biggest variety of answers on the 4th question which was "which name do you like the most?" as there isn't one significant name which was liked the most. The most popular was "hype" with 30% of votes followed by "dope" with 20% which means that I need to decide on one of the two or come up with a new one.

Finally the price of my magazine should be between £1.00-1.99 as with this price more customers are more likely to buy the magazine. 

Pencil Sketch of the DPS layout 2

Pencil Sketch of the DPS layout 1

First Draft of The Article

London Beast

In most recent years of Hip Hop, the underground artists have definitely grained more recognition. This is the cause of the Beast Coast Movement influencing more and more teenagers to following their dreams of becoming famous rappers. The Beast Coast Movement is a sub-genre of hip hop which was formed by a group of teenaged rappers from New York City. The movement is constantly growing in recognition which first started as a small local trend is now recognised around the world. The reason behind this is the fact that their all lyrical geniuses’, they don’t stick to the norm rapping about money, girls and drugs but true events hoping people realize how cruel the world really is. Their fame is constantly growing. A$AP Rocky is the first artist from the genre to become mainstream, he popularised the genre and allowed it to become mainstream, this allowed other rappers from the genre to climb through and achieve the fame they deserve and although they aren’t as famous as certain pop start celebrities such as Justin Bieber, but they are staring to work with mainstream hip hop artist’s such as Mac Miller which would allow them to climb the ladder of success. 

The influence of Beast Coast Artists can now be seen starting to develop in London. The artist Chief STEEZ is the “Leader” of the underground Hip hop movement in London. He recently released an album called “8^th Chakra” which grained him a lot of recognition in the hip hop industry. It received good reviews from critics and it’s been voted as one of the best hip hop albums of 2013. People call Chief STEEZ the Joey Bada$$ of London. We’ve been privileged to meet and interview Chief STEEZ to see what he thinks about this.

Where does the name Chief STEEZ mean? “I’ve given myself that name because it reflects on the type of person I am. I view myself as a leader of something new, something that has never been done in UK before, Hip Hop has always been associated with America, I want to change this I want to show the world that UK can do Hip Hop, as a leader of this movement I’m the chief of my group whereas steez means style with ease. I think that my style is unique and it comes to me naturally which is why I combined the two to call myself Chief STEEZ”

Where does your inspiration come from? “I’ve always been a fan of hip hop, my favourite old school artist include Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, Wu Tang Clan, Run DMC and Nas. They are the ones who got me into hip hop however Kendrick Lamar, School Boy Q and Joey Bada$$ have inspired me to becoming an artist myself. I liked the way in which Beast Coast was a family and it was a real shame that they didn’t have this here in London so I decided to start my own crew which now a growing community of rappers like me who share a dream in becoming known for their music.”

Are you coping Beast Coast? “No, and I hate it when people ask me this, I think that the type of music we create is different, the only similarity being we’re a family of rappers but this wasn’t established by the people from Beast Coast. There are many examples of groups of hip hop artists for example Wu Tang Clan, Odd Future and others.”

What is your album “8^th Chakra” about? “This album talks about the struggles of growing up in a bad neighbourhood, this is because we aren’t views as poor but in reality we can’t afford many of the things apart from the stuff that are necessary. It also talks about how we’re mostly ‘followers’ we do what we’re told most of the time and hardly get any choice. We go to an average school get an average degree to go an average job that’s enough for us to live but not really enough to have any changes made in our life all because we are afraid to step our comfort zone and live the fun life. My album talks about how we can free our self from this type of living and enter the 4^th dimension where the 8^th Chakra would be. This would allow us to view living our life’s differently. It would let us open up and do what we really want to do rather than just following someone’s rules.

DPS analysis 2

This is another example of a double page spread from the same magazine in this issue we see a very similar lay out which could be the case for all of the double spread articles from this magazine.

The image shows a close up of Soulja Boy who has alot of "body art" drawn on him. He is also looking away from the camera, creating a profile like image the focus of the image is the word "swag" written on Soulja Boy's face suggesting that he has swag.

The article is split into two columns which is easy to read and it also looks nice. There is a quote on the top of the page saying "life of a shooting star" which is written in a different font. This quote is also the title of the article which is a smart way of combining the two.

The color scheme for this double page spread is black white and red, this works well with the image which is in a similar color way. The more important words are highlighted in red adding some color to the double page spread to make it look less formal and more like a magazine article.

DPS analysis 1

I've choose this double page spread article because of it's simplicity, it's divided the image and the text on to separate pages.

The image is a close up of Wiz Khalifa face with smoke coming out his mouth suggesting he just smoked what presumably is marijuana since this is what he often associates himself with. He's looking directly into the camera. The image is on a black background and the color scheme is black and yellow, possibly relating to Wiz Khalifa's song "Black and Yellow"

It appears as if the article starts with some sort of logo which is unique. The title isn't big nor bold but it's still significantly larger than the rest of the text, also "how high" links to the image.

There is no quote which subverts the convention of a double page spread, however the text is split into two even columns on one page, there isn't any word that are being highlighted. The article still appears to be easy to read. It's on a white background which contrasts the image but this was done so that the article can be easily readable.

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History of Hip Hop

Hip Hop Content Page Analysis 3

This contents page differs greatly from the first that we looked at. Its pure,white, seemingly. Unlike the previous contents page this one uses less text and  more imagery to make the stories clear as to what they are about as well as promote the story more by making it look more interesting. The page is split into two columns where as the others we looked at only had one, this is a better way of managing space on the page. There is no adverts nor competitions which subverts the convention of a typical magazine.

Hip Hop Content Page Analysis 2

This content page is similar to the previous one in the way it's formatted which is 1 column and 1 main image.

I know that this is a Hip Hop magazine because the artists that are featured on this content page are associated and work in the hop hop genre. The image shows an artist holding a bag and wearing a leather jacket coated with fur, this fashion style is somewhat related to what other artist would wear as it's eye catching and stands out. The way in which the text is presented out is very neat and organised, with the color scheme being only 2 toned (excluding the image) it looks very simple. The one column with "Featured" articles suggests that this content page could be spread out between two pages.This content page subverts many if the hip hop conventions as it also has no adverts nor competitions.

Hip Hop Content Page Analysis

I found this content page online, I choose to do it because it subverts the convention of a typical content page as it only has 1 image whereas most would have more smaller images relating to other articles.

The image of Kendrick Lamar is the focal point of this content page because it covers more than half of this page, this is a full body shot of Kendrick with his legs cropped out. 

The color scheme of black, white and red is used, it's very common in magazines because it works well, it's clear and easily readable with the font in red standing out more suggesting it's the most important article in the magazine. 

There's only 1 column, with a very minimal amount of text on it, it still has a page number, a title of the article and there's limited detail about any of the articles. Which makes the content page look more simple but it still looks nice and professional