Hollered, But They Didn’t Hear: How Advertising Still Doesn’t Understand Hip Hop

The Broadway production of Holler If Ya Hear Me, a musical based on the lyrics of Tupac Shakur, which I saw, liked, had a bit of criticism for, but generally supported, will end early, presumably due to poor ticket sales.

In my review of the performance, I described some of the reservations I had about the show. Despite the strong, often inspiring talent of the crew, I was particularly concerned that the impressions shared by two older theatregoers:

…two older gentlemen, sounding somewhat connoisseur-ish with an open mind to this production, were overheard lamenting the fact that Holler doesn’t have a central character to truly “connect with,” no one “tugging at your heartstrings.” They don’t seem to connect to the story, even though they want to.

Some of this could be attributed to true cultural disconnect, but performances at this level are ideally able to draw in a viewer, no matter how removed from the world the story lives in. This wasn’t entirely the case with Holler If Ya Hear Me, even for those more familiar with the landscape being represented. While several characters were likable, and several relationships were worth rooting for, the sum of the ensemble was, in many ways, greater than the individual parts.

I still thought that the show might survive, despite some of the downsides I noted: That rap music is not completely palatable for a large portion of the typical Broadway-viewing population; That the story seemed to, in parts, be a bit awkward, with some plot turns seeming to exist only as avenues by which to introduce a particular Tupac song…

But I also think that the show made one fatal mistake. A mistake which seems to have plagued other hip hop-related enterprises in recent years.

They advertised on commercial hip hop radio.

I’m not sure about Power 105.1, but I certainly witnessed a sizable amount advertising on Hot 97.

For example, several text blasts implored subscribers to take advantage of half-price deals and other incentives.

Morning show personalities, including Laura Styles and Ebro Darden, spoke about the musical on several occasions, all a part of an apparent concerted effort to entice New York area hip hop fans, and fans of Tupac, to attend Holler If Ya Hear Me.

So how was this a fatal error?

Well, despite what the show’s media buyers must have thought, “hip hop” fans generally don’t listen to Hot 97.

Of course, because Hot 97 and their commercial counterpart down the dial, maintain such an outspoken (and arguably unwarranted) impression that they are the “hip hop” authorities, those behind events such as Holler If Ya Hear Me are probably under the misguided impression that spending advertising dollars on Hot 97, for example, is a wise thing to do.

For a show like this, it isn’t.

I believe this is the same mistake that the Rock The Bells travelling concert festival made last year, a mistake which, in part, led to the entire tour dissolving before even reaching the East Coast legs in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

As I wrote in “Rock The Bells: How a Hip Hop Festival Became Too Big To (Not) Fail,” my editorial piece analyzing that fiasco,

…as someone in New York mentioned on Facebook, “I didn’t even hear about it until the other day. I don’t listen to Hot 97. This is a major point. When an extremely high percentage of your lineup is more likely to be followed by Redditors as opposed to Hot 97 listeners, this type of marketing disparity, which may also have been an issue in other cities, cannot be underestimated.

Unfortunately, because our area media outlets, particularly Hot 97, uses something of a bully pulpit to claim to be the media leaders of hip hop music and culture, ignorant media buyers don’t understand that there is a huge difference between the type of audience that listens to Hot 97, and the type of audience that would attend a Broadway musical based on the lyrics of Tupac Shakur.

Not to mention, the type of audience, typically a bit older than the standard radio demographic, that would be willing to pay Broadway ticket prices.

Even at discounted rates.

This is another example of why it is important to have called on the FCC to contest the use of the catchphrase, “Where Hip Hop Lives,” by Hot 97’s parent company Emmis Communications.

When a major media outlet fools the world into thinking they are the end all, be all for New York area hip hop music and culture, ad money gets spent unwisely, and potentially monumental works of art are left to die, inevitably making it exponentially more difficult for future projects to succeed, particularly those of substantive artistic or cultural value.

Had the media buyers for Holler If Ya Hear Me known better, they might have spent that advertising budget on the plethora of hip hop-based media outlets that actually cater to the proper demographic (as they seemed to do, albeit too late in their rollout, with organizations like OkayPlayer and Duck Down Music).

Of course, we were contacted, but only as press. We fulfilled that obligation professionally, as expected, and many people read my review, and hopefully were swayed to attend the show.

But I wonder how many more might have, had there been constant advertising on this website, or our  weekly radio show, The NY Hip Hop Report, or the countless other small- to medium-sized outlets in the New York area who better cater to a more mature crowd than the Hot 97s and Power 105s of the region.

Not to mention, we’re cheaper!

For a fraction of the money they undoubtedly spent, they would have supported outlets who could really make good use of the income, while reaching a more engaged, targeted demographic, leading to a higher conversion rate and garnering more buzz among the sub-community that exist under the surface of mainstream “hip hop” radio in New York.

Point blank, it is about time that businesses seeking to do business with hip hop learn the difference between different factions of hip hop and stop blindly feeding the 800-pound gorilla in the room, just because it has the biggest appetite and loudest roar.

If they don’t, and continue the same ineffective means of carpet-bombing the hip hop community through mainstream commercial channels, they continue to risk the chance that when it comes to the proper segment of the market, nobody will be hearing what they’re hollering.[divider]

Holler If Ya Hear Me will run through Sunday, July 20. Visit the website www.HollerIfYaHearMe.com for information and tickets.