The Last Starfighter

Anyone with a pulse has borne witness to the ‘Kingdom Come’ marketing blitz. ESPN, TNT, Hot 97, XM and on and on like a Badu song.

As the owner of a marketing company I cannot help but be in awe of the stops they have pulled out. If there was ever a priority in a marketing meeting by gum this was it. But on the other hand I have to wonder why they are going so hard for an established brand like Jay. Does he really need this much of a manufactured push?
He is widely recognized as the best rapper on the planet. His sales history is as good as you could hope. He has gotten as much press in retirement as any current rapper could ever want.

But yet and still the Def Jam is running at full blast. Pourquoi?


Jay Z is the last starfighter. The last of his kind. The last old media superstar.
He is the only one who could pull together Budweiser, Dale Earnhardt, Cingular, and Clear Channel into a multimillion marketing plan.
He represents the last chance the old model can prove it is still relevant and effective.

Jay is the last cat (and the last one standing) to really become a superstar the way we used to do it (maybe Eminem, maybe Fiddy): Vinyl, commercial radio, MTV, payola and the fun stuff that prices out small operations.
Jay is not YouTube, Google or Myspace. And that is not where you feel the brunt of the “Kingdom Come” marketing push.

Regardless of what the bloggers say Jay’s sales numbers will be off the charts. The Hip-Hop intelligentsia and haters like Dip Set have been writing Jay’s death certificate since “Hard Knock Life.” He is impervious. Realize it.

And to ‘push-ups with a bird on my back’ Jim Jones – 100,000 is fantastic but Jay is gonna do a million. You may want to fight another battle. Right now you have a better chance of winning the war.

Jim Jones’ buzz is real. Organic. Not pre-packaged and predigested like Jay’s. And everyone not named S Dot should study Jim Jones, The Pack, and Hiero. That is the way it is gonna work from now on. Hot 97, Life Magazine, and MTV debuts are great but it is only going to work for the top of the Long Tail. For the rest of us the path to salvation is way down the graph. Mix tapes, mp3 leaks, and a deal with Koch.

“Kingdome Come” is the harbinger of the end of the music business. The last gasp of dinosaurs scared to death of the future. But in death there is birth. It will also be the birth of a new industry.
Marketing execs will attempt to duplicate the Kingdome Come campaign like A&R’s tried to duplicate Illmatic (huh? Another post – I promise). And they will fail miserably. And after losing millions of dollars in a contracting market the edict will come down. “FIGURE OUT A BETTER WAY OR YOU’RE FIRED.” These execs will then take a crash course in Web 2.0. Once they get it they will realize you don’t need acts like Jay Z to stay in business. It will always be nice, but not necessary. More niche acts will get deals and before they get a spot on The Budweiser Hot Seat they will have to generate 5 million hits on YouTube and amass 2 million Friends. BDS will matter less. MTV will matter less.

And then my friends it will be brave new world. At least for a while.