You are here: Home / Electronica Music

Is Roc Nation Building the Next Music Empire?

April 12, 2011 By gpglobal Leave a Comment

Article by Jesse

Roc Nation, the record label of hip hop superstar Jay-Z, may indeed be building the next music empire. The label is already home to several of the industry’s up and coming talents, including J. Cole and Willow Smith, with the most recent to the ranks being the budding star Jay Electronica.

The label, formed in April of 2008 through the partnership of Jay-Z and Live Nation, is a music industry original, merging talent and management in a unique and ingenious manner. The company is made up of songwriters, producers, artists and engineers.

An artist like Jay Electronica is bound to bring incredible benefits to the company, not only in terms of music and emcee talent but as a marketing and merchandizing expert as well. The reason for this is that “Jay Electronica download” is one of the most common internet searches performed by hip hop fans every day.

The manner in which the young rapper has reached viral stardom online is certainly a method that will be of benefit to the Roc Nation label. Releasing his first major track on his own MySpace page in 2007, <em>Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge</em>), Jay Electronica managed to rocked himself into the hip hop without a big record label or a huge marketing budget.

The emcee continued to release his work online via sites like MySpace and Twitter, taking advantage of the free publicity such social networking sites provide and marketing on the word-of-mouth activities of fans. The next single released,  Jay Electronic Exhibit A was an instant hit among current fans, and managed to win the young artist even greater attention.

Beginning his formal career in Detroit, by making industry contacts that included some of the hip hop world’s best known producers, Jay Electronica managed to go from an internet sensation to an artist with a big name record deal in just three years, signing with Roc Nation in 2010.

So how did he manage such a feat? It was the Jay Electronica Exhibit C that likely secured his place in the hip hop industry, winning an “Instant Classic” award from the Sucker Free Summit Awards on MTV2. This formal recognition introduced even more music fans to the unique sounds of the artist and drove further online investigation of the artist, with internet searches for “Jay Electronica lyrics,” “Jay Electronica music” and “Jay Electronica download increasing exponentially.

It seemed somewhat unlikely during the first few years of his career that he would release a full album, but since signing with Roc Nation it now appears that Jay Electronica will do just that. Tracks from the new multimedia venture began to appear online in 2010, with the official release date planned for 2011.

With a major label now behind him and even more exciting ventures in the future, Jay Electronica moved from obscurity to stardom in a period of just a few years, and made his path through very non-traditional means. Roc Nation’s other artists could certainly benefit from the up and coming star’s marketing playbook.

About the Author

Researcher and Love for hip hop

Filed Under: Electronica Music Tagged With: , , , ,

What can Jay Electronica Teach you about Online Marketing?

April 12, 2011 By gpglobal Leave a Comment

Article by Jesse

Moving from the world of struggling hip hop emcee in local clubs to one of the up and coming superstars signed with the Roc Nation hip hop label, Jay Electronica could teach everyone a thing or two about online marketing techniques.

This relatively mysterious young artist came to be known as one of the music world’s most impressive new order emcees, and all thanks to his unique internet marketing plans. Moving from internet buzz to major record deal in three years, Jay Electronic managed to achieve what may seem the impossible, until you learn how he did it.

Roc Nation is the record label of music sensation Jay-Z and is the new home of Jay Electronica music. This emcee’s music has been circulating via the internet for the last several years bringing the young artist to relatively high recognition within the hip hop world without any major record label or big bucks marketing plan behind him.

So how did Jay Electronica manage such an incredible feat? Well, some of it he did independently and some he did with the help of the contacts he made within the hip hop music industry. While he did meet several influential individuals in Detroit, including J Dilla, he managed to accomplish a great deal of notoriety on his own, simply through utilizing the free resources available on the internet.

In early 2007, Jay Electronica downloads were made available on his MySpace page. The single Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) became a viral sensation, making its way around the internet in no time flat and rocketing Jay Electronica to budding star status.

He continued to promote his work online, bring his next single out via free download as well and in the same manner as Act I, Jay Electronica Exhibit A also became a big hit with his current fans and quickly made its way to new ears as well. As fans online found the music, they sent links off to their friends, gaining the rapper more recognition and even higher status within the music world.

The next single, Jay Electronica Exhibit C, posted online and reaching similar status among fans, also made its way to MTV2 where it received an award as an “Instant Classic” from the station’s Sucker Free Summit Awards. Jay Electronica was quickly on his way to major stardom.

This fledgling rapper continues to make a name for himself through the use of social networking sites. His music and videos are regularly posted on Twitter, MySpace and other similar sites. As downloads are available free of charge, fan sites have popped up all over the internet, with links appearing on each page for Jay Electronica lyrics and music.

Each link that appears only serves to bring the Jay Electronica name to the ears of more potential fans. The buzz created online has lead to numerous interviews of the young rapper with major industry magazines.

The combined live performances of the artist and the successful internet marketing activities he has employed have brought him much attention within the hip hop scene. He gained audiences with big names in the industry and quickly won them over, ultimately culminating in the signing of a contact with Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation.

About the Author

Jay Electronica website featuring the latest news, music, photos and pictures, lyrics, music videos, and tour dates.

More Electronica Music Articles

Filed Under: Electronica Music Tagged With: , , , ,

Sasha and Digweed – Trance and Electronica Music Wizards

April 12, 2011 By gpglobal Leave a Comment

Article by Erica Miller

Sasha and Digweed are Trance and Electronica legends, the Lennon & McCartney of progressive electronic dance music. They’ve been making a buzz with their one night stand “reunion” with Cream.

“John [Digweed] and I play together regularly, last year we did a whole tour of the states together we have played New Year’s Eve in LA a couple of times together, so it didn’t really cross my mind that it had been so long since we had done one of these back-to-back sets in the UK. But then when we actually looked at our diaries it had been years,” says 42-year-old DJ Sasha on the one-off reunion of Sasha and Digweed with Cream (no, not the hard rock trio of Clapton, Bruce, and Baker from the late 1960s) for a live performance this May.

Sasha has been spending a tremendous amount of time in the recording studio, where he became famous as a “sir mixalot” (his other favorite mixing involves vodka). He’s been adapting to the dramatically changed 21st century music industry in which even a famous musician can’t rely on sales of albums to make a living. Sasha really enjoys his time in the studio since it gives him a normal routine. He gets up at a normal hour of the day and goes to bed the same way. He enjoys that routine and considers it his “office job.” He gets so buzzed by the completion of a new recording that he just wants to get out there in front of people and play that music with other musicians. He’s always found it a hard line to walk, balancing that time in the studio with that desire to be playing live in front of an audience.

I guess we can all hope that Sasha and John enjoy playing together so much on this one-off that they continue on with their love of playing live. They’ve inspired a lot of new electronica, such as the music of Jemmy (John Varley), the 24-year-old who is opening for them. Pump up the volume and keep it going, Sasha and John!

About the Author

Check out ChinaShop magazine at ChinaShopMag.com – the written word on music, art, fashion and film culture. You’ll see pics and video of exclusive events and interviews from the music scene, and you can listen to an hour of free music – the Sasha and Digweed Sunset Cruise.

Filed Under: Electronica Music Tagged With: , , , , ,