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Global Rapper, Entrepreneur & Tech Evangelist MC Hammer: "Music is a Global Language"

MC Hammer speaks on global and Web 2.0 branding at an ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity conference in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A., at the Arizona Biltmore (10-5-09).

 

NOTE:  This post on MC Hammer ran in October 2009.  A month later, saw the 1980s' rap-and-pop icon at the Intel CEO Summit, an annual gathering of Intel-funded startup executives, in Orange County, California.  Don't call them harem pants or parachute pants, he says. They're Hammer pants:

 

PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A. -- HammerTime is in real time, and still legit.  If you don't follow tech news, you might not know that rapper MC Hammer is a serious social-media evangelist and Twitter freak (over 1 million followers at twitter.com/mchammer) who rivals actor Ashton Kutcher for digital savvy.  Hammer hangs with legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors, including Marc Benioff,  Ron Conway and Tim Draper.  He appears at tech and biz events (Intel Capital,  TechCrunch), and speaks at Harvard and Stanford.  Last year, Hammer co-founded DanceJam.com, a social-networking dance site, with Flock entrepreneurs Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young, and he stars in the A&E reality show "HammerTime".  Between things, he's retooling his Web site/blog, MCHammer.com, and he'll help Microsoft promote Xbox Live in November.  Busy guy.

 

No doubt Hammer's got street cred in TechLand.  He reminds me of Web evangelist and author Guy Kawasaki, a tough Hawaiian buddhahead who hasn't forgotten his roots either.  Da bruddah from Honolulu and the Oaktown brother.  I like that tag team.  Beyond the old stereotypes of rappers, Hammer is a reverend and family man with wife and kids.  And like Madonna and Bono, he's an artist with a conscience.  Hammer gives back to his community, and his next CD will carry a strong humanitarian message, looking at homelessness, drunk driving and other social ills.  Give the man credit.  He rose from Oakland's mean streets to the heights of the entertainment field.  While many would have given up, Hammer survived serious financial troubles in the 1990s and has found new acclaim today as an entrepreneur.  (Although the Internal Revenue Service still is after him; see WSJ Blogs story and Hammer's denial, both below, that he owes back taxes.)

 

Like Michael Jackson, Hammer's global brand transcends borders.  In the coming months, he's got concerts in Europe, Australia, Japan and elsewhere, and his music and Web 2.0 brand reach millions of fans abroad, including young trendsetters on the streets and in clubs.  How does he do it?   He thinks it's the continuity and positive nature of his message, and the universal appeal of music.  (Real catchy and funky riffs don't hurt, either.)  Hammer spoke recently on the branding power of Web 2.0 to corporate managers and executives at the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference at the Arizona Biltmore.  (See full conference coverage by the ANA Advertiser online magazine here.)  Most companies are moving too slowly -- they need to do more than simply start Twitter accounts, he said.  They must create trust, two-way communication and products tailored to many consumer groups.  “To build brand awareness in social media is a lot easier than traditional marketing dollars,” Hammer said. “If it’s good enough for NASA (to use Facebook and Twitter) to say they found ice on Mars, it’s good enough for us to figure out where in our business models we can use and maximize and optimize social media.”

Photo above, "MC Hammer at Gravity Summit at Harvard" by steve garfield, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.

 

After his speech, business people mobbed Hammer as if he was Apple's Steve Jobs.  The rapper graciously signed every autograph and posed for every photo.  No rampant ego, no fawning entourage, no cooler-than-thou vibe.  In an interview with CoolGlobalBiz, I asked Hammer how he handles his celebrityhood.  "I've been doing this for more than 20 years," he said.  "I'm an extrovert -- I feed off people's energy."  Hammer looked happy when I told him I could tell he was an avid reader from the rhythm of his talk.  "You picked up on that?" he said, grinning. "I subscribe to over 100 magazines and newspapers."

 

More than 140 characters from Hammer:

On using social media to globalize corporate brands:  "Using social media globally -- especially for a brand that's already established, whether it's McDonald's or Coca-Cola -- is the opportunity to engage your consumers from anywhere, anytime.  And it's all happening in real time.  It's a real reality show. Companies used to stagger the releases (of products).  It would come out in America, then four months later in Asia, then Europe. Now companies can roll out on a global basis, in real time, using social media as a key tool and component."

On reaching fans worldwide through tech tools:  "Using social media, you can create, plant seeds and begin to market your product and interact with consumers.  My tweets are being translated into Japanese currently.  Imagine how that shortens the distance between me and fans that I have in Japan.  I've done five or six shows in the Tokyo Dome, and all of the youth there were tweeting and texting and all of these things."

On social media for market research:  "I've played arenas in Russia, Brazil, Europe . . . Social media was how the promoters knew there was a demand for me over there.  They're following the tweets (of fans).  They're very plugged into social media there.  They said, "Hey, Hammer, can we get you over here?"  And all of a sudden there's six, seven shows in March in Europe, and I'm going down to Australia next month.  Social media is driving the conversation and creating the interest."  

On building his brand, "the culture of Hammer":  "There's a consistency in the message, in thinking of myself as a brand.  I'm consistent in what I'm trying to communicate.  Once you get the template, the blueprint, you launch the Hammer brand the same way you launch (Microsoft's) Xbox.  You go in and create awareness . . . and you use the same template on a global basis, keeping in mind you still have to finetune it.  Music is a global language.  It's a social language that connects and creates interaction.  When you add social media to a local language or culture, that's a powerful combo."

On the estimated global value of his brand:  "All things considered -- the albums, the videos, the books, the memorabilia, the Hammer signatures, the Hammer pants, the t-shirts, the name 'MC Hammer,' all the commercials that use "U Can't Touch This," the culture of Hammer and its positivity and spirituality -- the value of all that going forward is a billion dollars, and I say that conservatively.  My brand is 20 years old and has already reached over 1 billion people around the world.  If you had Google news alerts on me, it would be 24 hours, non-stop."

Photo above, "MC Hammer" by no-frills marilyn, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.

 

• IgniteSocialMedia.com, "How Hammer Went From Caricature to Human Being" by Jim Tobin.
• VentureBeat.com, "MC Hammer Offers Entrepreneurial Advice to Intel's CEOs" by Dean Takahashi. 
• AOL BlackVoices.com,  "Catching Up with Hammer" by Bridget Bland.
• TheDeal.com,  "Intel Capital: Can't Touch This" by Olaf de Senerpont Domis.
• BusinessWeek.com, "Building a Market Platform Like a Celebrity" by Dan Schawbel.
• Wired.com, "MC Hammer Hops Onto Dance Craze with DanceJam" by Eliot Van Buskirk.
• Washington Post, "There is an Escape in Dance" by Monica Hesse.
• WSJ Blogs, "Hammer to IRS: You Can't Touch This" by Jacqueline Palank.
• BusinessWire via Reuters, "Monies Allegedly Owed by MC Hammer to IRS Are Leftover from 1996 Bankruptcy Filing," news release from MC Hammer.

 

Ted Conover's The Routes of Man: The Real Stuff, Not Portentous, Pretentious Parlor Talk

SOME JOURNALISTS SIT in bay windows their whole careers, writing precious words about the precious world they see. Their fancy work is best suited for parlor talk, not the ugly and brutal world that ruins our morning tea and wine tastings.  Other journalists actually hit the streets, getting dirty and filthy and bloody, at times risking their safety to write about the human condition. Ted Conover is a reporter's reporter, exploring illegal farmworkers (Coyotes), hobos riding the railroads (Rolling Nowhere), and prison guards at Sing Sing (NewJack, a National Book Critics Circle award winner).  Not easy work.

CONOVER'S NEW BOOK, The Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way We Live, is a fascinating look at how roads reflect our global culture, from Peru, to Nigeria, to the West Bank.  If you liked William Least Heat Moon's Blue Highways, this goes a bit further.  In a Salon.com interview, Conover says: "Roads are a yardstick of the growing complexity of the world. They are one of the essential connections between people, and through them you can look at both the ways connection propels us forward and the ways it sets us back."   Conover is on a book tour now, and Routes of Man is enjoying high praise from some of our finest essayists of the modern American West.  William Kittredge writes in a publicity blurb: “Humans evolved on the road and we go on seeking territory, survival, wealth, and even knowledge.  The Odyssey, Don Quixote, On the Road, The Road, Arabian Sands, Marco Polo on the Silk Road, wagon trains heading for California, and Latinos at the fence between Mexico and the U.S.A.—so many of us streaming toward vivid dreams."  Conover follows that vein.  Rick Bass, in a book review for the Philadelphia Inquirer, writes: "The Routes of Man is the kind of book that sadly doesn't get written much anymore," given budget cutbacks in publishing and the changing global economy.  That makes books such as Conover's even more valuable.

YEARS AGO, I took a writing class from Conover at the old Aspen Writers Conference in Colorado.  Conover was a very good teacher, an antithesis of the posers, brown-nosers, and self-promoters who rule much of the media today.  Real and authentic -- those are the words.  For some reason, I failed to mention Conover in a freelance story back then for the Los Angeles Times on modern Western authors (see below), so this blog post is good karma.  It's good to see a journalist of his caliber exploring the globe, doing important work. There's so much crap out there, let's at least read the real stuff, written by authentic reporters.

• Philly.com, "Interview with Ted Conover: Traveling the Routes of Man" by Frank Bures.
• Philly.com, "Pathways that Unite and Divide," by Rick Bass (book review of "the Routes of Man" by Ted Conover).
• Salon.com, "The Routes of Man: Roads that are Changing the World" by Thomas Rogers.
• Los Angeles Times, "The West -- A Literary State of Mind" by Edward Iwata.

Commentary: A New Global Journalism of Hope and Digital Diversity?

 

NOTE:  This post ran in August 2009, and the new and old media continue to plunge onward.  Cranky old legacy journalists are embracing valuable new tech tools, and young Web 2.0 types with mad skills are learning that good journalism entails more than linking.  More new hybrids are sure to emerge soon, fusing the best of both worlds, with first-class content, design, and distribution.  Many ideas, much disruption, more convergence.  Print may be dying, but a golden age of the media is coming.  It's a good time to be a journalist.

 

For those who don't follow the news and tech industries, a huge debate has raged in recent years over the fate of newspapers and the print media.  (This Wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the future of newspapers, while this blog post by journalism professor and media consultant Jeff Jarvis in BuzzMachine -- "NewBizNews and Hyperpersonal News Streams" -- looks at possible new business models for online media.)   Many journalists have moved forward, but some still seem mired in the past.  Long before some publishers were even aware of Web sites, the transition from print to digital media began in earnest in the early 1990s, when the commercial Internet started taking off.  At that time, I worked as a dorm director planning cross-cultural and other educational events at Stanford University.  On Sundays, I noticed that tech-savvy students of all backgrounds (gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic class) started their day by checking their e-mail accounts in the computer room, rather than reading newspaper comics or sports pages.  A talk by New York Times tech writer John Markoff, the co-author of Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, filled our dorm living room with students.  Another talk by a prominent newspaper editor drew all of three people.

(Above, The House of Blogs After Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.com, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.)

 

All sure signs of the digital era, a media and cultural convergence that continues to grow.  Aside from technologists and journalists in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, few mainstream media types back then noticed (although now they claim they did).   Most editors and media execs looked bemusedly at you when you mentioned this thing called the Internet.  (See this interesting take on the early days of newspapers on the Net, by former Rocky Mountain News online editor Robert Niles.)  As for those college students who ignored the Sunday papers?  They're running global companies and startups that are changing the world.  And every publisher has finally gotten religion, although nearly a generation later.  In their defense, it takes time to embrace the shock of the new.  The technology for ATMs existed for years before the average bank customer felt comfortable using the machines in the 1980s.  Insert plastic card, tap keypad.

(Above, Inside Wilshire One by Xeni, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.)

 

Never feared the vast global technology shift -- the tech stuff is the exciting part.  Rather, I'm scared for the soul of journalism, the aggressive coverage of important topics in the U.S.A. and globally.  I fear the dumbing down of journalism, the dearth of diverse voices, the obsession with celebrity culture, the love of light and fluffy.  Don't get me wrong -- I like light and fluffy too.  All of us in the media are guity of pandering to the masses.  I just want more serious, not less.   Wall Street Journal columnist David Wessel just came out with a new book called In Fed We Trust, on the role of the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.  You could argue that the Fed, after the White House, is the second most powerful institution in the world.  But many millions more will search for stories on Paula Abdul's contract spat with American Idol than read about the Fed's dance with Wall Street powerbrokers.  Sad.  Moreover, I worry about the lack of diversity in the blogosphere -- a problem akin to the well-documented lack of diversity in U.S.-based TV, radio and print newsrooms.  (See reports by the RTNDA/Hofstra University and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.)  If the blogosphere remains a mono-cultural sphere, an exclusive soiree or frat party and not a street jam open to all, then blogs and online media will lose much heart and vitality.  That debate would fill many dissertations, although not many books and reports by famed Web media experts even look at the issue.  Here are some links:

• Washington Post, "A Diversity of Opinion, If Not Opinionators"  by Jose Antonio Vargas.

• Newsweek, "Blogging Beyond the Men's Club," by Steven Levy.

• Nation, "Minority Bloggers Fight Inequality," by Amy Alexander.

• National Review, "Diversity Mongers Target the Web," by Heather Macdonald.

(Above left, Paula Abdul - Greatest Hits by DQ, under Creative Commons license on flickr.com.)

 

All is not bleak, though.  Dozens of diverse media sites have emerged in recent years.  A lot of talented young digital and global journalists convene at WiredJournalists, a professional-networking site co-founded by Ryan Sholin, Howard Owens, and Zac Echola.   More than 200 bloggers and citizen journalists from around the world can be read at Global Voices, which may be the most diverse online media outlet around.  GlobalPost.com, an international news site launched by cable TV executive Philip Balboni and former Boston Globe foreign correspondent Charles Sennott, is growing quickly and read in more than 200 countries -- check out a powerful multimedia series called "Life, Death and the Taliban."    (Disclosure: My blog, CoolGlobalBiz.com, is one of many featured on the GlobalPost site.)   U.S.-based minority bloggers gather at the Blogging While Brown conventions, while women bloggers network at the BlogHer site and big confabs.  At Wired Journalists, creatives like Chikodi Chima and others represent the future of multimedia journalism in the global economy.   Chima blogs on TechTrotter, which he describes as "a multimedia exploration" of entrepreneurs and technology in developing nations.  He recently filed posts from Brazil on everything from samba music to Sao Paulo slums.  No self-absorbed blogger here, obsessing over his brand.  Hopefully, many more promising journalists like Chima will step up to cover news of global impact.  (A tragic reminder for those of us sitting comfortably at our desks: more than 700 journalists worldwide have been killed pursuing the news since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York.)

 

Years ago, I was lucky to glean advice from several old-school journalists who, unfortunately, will be in much shorter supply in the coming years, given the commercialization of the media and the death of much in-depth reporting:  The late gay journalist Randy Shilts (photo left), author of The Mayor of Castro Street, And the Band Played On, and Conduct Unbecoming.  Stanley Karnow (photo right), the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Vietnam: A History and In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines.  And the late Nancy Hicks Maynard (photo below), co-founder of the Maynard Institute journalism training nonprofit in Oakland, California, U.S.A.  Each taught journalism skills at the highest level, and each imparted a strong sense of history and current affairs.  The No. 1 lesson from these masters of the craft:  Use your talents where they'll truly make a difference.

(Above left, Randy Shilts photo from Reporter Zero by filmmaker Carrie Lozano.  Above right, Stanley Karnow photo from Library of Congress.)

 

With all the media cutbacks today, with so much fluff posing as news, with earnings trumping editorial, I hope the next-gen journalists don't waste their talents and sell out totally.  Gotta stay optimistic.  Youthful bloggers seem to be creating a new global journalism of hope and diversity that would make the early media pioneers proud.  At some early juncture of their careers, at the crucible of today's cultural and digital media shift, the young digital journalists of the world face a tough choice:  Kiss ass or kick ass?  I hope they make the righteous move.

(Above, Nancy Hicks Maynard photo from Wikipedia and Chattershmatter.com.)

More Creatives, More Neocha.com, Please

"Neo Shanghai" by Danwei.org and Adam Schokora/Ginger Xiang of The Shanghai Beat.

A SPATE OF recent stories in China on Neocha.com (company website and Twitter), a social-network site in Shanghai for China creatives that was founded by Sean Leow (LinkedIn), a Chinese American from Silicon Valley and an econ graduate from Duke University in the United States . . . Launched in 2007, the site brings together artists, musicians, designers and filmmakers to share and promote their work . . .  Last year, Leow and partner Adam Schokora, formerly of Edelman Digital for China, founded the NeochaEdge consulting firm . . . Neocha is seen as a bridge between indie Chinese creatives on the street and mainstream corporate marketers and advertisers such as Nike and PepsiCo . . . More cha, please, and don't chill those voices . . . Hope they keep growing, as the New Asia and China keep evolving.

• China International Business, "The Coolest Cup of Cha" by Blake Stone Banks.
• Tech Beijing, "Sean Leow, Founder and CEO, Neocha."
• NeochaEdge,com, "Shanghai Daily Talks to Sean Leow about Creative Chinese Youth."

"Neocha.com Team" by leowsean, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.

Hip Hop Culture & Rap Music Keep Going Global

"Hip Hop and it's Influence on Global Culture" - More The Indianapolis Star Galleries

View this gallery at The Indianapolis Star: "Hip Hop and it's Influence on Global Culture"

"Hip Hop and its Influence on Global Culture," a recent program at Butler University featuring rapper Yung Joc; BET host Jeffrey Johnson; rap performer and author Sandy "Pepa" Denton of Salt-N-Pepa; and Butler University history professor Vivian Deno.

THE GLOBAL APPEAL of hip hop culture and commerce shows no signs of slowing.  Born on the streets of New York, today the symbols and stylings of hip hop and rap music may have been watered down for the mainstream (corporate ads, Disney Channel shows, even TV shows for pre-schoolers).  But the music and lifestyle still are a driving force for social and political change around the world, according to Jeff Chang, a cultural writer and author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.  His article in Foreign Policy ("It's a Hip Hop World") sums it up well:

"IT'S CLEAR THAT hip-hop culture has become one of the most far-reaching arts movements of the past three decades . . . Today, the message of hip-hop is even transcending borders. From xi ha in China to "hip-life" in Ghana, hip-hop is a lingua franca that binds young people all around the world . . . It is the foundation for global dance competitions, the meeting ground for local progressive activism, even the subject of study at Harvard and the London School of Economics . . . .

"HIP-HOP IS also a serious business. More than 59 million rap albums were sold in the United States alone last year . . . It sells an estimated $10 billion worth of trend-setting luxury and consumer goods every year . . . This 'urban aspirational lifestyle' market is expected to continue to grow. According to a 2006 report by business research company Packaged Facts, the potential purchasing power . . . in the United States alone is worth $780 billion."

• Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop blog, "The World's Best Dance Crew: How Korean B-Boys Conquered Planet Rock"
• Wikipedia, "Hip Hop - Global innovations"
• America.gov, "Hip Hop Exerts Influence on Contemporary Portraiture: Genre inspires musicians, painters, photographers, poets,
• Racialicious, "How Do We View Hip Hop Culture?" by LaToya Peterson
• Suite101.com, "Global Hip Hop in the U.S., South America, Europe, Asia and Africa" by Jen Bouchard.
• CoolGlobalBiz.com, "The Quest for MTV America's Best Dance Crew, Hip Hop Culture & the Urban Market" by Edward Iwata.

 

 

"Freestyle Session 06" by zabara breakdance (in Moscow, Russia), under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.