Research: Genre

• In the 1970s, an underground urban movement known as 'Hip-Hop' or 'Rap' began to develop in the South Bronx in New York City. 
• The popularity of rap music was most influential to black teenagers and then began to entertain a wider audience.

Dr. Dre was one of the first Hip-Hop/Rap artists to have been successful in the music industry. Dr. Dre found fame with the influential gangsta rap group called N.W.A with other famous rap artists such as Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella, which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life.

Conventions of Hip-Hop/Rap genre:

1. Dressed either smart e.g suits or casual/cool
2. Direct contact with the camera - makes the audience feel as if the artists are talking to them
3. Props such as heavy, big jewellery are normally worn by male artists in order to show the wealth they carry with them. 
4. Artists have the most latest cars
5. male artists are also likely to have girls around presented as sex symbols.
6. female artist such as Rihanna and Nicki Minaj are likely to be presented very voyeuristically

Examples of Conventions

• This music video clearly shows the artists wealth by presenting the car that Dr. Dre is driving, as it shows the spinning wheels are gold.

• Snoop Dog wears a chain again showing that e has money and also showing he's superior.

• In the music video you can see two girls at the back on the car, presented voyeuristically to the audience 

• we can also see throughout the music video there is eye contact with the camera, allowing the artist to communicate with the audience directly.

From this image here we can see that the artist Nelly is presented in front of a car with a Gucci hat as well as a chain, rings, a watch and silver teeth, this straight away shows that he has money and this conforms to the hip-hop/rap genre in every way.

The artists clothes also conform to the genre as back in the day, hip-hop/rap artists were normally wearing baggy tops in music videos. 

Target Audience

• Hip-Hop/Rap artists tend to target at people their age as well as young teenagers aged 16+, therefore their target audience varies as there are may artists that are much older such as Eminem who is currently 42 years old therefore, some artists target audiences can be as high as 50 years old.
• However Kanye West target audience, for example is mainly ages 15-25 due to the style of music he raps about.

Examples of Hip-Hop Artists