Music is not the Product Personal branding of hip-hop artists on social media

Personal branding has turned into a valuable tool for career development strategies. This applies, in particular, to the entertainment industry. This study specifically looks at the hip-hop industry, with the aim of understanding the branding strategy of hip-hop artists and investigating underlying and recurring themes in their way of self representation. The study considers an additional variable, that of gender. In fact, the hip-hop genre is not new to criticism of its misogynist and sexist nature, as has often been pointed out. However, in recent years a growing number of female artists have started to gain success in the hip-hop scene. This has aroused curiosity on possible differences in the personal branding of male and female musicians, which led to the following research question: “How do male and female hip-hop artists build their branding strategy and represent themselves on social media?”. Given the unique opportunity social media represents, as a tool for expression and connection, the research takes in analysis Instagram posts from the above mentioned artists. The method of analysis performed was a combination of visual critical discourse analysis and thematic analysis. The analysis revealed four main themes: Hip-Hop Stereotypes (The Rapper 101), The Alternative Rapper, The (Body) Language of Hip-Hop, Authenticity and Realness (for the Sake of Hip-Hop Credibility). Overall, the research does not show numerous differences between self branding of male and female artists, if not in terms of body and sexualization, which appear to be one of the main traits in the representation of female performers but not in that of male performers. Instead, what seem to influence the way these artists represent themselves is the context itself, as most of them seem to follow the hip-hop rules in some way. By hip-hop rules we mean recurring themes in hip-hop music and culture, such as: display of wealth, arrogance, defiant attitude, and more.