Artist Profile
Name: Joseph Junior Adenuga (Skepta)
Age: 33 (19/9/82)
Place of Birth: Tottenham, North London
First Album: Greatest Hits (2007)
Biggest Hit: Shutdown (2015)
Latest Release: The Tim Westwood Mix (2015)
About
Skepta is considered one of the founding fathers of Grime music. Skepta, his brother JME and fellow Grime artist Wiley are part of the biggest most influential groups in the UK music scene BBK. They created their own record label and named it after their group, this has meant that they have never been signed by one of the major record labels. He has made songs with artists like Chip, Devlin and Young Lord and has introduced the UK music scene to some of it's rising stars such as Lady Leshurr and Krept and Konan.
I chose to deconstruct Skepta as an artist as I feel that he embodies many of the conventions and stereotypes that I wish for my own artist to possess. He has a stereotypical upbringing coming from a council estate in an area of London which is considered rough. He is unsigned which is a key part of the Grime genre as it is considered an underground genre which frowns on the mainstream artists and beats. he has an extremely confrontational man which has helped him to establish himself as a 'bad boy' in the music industry. The genre as a whole is considered aggressive with some of its biggest songs called things such as 'Feed'em to the Lions' and 'Soundboi Killa'.
Therefore my artist needs to be represented as aggressive and as having a chip on his shoulder. It is important that he is portrayed in this way in order for him to be seen as part of the genre. The clothing he wears is also extremely important as if he is wearing a shirt and some jeans he will not be stereotypical. If you take Skepta as an example he is often seen sporting a tracksuit and a baseball cap. Although I don't want my artist to be wearing this in his photo shoot I need to take this into consideration when I am picking an outfit for my character.
Suggestion 1 - I like this font as it has an urban style which is conventional to the genre I am using. The font is caps lock which means it stands out and this is also a generic convention as many artists and music videos use caps lock for their name or logo. I would definitely change the colour as black seems quite basic and wouldn't grab the attention of the reader. The style is similar to the idea I have in mind but i don't like the disjointed part of the A and I think that is is fairly basic. Although it is not strictly graffiti I could imagine it printed on a wall in London which is could as the idea of the poorer parts of London is one of the most prominent theme within the genre.
Suggestion 2 - I like this font as it has a graffiti look about it which is extremely conventional and is used in numerous grime music videos. One of the biggest setbacks is the fact that its is an extremely cliche font which means that it wouldn't be a fresh and original idea and instead would just be another conventional music magazine. One positive is that people would be able to tell what genre of music the magazine is representing, as the whole graffiti image has become synonymous with the grime scene and many of its artist. One of the most notable artists to use graffiti in many of his music videos is Kano who uses it also on his album covers and tour posters.
I have decide to go for a attention grabbing yet generic front cover as I feel that some of the conventions of a magazine will appeal to my target audience for example:
Having a large image of a featured artist, so they know exactly who the major article in the magazine is.
Having my Masthead at the top of my magazine so that the audience is automatically drawn to the top the page, making it more likely for them to scan down the page. This will hopefully mean that they will see an article about an artist, clothing or a hobby that interests them meaning they may purchase the magazine.
I decided to place the cover line for the featured artist in the center of the page to make sure that it grabs the attention of the reader. i chose to centralize the image of the featured artist so that could place cover lines and sub text on either side, making sure that the text is not all bunched together and difficult to read.
My cover lines will only be 2 colors as i have decide the house style will be the use of the color white, from the Masthead, and another colour based on the featured artist of that issue.
I decided to keep the contents page quite simple, as I thought that if there was too much going on within the page it would be confusing and wouldn't be appealing. I made sure that the 'Contents' was the same font as the Masthead as it need to be obvious that it is part of the magazine and keeps to the house style I have chosen for the magazine which is an urban look which will include Graffiti and other things associated with the genre. I want to keep it obvious that the magazine is representing the grime scene so that it can immediately attract the appropriate audience.
I have decided to try something different with the images, I will use Photoshop to create a unique and sleek look to the magazine. I will try to keep the images in the contents page of featured artists and key articles within the magazine for example, I have the idea of using my classmates to model as up and coming artists whom will have articles about them in the magazine.
My idea for my music magazine is a 100% UK rap/Grime magazine as I feel that there is a gap in the market for this product within the UK. As i found out in my focus group interview Grime lacks the mainstream attention of other genres for example Pop and R&B, at first this could be a slight problem as people may not be willing to buy this magazine due to their lack of knowledge of the genre, but I feel that this magazine could help grime gather much more mainstream attention.
My idea is to exploit the more positive side of grime rather than focus on the often very negative songs that can be produced, I feel it will be easier to make a positive magazine than a negative one. The magazine will feature a range of up and coming artists and current and well established artists such as Wiley, Tinie Tempah, Devlin, Stig of the Dump, JME and Lethal Bizzle. I feel that the use of social media will be key to the success of the magazine as the younger generation (my target audience) use this much more frequently than other such media sources.
The USP of the magazine will have to be carefully considered so that youths are attracted to it, also due to the fact i will be aiming it at young men/boys i will also have to think about what stage of adolescence they are in and therefore what will entice them into buying a magazine, the use of things like 'top ten fittest' or 'top ten fastest' as i feel this articles such as these will make teenage boys want to read this magazine.
This style of grime is one that I think will be the one that my target audience will feel that they are most able to relate to as it is fairly lighthearted rather than heavy and deep like some other artists such as Devlin and Stig of the Dump. The summer time theme is one that I think will be a key area that I will use within my magazine as it will allow the audience to see the brighter side to where they live. The fact that the artist is driving a nice, flash car could be used to my advantage as I could use it as a way to try to motivate the younger C2DE generation to see what they could achieve if they are to work hard.
This music again shows the much lighter side of the grime genre and the scene in general. The use of flashy cars and designer and branded clothing. The fact that there is not much swearing in this song allows me to use these artists in my magazine as I am targeting the younger part of the audience as i feel that they will be most likely to read a magazine, also they will also more likely to aspire to be like the artists which I will be able to my advantage. The final point I have taken for this music video is the syle of clothing, which is tight tops, vests, snap-backs and man-bags which i will incorporate into my product.
