Ancillary task 1 By Steve Jones

Common codes and conventions of rap / Hip-hop digipaks One major common convention between most Rap/Hip-hop digipaks, is the fact that they all seem to use very dull/dim colours, perhaps to represent the actual content of their music as a lot of rap/hip-hop can be quite dark. They also seem to have a grainy effect on them to show how the imperfections of their life impact their songs and create that genre of music. Both these digipaks follow the common codes and conventions of dark dull colours and both have the grainy effect.

Another common convention is the close up of the artist on the digipak itself, it is rare for the artist to give a direct mode of address and is normally seen to be looking away from the camera to give a sense of mystery and awe about the songs inside the album. The two images to the right support this and clearly follow the common codes and conventions of a Rap/Hip-hop digipak. However there are a few examples that don’t follow this convention and decide to use direct mode of address to connect with the audience on a personal level (uses and grat) to help the audience connect with the artist and the music and therefore potentially enjoy the music more. The examples on the left support this.

Also Black and white seems to be a very common theme throughout this genre of digipaks. It emphasises the dark tones of the music (rap). It gives a rustic feel to the digipak which again further reinforces the rustic genre of music. Another convention of rap/hip-hop digipak is the fact that there seems to always be an image of the artist who almost always is African American as they fit the genre of music. This reflects their target audiences of African American males and helps them create a personal relationship with them therefore enticing them to buy the album. One more convention is how male dominated this genre of music seems to be, not only on the digipaks themselves but the whole genre of music in general. Not only is its primary target audience males but a good 90% of rap/hip-hop artists are males.

Analysis of Digipaks

‘The Kanan tape’ digipak follows some of the common codes and conventions for the rap/hip-hop genre. For example it has the black and white theme along with the grainy close up of 50 cent to represent that genre of music and its rough round the edges, rap/freestyle content. The main image creates a strong direct mode of address to create a personal relationship to the audience and in this particular case he looks pretty intimidating to represent the content of his music (rapping about guns, drugs etc). The font seems to be hand written to again represent the rough, imperfect nature of this genre of music

Although ‘Long live a$ap’ follows many of the common conventions it also goes against some. For example A$AP Rocky is not looking at the camera which is unusual because it creates a sense of mystery and distance from the audience. Again this digipak is in black and white which seems to be a very common theme throughout this genre of music, with the writing in block capitals to stand out to its target audience and emphasise the boldness of the music. The focus of the digipak is on A$AP to connect to the audience and draw their attention to the album, the background is blurred/grainy to emphasise the fact that nothing else matters but A$AP and the music

This digipak doesn’t follow the common convention for this genre by being black and white, in fact it is in sepia. It follows the convention of having a close up of the artist to draw attention to the album however instead of the image being bold like in many other digipaks, his head is slightly translucent showing the tower blocks in the background to perhaps show where he has come from and how it is quite a deprived area. This would help the audience relate with him on a personal level and respect him for becoming who he has become today. The direct mode of address helps strengthen this personal connection. Again the artist is a black male to relate to his target audience even further as the main target audience for this genre is black males. The writing is placed in both corners to draw attention to the artist even further to make it eye catching to engage a larger audience.

Despite following the convention of being black and white this digipak is very unique compared to the rest in this genre of music as it is a lot lighter than the rest, perhaps to represent that his music is a bit more up beat and less dark than other rappers. Again the close up of the artist is the main focal point to draw attention to its target audience, however he has a city skyline where his neck and shoulders use to be to show that he comes fro m wealth which is uncommon in this genre of music. The album doesn’t have a name on the digipak, only the name of the artist which is extremely unconventional for this genre of music as every one I have seen and analysed has the album name on the cover of the digipak. This could be because the focus is on the city and not the actual album name as Drake always talks about how he loves the city.