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We know that chains, bagginess, and ice likely come to mind when you think of hip-hop (commercial hip-hop anyway). Kanye West, a hip-hop figure in his own right though, had once mentioned he wanted to step away from that. It was at a time during the early 2000’s when he’d considered the fashioned fad over-saturated and didn’t want to be drowned out in the crowd. So he’d instead debuted with his first album a look like that of a yuppy boy donning polos and straight fit jeans to stand out. It worked.

Now as I’m weighing in on collaborating with graphic artists to illustrate my musical or even an overall image, I am reminded by this sort of branding to ask what does it mean of an otherwise culturally proverbial creed to “keep it real?”

A “brand” may yet again be another b-school term for identity, and this stripped down definition is where I’m looking to examine how I could best be portrayed from a designer’s eye. I’m imagining how difficult it could have been to create an identity for the likes of Keane, Travis, Coldplay, et al because the genre and therefore “the look,” like in hip-hop, was/is so saturated.

Though I don’t mean to put ass to lip on Kanye (I don’t love his music but I really respect his work ethic and outlook.), it was his mindset that he’d conveyed in a VH1 Storytellers episode explaining why he had swerved off from the stereotyped image of hip-hop that had caught my ear.

The vital ingredient seems to be that imagery and philosophy are direct reflections of one another. Kanye admits to “wake up every morning, thinking ‘what stereotypes can i break?’” The thought alone fits with his fashion sense and parallels the kind of music he has been producing–it’s hip-hop but also combines outside genres and sounds–or as Outkast had once said it “to look like the music.”

Another image would be Marilyn Manson’s shock rock is highly synthetic and ultra-compressed. His signature sound blends in with his image too–thick makeup and the distortion of his body makes for a very adulterated look. And as many have labeled him a poser, not just because of his identity but also because he doesn’t have a historical knowledge of his own genre, I’d say his appearance definitely syncs up with his music.

So the challenge in building an identity for myself is to work with artists that understand this concept. And when broken down I’m actually talking about transparency via the distinction of who I really am versus who I think I am versus who I want to be. Using my chosen and recorded music as an extension of me or my musical roots, I’d hope to find an identity that would represent me somewhere between the previous two.

In contrast to this I recall returning from my musical aspirations in Asia a disdain for most things music and entertainment. 90% of the business was dedicated to PR savvy, image marketing, and autotune (Somehow the part where serious art could be commercially viable couldn’t be mixed in with the 2-dimensional bigwigs.) that I’ve developed a hypersensitivity to plots and ploys as much as I have for work and meaning.

Since uploading my first music video on April Fool’s Day of this year, I’ve taken a Darwinian approach. Somewhere along the way I began to discover what kinds of music had resonated with me and was beginning to flesh out a musical identity. I was particularly ambitious by listening to as much music as possible and searching for what had vibed with me. What I had found astonished me.

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A lot of people who are image conscious will say “Oh, they music’s nice but the image needs to be spruced up a bit.” But how can one say that if they have no idea who or what they’re all about? This is an ignoramus statement brainwashed into the masses that a circus of entertainment is the norm, and some flashy or some refined look should fit.

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