AMERIKKKA'S MOST SURREAL NIGHTMARE
house of pain called: they want their steez back
- Rap's Captive Audience
Ex-con musicians with a white power message are using a sales method pioneered by some black artists: promoting their album in prison.
By Chris Lee, Times Staff Writer
September 27, 2006
...executives at the marketing firm RBC Records have been sending out bundles of Woodpile promotional material twice a month to several dozen of the group's incarcerated friends, supporters and family members.
As the thinking goes, Woodpile gets buzz in the prison yard that translates into positive word of mouth, spreading beyond penitentiary walls as prison visitors and released prisoners carry the gospel of Woodpile to the streets.
For Brian Shafton, an RBC partner, jailhouse marketing makes obvious sense. "Prisons are great because you have an incredibly captive audience that has a lot of entertainment time on its hands," Shafton said.
"These people are definitely influential, and not just in the prisons," he said. "A lot of these guys are still calling shots in the outside world. You look in some of these urban communities and you see some of these pimps and gangsters as the governors of the ghetto."
...It's ironic, perhaps, that a white-power group like Woodpile would turn to rap as the musical genre best suited to their expressions of their prison experiences. But the members of Woodpile — all ex-cons — say their music celebrates "white pride," not white supremacy. As the most forward face of the Woods gang (the name is a play on a slur for a white person: "peckerwood"), they characterize themselves as in opposition to such racist gangs as the Aryan Brotherhood and the Nazi Low Riders.
Ok, let's just get this straight: white power rap being marketed to prisoners. This is either evil or genius or both. Moreover, anyone still wondering about hip-hop's ability to "crossover" - here's all the proof you'll need. What next? The Confederate flag in African colors? (Memo to Lil Jon...)
<< Home