Naomi Ofosuhene

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Examples of current Rap/Hip-Hop magazines

The typical conventions of a rap magazine include iconography, guns, chains/jewellery, cigarettes, cigars and stacks of money. The artist's are mainly black and tend to use special terminology when being interviewed such as 'swag', 'yo' and 'G'. They also sometimes feature women on the covers but the majority of the time they are men and if women are on covers there is a stereotypical view of them as sex objects. The camera shots are usually taken from low angles so that they look powerful, big and strong. In these shots the artists have angry and strong facial impressions that look unapproachable which contributes to them look intimidating and powerful. The image is usually placed in front on the masthead so that they stand out and it portrays that they are powerful.

In terms of my magazine, one thing I have taken from the rap magazine conventions is that I placed my image in front of the masthead to show that my artist is new, fresh and upcoming. I out my artist name - Andrietta, in front of the image as she is a new artist and people need to get to know her name. One thing I definitely did challenge is how women are seen as sexual objects as I disagree and dislike this stereotype, also in this day and age feminism is highly promoted movement that I agree with. To avoid this I didn't make my artist wear anything that was seen as provocative and also I steered away from the invitational pose which suggest mystery and mischief in a sexual way. Another typical convention I also didn't follow is the iconography, guns, chains/jewellery, cigarettes/cigars and stacks of money. I personally don't like that look as I don't agree with the promotion of gun violence and smoking. The materialistic things can come across as arrogant and very 'look at me' which I wanted to avoid as it doesn't appeal to me. In terms of fonts, layout designs, columns and such, I did take inspiration from typical rap magazines as I went for a chunkier more bold font and did it in a bright colour. For my double page spread I looked at double page spread of Wiz Khalifa that I liked as it was minimal.

Wiz Khalifa Double Page Spread

I went for the same layout design in that I had one side of my dps as just an image of my artist then on the other side the article. My image was inspired by this as well as this one is simple with no special backgrounds and editing but is effective.

As for my front cover it has aspects of other rap magazines but is minimalistic instead of cluttered. They tend to have a lot of cover lines that cover the main image and there is always a lot going on, on the page. On my magazine I have one main cover line as I wanted all the attention to be on my main image which is a single artist as many rap magazine covers don't have bands and groups. My artist is also black as it is a typical convention and hip-hop/rap/RnB originates from African and Rap stands for rhythmic African poetry.

I previously composed a questionnaire with a series of open and closed questions as out magazines to get an idea of what do for my own. I originally planned to use all the answers from my questionnaire but, as I started to create my magazine I found new ideas and styles that I wanted to go with instead of basing it purely off of my questionnaire. One answer I did take from my questionnaire and develop is that more preferred an uncluttered look and wanted a conventional style. I followed the conventional style in that I had a masthead, main cover line, main image, date line and such. Even though my magazine is more minimalistic it still uses the typical magazine features and doesn't challenge forms of real media products.

A few other bits of research from my questionnaire that I followed were that a single artist on the cover was most popular and pictures and headings were most preferred. I was inspired by fader magazine which fitted the style of answers that I was given as they are minimal and feature single artist.

The format, formula, frame and function are the same as most rap magazines. It has the same content inside as I have an interview on my double page spread which are featured in many rap magazine. I have also stuck to the normal magazine frames as I have a gone for a conventional style. The function of my magazine is the same as any other, it's a source of entertainment and to provide news and information about my genre of music.