Research into Artists of the same Genre - K Koke

K Koke

As part of my research into the genre and artists in the genre, I have decided to produce a case study of an artist similar to ours.

Name: K Koke

Genre: UK Rap

Residence: Stonebridge, Harlesden, North West London

Song Titles: 

1. Turn Back Featuring Maverik Sabre
2. I'm Back
3. Roc For Life Featuring Wale
4. Take My Breath Featuring Lilas Lafleur
5. Deep In The Struggle Featuring Aynzli Jones

Albums And Mixtapes:

1. Pure Koke Vol.1 
2. Pure Koke Vol.2
3. Pure Koke Vol.3
4. I Ain't Perfect (Coming Soon)

Awards:

1. OMA Mixtape Awards - Number 1 Mixtape (Awarded for Pure Koke Vol.1)

Label: K Koke is currently signed to Hip Hop Mogul Jay-Z's Roc Nation. He is set to release his first album 'I Ain't Perfect' on this label.



Audience:

The audience for this artist are young people aged from 15 - 30, I know this as I am a fan of this artist myself and the artist's lyrics relate to the lives of young people therefore targetting a young audience.

Music Videos by K Koke:

Turn Back:

Deep In The Struggle:

Roc For Life:

Artist Image/Biography

As there is two of us in my group, it was easier to discuss the Biography/Image of the artist. Ideas were brought up based on our research into the music genre which is Rap and conventions of music videos in this genre.

I have produced a moodboard which contains images of artists that are in the same genre as ours. By producing the moodboard, it has given us an idea of what image our artist will portray.

Moodboard of Artists

From observing many of the artists in the same genre, we have come to the conclusion that our artist will be portrayed to be around 20-25. The costume will be similar to other artists of this genre, for example the character may be wearing something along the lines of Jeans, T Shirt and a Baseball Jacket. I used those items of clothing as an example as it is the typical dress code for rappers. The moodboard contains possible looks that our artist may use.

Preview of Chosen Track

As the name and artist of the track remains unknown, we have benefitted from this as it gives us a range of ideas to work from. Below, I have uploaded a preview of our chosen track which can be listened to.

Focus Group Feedback on Chosen Track

As part of my research into producing my own music video for our chosen track, we decided to interview a Focus Group for ideas and feedback. The feedback we've received from the focus group will be helpful in generating ideas for our music video in terms of Location, Mise En Scene, Intertextuality and Narrative.
I have uploaded the video of our interview with our focus group which can be viewed below:

We asked our respondents a series of questions, based upon those questions, the responses will be listed below. We asked a total of 5 questions.

1) How does the music make you feel?

The response we received from our respondents is that two of them found that the music made them feel happy and 'uplifted' their moods. After asking them to elaborate and explain why they felt this, their response was that the lyrics were humorous and quite random. The third respondent explained that there is a meaning behind the lyrics, although he wasn't a fan of this genre, he did enjoy listening to our chosen track.

2) What do you imagine when listening to this track?

One of our respondents explained that the music helped him to 'escape' from the everyday routine he went through, his reason for this was that the randomness of the lyrics helped him feel free alongside the fast tempo beat used. Another respondent explained that the music helped him imagine someone walking down the streets of Central London, this idea was similar to another music video of an artist called 'The Streets'.

3) What Genre do you think the movie is?

Our respondents all came up with the same answers which were 'Indie'. This was the correct answer as our chosen music track is an Indie track.

4) What do you think the artist would wear?

Our first respondent said that he thought the artist would be wearing something along the lines of skinny jeans, vans and a t shirt, however the rest of our respondents disagreed stating that they thought the artist would be wearing casual baggy clothes due to the mood the music creates which is a laid-back and relaxed mood.

Pitch for Selection of Song

In today's lesson, our teacher went through each track that we have been given to choose for our final coursework piece. There was a total of 21 tracks written to a CD that were played out to us, we decided to choose track number 20 as we liked the beat of the tune and the flow of the lyrics. We were given a total of 5 minutes to compose our pitch as to why we wanted to select the track that we chose, below I have written out a verbal version of our speech.

Pitching For a Song

We chose to pitch for track 20, as we felt that we can perform best to this track and the flow of the lyrics was within our abilities to lipsynch to. After hearing this track, instantly ideas were flowing through my head for possible ideas for our version of the music video for it. As a result of this, I felt that this was the right song for us to make our music video for. 

The artist of this song is 'Lupe Fiasco', we figured this out as at the start of the track the artist introduced himself. I am also a fan of Lupe Fiasco, from being a fan I managed identify his voice and from there I identified the artist.

Representation for the artist will be carried out in many ways through clothing, for example Hip Hop artists tend to wear a lot of jewelry and wear baggy jeans and colourful clothing. From previous analysis of Hip Hop music videos, we will be using similar conventions in order to represent the genre of the music track we've picked.

Narrative:

The lyrics of the music track that we have picked narrates the interest of skateboarding, in particular the lyric 'Kick, Push, Kick, Push' throughout the chorus narrates the movement of skateboarding. Therefore, we are considering to include aspects of skateboarding throughout the filming of our music video.

Mise En Scene:

After having a discussion on the idea of a location for the filming of our music video, it was decided that we would film our music video in a Skateboard Park. This was decided as this location would contribute to the narrative of our music video along with the music.

Lyrics Analysis

Below I have pasted a copy of the lyrics along with my analysis of the lyrics.

Alot of people around here lost the white in their eyes - Suggests the person makes people feel like they're on drugs
See the lust inside your heart, so why do you go and touch the sky? - Implies someone feeling high




Think with their head argue with their gut - Not thinking straight let alone doing thing straight
Draft did you leave the door open it might encourage customers in
I wish the barmaid shut
Look like shit, down on my luck
Two world wars and one world cup
Scream by the desperate divided crutch
Used to have an Empire then we grew up
Lost everything who gives a fuck
Money in the jukebox rocks all night
Same shit bands too much hype
Everyone knows, everyone sees fights
Everyone drinks in the corner, right
Everyone knows hes a C blood type
Same rematch to much delight
I love her she loves me to that's why we get together - Song is about how the artist's partner makes him feel


Alot of people around here lost the white in their eyes
See the lust inside your heart, I don't want to touch the sky


He's dizzy for Lizzy
I'm dizzy generally
Scapegoat hit by a girl befriended me
Not that I care it's the only use to me
She bouncing off walls through doors
Pretend to be everything I wanna be and everything less


Your leaving alone but you came together - Whole verse suggests that someone has a lot of power
Who made the sun turn to stormy weather
Leaving alone but you came together
Who made the suns turn to stormy weather
Alot of people around here lost the white in their eyes
See the lust inside your heart, I don't want to touch the sky

She said tonight Jay I'm gunna teach them a ballad
An English man in every coward
I was kinda impressed by the way she dressed
I scoured this land to find a girl empowered
Ask her again why her heart turned sour
One of the ones that the boys devoured
If your gonna learn a song you gotta sing along
There's an English man in every coward
I got money in the jukebox rocks all night
Same shit bands too much hype
Everyone knows, everyone sees fights
Everyone drinks in the corner, right
Everyone knows he's a C blood type
Same rematch to much delight
Well I love her, she lovin' me too that's why we get together




[Repeat x2]

Alot of people around here lost the whites in their eyes

See the lust inside your heart I don't want to touch the sky

Analysis:

From analysing the lyrics, I feel that the lyrics are quite random. However, from the randomness you get an insight into how the artist is feeling at the time. The randomness of the lyrics also helps create a relaxed mood, with the use of slight humour. After analysing these lyrics, I feel that this song is about how the artist feels about his partner or somebody he is in love with and the use of the random lyrics helps describe the rush of feelings he is feeling at the time.