SK Ritz - Images, Comments and Feedback

Young V - Images, Comments and Feedback

Rough Draft of my Front Cover (Images and Layout)

 Using my Questionnaire Results, my age range is between 16-21, So I need to ensure that the artist used; in consideration of their facial expressions, clothing – It would require to meet the correct audience’s needs. On the front cover, I identified that my audience preferred that the images, colour and freebies was the most appealing feature. This allows me to ensure what type of content I would put onto my front cover. Furthermore, Music News, Interviews, Gossip, and Photos are included within my magazine, evidently suggesting I should include puffs and so on, on the front cover of my magazine stating that these elements and contents are in my magazine. A Promotional area on my front cover to attract my audience. Also from my questionnaire results, Jay Z, Kanye West and Drake were the 3 most popular artists within my audience research, again allowing me to acknowledge that these artists should be prominently represented on my front cover.

All 3 drafts have the same style of font for the Masthead but have a different style around it to make it equally acknowledgeable. The main image on all 3 paper drafts is in the middle consisting of medium close so the attention of the audience can be directly visualised of the main image. The masthead is located at the top to ensure the natural viewing position of the masthead is the same meeting the expectations of my audience. All 3 of my ideas are evidently consisting of a male rap artist and a female hip hop artist to challenge the overall stereotypes of each gender. Draft 1: The facial expressions of both genders and hand gestures are the same to show equality for both genders and express the fact that both genres are similar. Both are consisted of a Medium Close. A clear representation of the rap artist wearing a chain to symbolise his bling and status of wealth. A general companionship of rap artists.  Draft 2: The rap artist is facing towards the viewer and the female artist is facing away from the audience. The may be taken in the wrong way from some males and seen as a male gaze. The hand gestures of the male artist showing a strong explicit sign of language; A general stereotype of a Rap Artist. Draft 3: The rap artist in this draft is again staring at the viewer of the front cover. He is holding two middle fingers up, again not meeting the audience of 18 and below due to this image being quite explicit, I will test this image out to see how my audience responds. The female artist is shown as less powerful as she has her hands in her pockets.

All 3 of my drafts consist of having straplines, anchorages, puffs and cover lines around my hotspot image of the two artists. These cover lines will empathise the needs of the audience of their favourite artists, gossip, interview/music/freebie promotions. All the content presented through cover lines will have relevance towards the Rap and Hip Hop genre. Lastly, following on – above each of the images will have a symbol or signature of each one of the artists presented to allow new comers to easily identified whom is who and my existing audience acknowledge the names easily.

Content Within my Magazine to determine the Strap-lines, Puffs and Cover Lines.

I wrote up a list of the content which will be presented within my Music Magazine. I then circled the content which will be presented on my front cover as Straplines, Cover Lines and Puffs. This list will furthermore help me precisely when designing the content page as I will predominantly know already of what content I will place within my Magazine.

 Evidently above, I will include Puffs, Cover Lines and Straplines consisting of Interview, Gossip, Events and Photos of Featured Artists.

From pervious target audience feedback, the featured artists consist of

- Beyonce

- Rihanna

- Jay Z

- Kanye West

The list of content which will be placed within my magazine will pose the type of straplines, puffs and covers to be added to my front cover design. From the Feedback received, I would implement straplines, cover lines and puffs relating to Interviews with the main artists, the featured artists (from feedback before), Music Gossip and News, followed by the events.

Lastly, after I chose the 4-5 topics to be presented on my Front Cover of my Music Magazine, I decided to show my target audience and getting verbal opinions of what think. 

The Feedback received was fairly positive, Some quoted elements from the Feedback consisted of;

- “A good positive vibe to the front cover, allow customers to easily acknowledge the content within the magazine”

- “This will be appealing to users at first glance as it sets the overall theme of the magazine, as it mentions the prominent content on the front cover”

- “…Loads of people like Interviews and Gossip sources of information and content, and this will allow the people to be easily appealed and attracted to the magazine through the use of these puffs, straplines and cover lines. 

Artist Profiles

Rap Artist


Name: Vijender Dubb (VJ)
Stage Name: Young V
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: British Indian
Age: 20
Background Information: Young V is a masculine male which is strong and serious but still approachable. He takes music really seriously as he has been passionate since the age of 4. He may come across as rude and dangerous. but honestly is the most calmest and emotive person in the Rap Genre. He also condones of fighting the stereotypes of generic Rap and Hip Hop 

Hip Hop Artist

Name: Simran Kaliey (SK)
Stage Name: SK Ritz
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: British Indian
Age: 18
Background Information: SK Ritz is a powerful new Hip Hop artist have 2 record breaking albums within the first year. She is also very passionate about the Hip Hop industry and has been since the age of 9. She is easily prominent within the crowd and likes to be the centre of attention as well as having a glamorous personality. She has as had a rough upbringing due to the Indian culture around women and she is ready to break the stereotypes of how women are within the Music Industry.



Miscellaneous Information: Considering that my Target audience is 16-21, so by having one artist which is 18 years old and 20 years old, to meet the requirement of all audiences in a certain manner. (18 years old similar to 16/17 and 20 years old is similar to 19/21) Furthermore, these artists will be presented with clothes, not as revealing and will be presented using neutral colours to fit within the theme, codes, conventions and house style of my magazine.

Overall Conclusion on Name, Font and Colour Planning and Considerations of my Rap and Hip Hop Magazine

Colour Planning for my Rap and Hip Hop Magazine

Font Planning for my Rap and Hip Hop Magazine

Name Planning for My Rap and Hip Hop Magazine

My Genres Magazine Double Page Spread Annotations

My Genres Magazine Contents Page Annotations

My Genre Magazine Front Cover Annotations

Rap/Hip Hop Genre Research

Current Published Magazines:

There is a wide variety of Rap & Hip Hop Magazines on the market currently. However, I have allocated myself to look at the 6 best magazines through branding and popularity. I decided to look through popular existing Rap & Hip Hop to identify the correct codes and conventions of which makes these magazines popular and stand out from the rest. These Magazines all connote the same genre Rap & Hip Hop and follow the consistent genre type throughout the magazine. These Magazines offer elements regarding to music but also offer other content such as Interviews, Freebies, Discounts and Prizes. These elements will attract the audience to buy these magazines as they will practically get more than just a magazine.

Target Market

The Rap and Hip Hop Genre appeals to young ages and young adults 16-21. The gender is more aimed towards male professions as evidently majority of the Rap Magazines are male orientated. Furthermore, Hip Hop Magazines are also a little promptly gender neutral as Famous Artists consisting of Rihanna, Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj are allocated within this genre type of Hip Hop. However,  Combining the codes and conventions of Rap and Hip Hop together, the overall target audience remains the same for ages (16-21) but is more male orientated, as clearly mentioned before, existing popular Rap and Hip Hop magazines portray the image of being specifically male orientated.

Content on the Magazine

These existing magazines offer a range of content within them meeting the overall needs of all audiences through interviews, offers, discounts, freebies and overall informative content referring to the music genres of Rap and Hip Hop. These magazines range from £4.00 to £6.00. Each magazine brand has a subscription plan where they can pay £30 for the year and receive the latest magazine when published, this works out to be a cheaper option appealing to more individuals as paying £30 for 12 magazines works out to be £2.50 being £1.50 cheap than paying separately. These Magazines are all equally publishing monthly meaning 12 magazines will be published. However, every 4 years – the special 50^th edition is released to the audience making it published 13 times a year every 4 years. The general theme of majority of the Rap Magazines currently on the magazine empathise violence towards one another through the use of catchphrases containing alcohol and drugs. Another feature which is extremely visually represented on the Rap Magazines is the presence of wealth, through the use of expensive branded clothing and gold/diamond ornaments and jewellery.

Gap in the Market

A gap in the market is an element which hasn’t been published in the market or online. Finding the gap in the market is finding out what is missing in the market so it makes my magazine unique and different from the others which have already been published on the market. For the Rap Scene of magazines, majority of the magazines offer different variations of elements and content within the magazines but however, the magazines don’t offer all the content and elements within one magazine. Furthermore, all Rap Magazines are masculine orientated, so mainly; this can be considered the ‘GAP’ in the market to make the Rap Magazine somewhat gender neutral.

Also, by adding all the elements such as Freebies, Discounts, appealing images, and event tickets and so on as well as making the Rap magazine Gender neutral and fitting which closes the gender gap of Rap Magazine Readers, will differ my Rap magazine from the current magazines on the market under the Rap genre. This will fit the purpose of finding the GAP In the market for my chosen genre.