Hip Hop’s Use of Twitter

The hip hop community is one that quickly embraces new social media technology. Artists started using Ustream and Twitter long before the average person picked up those tools. All of your favorite rappers, from Jay-z to Chingy, have created accounts to further their personal brand. However, just like putting rhymes together, some artists tweet better than others.

An example of a hip hop artist building a community on Twitter is Young Money’s Nicki Minaj. Nicki’s followers have been growing rapidly over the past few months, bringing her to the current count of 530,150. Having not yet released an official album, the large Twitter following is very impressive.

What’s more important than the half a million followers she has, is their loyalty. When Nicki tweets, they listen, and that is the real point of Twitter. Last fall, Joe Budden and Wale, both known within the hip hop community as social media enthusiasts, had a hilarious talk with Nicki about Twitter. The whole premise of the conversation was to try to figure out why Nicki has such a cult following online. If you cut to the 1:10 mark, you can hear her give great advice which Wale and Budden quickly write off, ha!

Aside from loving her fans, Nicki Minaj makes it fun to be following her. She responds to random @Replys from time to time and finds unique ways to interact with her online Harajuku Barbies. Just last week, she decided to “sign” her fans’ breasts via re-tweets (showing her stamp of approval), needless to say, the Twitpics came rolling in!

Twitter has become a way for artists to connect with fans quickly and on a personal level – most artists don’t get as personal as Nicki did there, however.

Followers stay glued to Nicki’s updates for frequent Twitpics that give a glimpse into her life, and playful tweets like the one below:

That Tweet is great because unlike most users who would simply write “I’m going to be on Letterman tonight,” Nicki turned it into a game.

Artists who are looking to sell more concert tickets, achieve higher first week album sales, or simply cultivate more die-hard fans can learn from Nicki Minaj’s online actions. Having said that, who better to learn from Nicki’s ways than her labelmate, and good friend, Drake. Surprisingly, the Canadian TV star-turned-hip hop phenomenon, who received two Grammy nominations despite having no album, has less followers than Miss Minaj.

Taking a look at his timeline, we can see that Drake is not completely inactive, yet he’s nowhere near as engaging as Nicki. Imagine how ecstatic Drake’s fans would be if he reached out to them individually. Using a simple Twitter Search, he can locate fans down to a specific city, thank them for their support, ask them about their favorite lines, or simply retweet some flattering messages. These are quick updates that all artists should be sending.

Another rapper whose Twitter following doesn’t mirror his hip hop presence is the increasingly popular Gucci Mane. It’s embarrassing to be named #6 on MTV’s Hottest MC’s list and only have 110,000 followers on Twitter. Now obviously the man can’t tweet from inside his jail cell, but even before Radric Davis went behind bars, his account was run by someone else. Hopefully upon being released from prison, Gucci’s camp can educate him on an easy to use Twitter phone app, because I know he’d have a huge following in no-time. His seemingly endless supply of hilarious sayings and ad libs (i.e. #BURR!) would be going nuts on the Trending Topics!

Artists who think Twitter isn’t for everyone need to realize the power of the platform. The game is constantly changing and social media offers the independent artist yet another way to build a fan base.