PR Oddballs: What Percentage of Hip Hop Head Are You?

Because I periodically write about hip hop marketing and I run a hip hop press release posting service, Hip Hop Press, people sometimes imagine I know way more than I know and that I can provide marketing services that go far beyond writing about or analyzing marketing.

The saddest was the guy that wrote me a couple of years back in hopes that I would take over his indie label's marketing efforts cause he could tell by my blog, ProHipHop, that I knew what was up.

It took a couple of emails to convince him that I didn't offer those services. What I didn't tell him was that there was no way I would work for somebody who was doing such a poor job of evaluating his partners because that would lead to further difficulties on down the line.

More recently, I interacted with someone who was working with a nonmusical hip hop-connected individual based in New York who wanted to take his services to a broader market. This person contacted me because, based on a look at Hip Hop Press, he had determined that I was the main man in the game distributing hip hop press releases.

Since he wasn't being clear about what he needed and since I do know something about the services he seemed to want, I said he should send me all the information which I would evaluate and would then let him know if I was the right man for the job.

What followed was a back and forth with some folks with whom he worked who didn't have the information I needed but wanted to know exactly who was on my mailing list.  Along the way I picked up some details about what they actually wanted and it became clear that not only was their communication screwed and their expectations inappropriate but that they probably wanted something I couldn't provide.

A day or so later I got a call from my initial contact who started asking me some questions that led to "what hip hop magazines do you read?" By this point I was just trying to get the guy off the phone by telling him that I didn't think I was the right person for the job but he seemed to need something else.

When I asked what the heck what magazines I read had to do with anything, he said that he was trying to determine what percentage of hip hop head I was because that would determine whether or not he would work with me!

So I explained that I no longer read hip hop magazines because I'm online only for such information. This was what he needed to know since apparently it showed that my hip hop head percentage was too low and so he had identified the real problem in our exchange!

I'd find the whole thing rather laughable except that his client seemed to have some potential and needed someone competent rather than this nutcase and co. who were clearly wasting everyone's time.