Chris Brogan & Julien Smith: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

Chris Brogan & Julien Smith - Trust Agents

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, is due in the States August 24th via Wiley.

You can get an early take on what they're exploring with a ChangeThis manifesto released last year, Trust Economies: Investigation into the New ROI of the Web: "in the Trust Economy, communities are king, and ROI stands for Return on Influence."

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith both shared early thoughts on their blogs.

Julien Smith recommends 5 Books To Read Before Trust Agents.

Reggaeton: Edited by Raquel Rivera, Wayne Marshall, Deborah Pacini Hernandez

Reggaeton

Reggaeton, a selection of academic essays edited by Raquel Rivera, Wayne Marshall and Deborah Pacini Hernandez, was released in April by Duke University Press.

Via Hip Hop Research.

Rob Walker: Buying In, A Book About Murketing

Rob Walker - Buying In

I just finished reading Rob Walker's Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are and I have to say it's an excellent book. It's focused on what Walker terms "murketing", his code word for marketing approaches that may seem a bit murky to folks used to being yelled at by advertising such as Red Bull's early sponsorship of events that didn't shout "RED BULL" at every turn or word of mouth marketing campaigns from companies such as BzzAgent.

Walker does an excellent job of tying together research on human responses to marketing and related topics with his own interviews and insights in a very readable manner.  He also skillfully reconciles seemingly contradictory and counterintuitive findings and observations regarding marketing and human behavior.

If you've ever wanted some ammo for those self-delusional types who claim to not be affected by marketing, you'll find it here, though that's not the most important accomplishment of this book.

I was impressed by the fact that, though I was familiar with a majority of the companies and many of the specific campaigns Walker mentions in Buying In, I never once felt a desire to skip over his description or discussion of any of that history, as I do with so many other writers who relate recent events through an overreliance on secondary sources.

My only disappointment came at the end as Walker seeks closure for a book-length discussion of a complex topic. Citing a claim by Chuck D that, in the early days, "it wasn't like a brand defined you, you defined the brand," Walker attempts to flip the linear supposition that "you are only what you surround yourself with" by suggesting that "you surround yourself only with who you are."

While it's often useful and interesting to consider what happens when one reverses a linear cause and effect supposition, Walker's book suggests that the "secret dialogue between what we buy and who we are" is a complex, nonlinear process that appears murky to most folks, in part, because we are socialized to be linear thinkers. His work helps reveal the interchange of feedback loops and related processes inherent in such a dialogue, one that is deeply nonlinear as are most such processes involving human thought and behavior.

Nevertheless, despite the difficulty that comes with finding temporary closure for a complex topic, Walker's book is a valuable contribution to understanding who we are and who we are becoming.

Rob Walker blogs at MURKETING - (The Journal Of).

Robert Greene on Writing The 50th Law with 50 Cent

The 50th Law - 50 Cent & Robert Greene

The 50th Law by 50 Cent & Robert Greene is due September 8th from HarperStudio.

Robert Greene discusses the process of writing the book at his blog. Power, Seduction and War, in the first of a four part series. He said he was sceptical when 50's people first contacted him because he tends to avoid the world of celebrity and then pretty much describes why I have no interest in interviewing Russell Simmons or his ilk:

"By necessity, anyone who has reached the top has had to resort to all kinds of manipulative maneuvers, but most people in the limelight try to disguise all of that as best they can. They want to project to the public their angelic, spiritual side, highlighting the progressive causes they support, their inner goodness."

Greene feels that 50 Cent is a different phenomenon for a variety of reaons including the fact that he doesn't hide his power struggles though, from a distance, that just seems like another game to me, not necessarily superior to playing the spirituality card. Greene feels that 50 Cent is what Machiavelli termed a "New Prince":

"New Princes...start at the bottom--with no privileges, connections, or money. What they have in abundance is ambition and hunger for power. If they make mistakes, they quickly analyze what they did wrong and learn the lesson. Considering the odds against them, they must stay focused, alert and patient. If they begin to rise up the ladder, it is almost purely by their own actions."

"They do not depend on others. They can handle downturns in fortune because they are used to adversity and turning negatives into positives. Since their education comes from experience and observation, they can think in the moment and adapt to their environment. They re-write the rules that others then slavishly follow."

He goes on to describe their working method and the emergent focus on the power of fearlessness leading to the organization of the book:

"Together we mapped out ten common types of fears and the reverse power that you can obtain by overcoming them. We found stories from his own life that would illustrate these ideas, many of them culled from his days as a hustler and even highlighting mistakes along the way that taught him valuable lessons...

"I would bring in examples from other historical figures who exemplified this trait. Many of them would be African Americans--Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, Miles Davis, Malcolm X, Hurricane Carter, et al--whose fearless quality was forged by their harsh struggles against racism. Others would come from all periods and cultures--the Stoics, Joan of Arc, JFK, Leonardo da Vinci, Mao tse-tung."

Malcolm X and JFK? I'm looking forward to this book but I already find it rather amusing to watch this variant mythmaking process in which 50 Cent and Greene are engaged. Just different forms of the game at a time when 50's claimed lack of fear seems overshadowed by his reliance on connections to Eminem and Dr. Dre, his limited and quite specific skills as an artist and his tendency to drive away anyone under him who isn't a total yes man.

I'm not so interested in fearlessness myself. Every act of success I've experienced has involved facing my fears and doing what I felt needed to be done despite them. I certainly haven't experienced 50 Cent's success but, man, I would not want to be in his f*cked up shoes, that's for certain.

More importantly, anyone that tells you they have no fear is not to be trusted and and I don't believe that famous people who behaved in a fearless manner were necessarily fearless themselves.

So, yes, moving forward despite one's fears is huge and that does put one in a state of being in which one appears fearless.  Actually having no fear is a different story.  So I'm looking forward to finding out what they reveal about overcoming fear just as much as I'm looking forward to seeing how they build the myths of 50 Cent and Robert Greene.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Interview w/Adisa Banjoko: Robert Greene on 50 Cent
& The 50th Law [of Power]
Robert Greene, That 48 Laws Of Power Guy, Talks With 50 Cent
50 Cent and the Violence of Money

Marc Lamont Hill: Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life

Marc Lamont Hill - Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life

I recently added new titles at Hip Hop Research and one that caught my eye was Marc Lamont Hill's Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity.

There's been a a lot of grassroots action connecting hip hop and education so it's nice to see some legitimizing work coming from a hot shot in the academic research establishment like Dr. Hill.

It's Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz

It's Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz

It's Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz, Hip Hop's First Latino DJ, by Ivan Sanchez and Luis "DJ Disco Wiz" Cedeño, is due June 30th on Miss Rosen Editions/powerHouse Books though copies will be available at the release party on Friday in Brooklyn.

Official Site: It's Just Begun

Hip Hop Research: Book List Now at 75 Academic Titles

Hip Hop Research, a blog by Clyde Smith devoted to documenting academic books about hip hop, has reached 75 titles.

There are more to come but it's already an impressive overview of the academic study of hip hop.

Big ups to Greg Schick at World Hip Hop Market who sent me a list of hip hop books to check out. Thanks!

Steve Knopper: Appetite for Self-Destruction Interview

Steve Knopper - Appetite for Self-Destruction

Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age was released January 6th on Free Press.

Inside Digital Media's Phil Leigh interviews Steve Knopper about his book and connects it to the video entertainment business:

"First, record label industry leaders during the past 30 years are "larger than life" characters whose stories may be colorful enough to merit retelling as a made-for-TV movie. Technological innovation was far down the list of the skills that made them successful."

"Second, the industry has almost always fought against technological change. For example, they resisted the adoption of CDs during the 1980s even though the format provided two great benefits from a financial viewpoint. First, the labels were able to sell CDs at a price premium relative to the LP and also simultaneously charge artists an associated technology adoption fee as an offset to royalty payments. Second, widespread acceptance of the CD led consumers to not only purchase new releases in the format but to often also replace their existing LP library selections with CDs as well."

"Third, the Internet has forever changed the record labels. It simply may not be possible for the industry to adapt in a way that enables it to retain its historical prominence. Its situation may be similar to the encyclopedia or newspapers businesses."

"For example, no matter what changes Encyclopedia Britannica made, the company simply could not retain its leadership after the advent of the Wikipedia. Similarly, it appears that newspapers could not have avoided losing prominence in classified advertising once Craig's List gained traction.'

"Fourth, record labels could be the "canaries in the coal mine" for the video entertainment business. Both industries are characterized by high profile leaders who are unaccustomed to adapting to changes driven by external forces. The labels were impacted first because of the lower bandwidth requirements of audio. But it has been ten years since Shawn Fanning launched Napster and the day of reckoning for entertainment video is fast approaching."

See Inside Digital Media for the full 30-minute interview and related research reports such as Third Generation Television: Internet-Video-to-the-TV.

Kevin Kelley Sets New Rules for the New Economy Free

I just found out, via Seth's Blog, that Kevin Kelley has made his out-of-print as a book classic, New Rules for the New Economy, available for free in multiple formats including a downloadable .PDF [via previous link] and a blog.

Nonlinear business principles for a nonlinear world and particularly enjoyable in book form. Based on real science rather than the butterfly flapping its wings pseudo-science.

I used some of the principles when discussing network effects in the Snakes on a Plane campaign.

Free Download: Put Your Dreams First

I'm on the road and won't get back to real posting till tomorrow evening but I wanted to make sure folks know that the 22nd is the last day you can get a free download of Thembisa S. Mshaka's Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your [entertainment] Business.

Adam Bradley: Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop

Adam Bradley - Book of Rhymes

I added a few more titles to Hip Hop Research but wanted to make a special note of Adam Bradley's Book of Rhymes since two people recommended it for the book list.

Thanks go out to Mozz and Jack Horkings of ZoJa!

KRS-One: The Teacha Presents The Gospel of Hip Hop!

KRS-One: The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument

The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument is due June 16th via powerHouse Books.

The Gospel of Hip Hop Coming Soon

Are you Criminal?

Or are you Subliminal?

Preorder at Amazon:
KRS-One - The Gospel of Hip Hop

Hip Hop Research Blog: Book List Now at 51 Titles

Yvonne Bynoe - Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-Hop Culture

This has been a light week at ProHipHop between cable outages forcing me to use an excruciatingly slow dialup connection and the peaking of my allergy season. So I gave it the triply whammy and spent the day working on Hip Hop Research.

If you hadn't noticed my previous post on this project, basically I'm developing a blog-based book list of academic studies of hip hop with a few high quality related journalistic and photographic volumes thrown in for good measure.

I'm happy to report that I added the 51st title today and it's pretty impressive, not for what I've done but for what researchers giving serious attention to hip hop have accomplished. You can see the full list in the right hand column of the blog.

Though I'm working on this project as a first step towards an annotated bibliography, i.e. a reference book that a library-oriented press would put out, I think the blog itself will be a great tool for students, educators and researchers interested in hip hop. In particular, it's a very easy way for students dealing with sceptical teachers who don't realize that a lot of serious work has been done in this area to show that hip hop is a legitimate object of study.

The evidence speaks for itself unless you're dealing with a problem faculty member. In that case, best of luck!

Special thanks go out to MV at Hip Hop Lives for suggesting some newer volumes of which I was unaware.

I also discovered that The Hiphop Archive's website has greatly improved since the last time I checked it out. Of particular relevance to Hip Hop Research is the Hiphop University: Working Bibliography.

Hey, if you have an appropriate place to mention Hip Hop Research, please do. I think it's ready for folks to start spreading the word and it will only be useful if folks hear about it!

Put Your Dreams First: Thembisa S. Mshaka on Handling Your Entertainment Business

Thembisa S. Mshaka - Put Your Dreams First

Thembisa S. Mshaka's Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your [entertainment] Business, with a foreward by Vanessa Williams and a huge number of interviews, is due April 23rd from Business Plus.

From promo materials:

"PUT YOUR DREAMS FIRST is mentorship in a bottle from over 90 dynamic women in music, radio, film, television, theater, dance, mobile, and new media who succeed in the business with their clothes ON."

"Thembisa shares her insights on:
The Top Seven Biggest Industry Clichés
What you ‘Thought you Knew’ but ‘Need to Know’ to thrive in the industry
Ten Severance Commandments
The Work-Life Balance Myth"

Biography:

"Thembisa S. Mshaka is a 5-time Telly Award winner who has served in the entertainment industry for over 17 years, spanning the areas of touring, management, magazine publishing, recorded music and technology, advertising, music supervision for film, voice over, and television. As Senior Copywriter at Sony Music, and 2-time NARM Award winner, her campaigns contributed to the sale of more than 150 million albums for artists from Lauryn Hill, Will Smith, and Beyonce’, to NaS, Maxwell, George Michael, and Jill Scott."

"The former GAVIN rap editor has also written for essence.com and LAUNCH.com, and serves as contributing editor for The Hotness.com. She contributed to anthology Sometimes Rhythm: Sometimes Blues (Seal Press) edited by Taigi Smith and Icons of Hip-Hop, an academic reference volume edited by Mickey Hess (Greenwood Press). Thembisa is currently the Copy Director for BET Networks."

Blog: Thembisa S. Mshaka

David D'Alessandro: Executive Warfare

Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

David D'Alessandro's Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success, written with Michele Owens, is a truly awesome book.

Much of it involves tales of executive power struggles in large corporations like John Hancock, a realm I will never inhabit, where D'Alessandro became chairman, CEO, and president! His sense of tactics and strategy are truly amazing and based on actual experience with lots of examples.

Though I don't anticipate being in such settings, there were plenty of examples that resonated with my life in the lower echelon of much smaller corporations, such as the games that are played in meetings. I'm definitely going to check out Career Warfare, where I'm sure I'll get a wide range of examples of the mistakes I've made in corporate and academic settings, as well as Brand Warfare, from which I hope to learn some lessons for the future.

I highly recommend Executive Warfare to actual executives, past, present and future, as well as those fascinated with tactics and strategy as a field of study. There's a lot here that fits human behavior in other settings and, whatever D'Alessandro is really like, he presents his game in a manner that suggests a positive path to seizing power, if such a thing is possible.