What Anderson Paak Can Teach Us About Identity & Branding
Hip-hop, soul artist, Anderson Paak has taken the music world by storm. His road to fame while seeming like an overnight success was a long, hard one.
With the lyrical skills of a top-notch rapper, along with the soulful vocals reminiscent of a 60's legend, Anderson Paak is unlike any other. He's risky, dazzling and inventive persona teaches us a few things about standing on your own a part from outside opinions. His actions are a recipe for branding greatness.
Here's what we learned:
1. Don۪t play it safe.
In a hip-hop world full of duplicates and redundant trap and mumble rappers, Anderson Paak chose to be an actual lyricist and incorporate live instruments into his music.
Always keep in mind, in order to stand out as a brand you have to make a bold statement.
Remember, you want your brand or product to elicit a powerful reaction from a strong message. Don't let your inhibitions win.
2. Stay true to yourself.
Oftentimes, record labels and executives force artists to relinquish their creative freedom for dollars. Their sole focus is to make money off creating you to be a duplicate of what already makes money. Anderson Paak was unwilling to compromise his identity while pressured to do so. He recalls, They wanted me to make Lil Jon crunk stuff. _ I didn۪t want to be that guy that was just chasing sounds.
He didn۪t. By staying true to himself, he has made himself a much needed cultural force.
Don't dilute or compromise your identity. Your tribe wants authenticity.
3. Craft your own lane.
The funk. The soul. The spectacular lyrics over gorgeous melodies.Everything that puts .Paak in a lane of his own The hip-hop bars. The funk. The soul. The flow. The phenomenal melodies over spectacular production put Anderson Paak in a lane of his own. He crafted his own fusion of every genre under the sun and ended up with a cultish fanbase. He took pieces of different elements and reconfigured them to make it is own. And it was purposeful.
Greatness means refusing to follow the crowd.