Breaking Internet News: Kanye West Sex Tape Scandal?

Latest celebrity news was just released today claiming that not one but TWO homemade sex tapes of the rapper Mr. Kanye West have been stolen from his computer and are now being auctioned online to the highest bidder.  Allegedly bids have already been coming in and Sex.com has been rumored to offer $5 million for the set of tapes.  Kanye's lawyers already released statements saying that this was stolen from Kanyes personal computer and anyone who leaks this video is in direct violation of his right of privacy.

As far as what sex.com had to say about their bold offer?
-“Sex.com sees Mr. West as much more than a rapper. He is a cultural icon, responsible for setting trends in music and fashion. Sex.com feels that these sex-tapes are not only an exclusive look into the star’s intimate life but could also contain the same Midas touch Mr. West brings to all his projects.”

Its interesting to see how much people are willing to pay to get their hands on ANYTHING Kanye West does.  Based on the statement above and the substantial amount of money being offered for these alleged sex tapes, this site recognizes Kanye's influence on today's culture and internet presence.  As i searched for News on Kanye, just today this article was worded and reworded on at least 20 different gossip websites.  Were trying to observe Kanye and how he ties into E-Marketing; and coincidentally this whole controversy involves computers and the internet.  From where the tapes were stolen from, to how they are being shopped around for by an anonymous third party, and even to how i discovered the scandal in the first place; through a simple google search with just one word, "Kanye".  Theres no denying the buzz that surrounds this man but once again the question still remains, will this hurt Kanye? or once again will he weather the storm and prove Sex.com right, that Kanye does infact have the "Midas Touch."  More after the jump.

-Daniel Dresser

Source:
TMZ: http://goo.gl/IIKwj
The Grio: http://goo.gl/As2S3

There has been talk that Beyonce had issue with Kim and kanye's realtionship. 
But what is it about kim that Beyonce doesnt like. I read that wasnt impressed with the way Kim is seen in the public eye. Beyonce is someone who takes her image very seriously. She had a conservative upbringing which was very different to Kim's," a source told The Sun. "Bey's never been impressed by her record with men and the sex tape that leaked a few years ago."
The source also made mention of her72-day marriage and beyonce is married to Jay Zclose friend of kanye. Kanye thinks different about his realtionship to Kim and calls Kim his "Beyonce". Kanye says, "if I don't say something in a rap or on Twitter, it's not true".
 She and Kim both tagged along with Jay-Z and Kanye on their Watch the Throne UK tour from May 18 to June 22 but I'm sure Beyonce still feels the same. Nikia T

Kanye West releases an exclusive video to Black Entertainment Television (BET) on the new album "Cruel Summer", were he features G.O.O.D music, an group of talented artist taking Rap/Hip-Hop to the next level.

He gives tyhe audience a preview of what the album is expected to be, and the idea behind his new concept of music.

Big name artist included in this album are: Common, John Legend, 2 Chainz, Q Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, and many others.

Briefly, Common and Pusha T talk about what it is like to collaborate and work with Kanye West on an album.


http://tinyurl.com/8moh6m2








Fernando Navarrete

Money in the Music Industry??????

With the all the recent advances in technology, I've been trying to figure out how artist are still making so much money (or at least in their videos they appear to). Well of couse artist like Kayne have multiple endorsement deals that provide nice sums of cash. But as a MUSICIAN, how much of his income really comes from the music he makes?

In high school, I had Kayne's first two ablums, College Dropout and Late Registration, both were burned disc my cousin made for me. As a metter of fact, her were burned as well. So thats about $40 Kanye DID NOT generate from his cd sales. With music being so easy to download these days, theres no reason to go to Target to buy cds anymore. In fact, there no reason to go buy blank cds either, you can download all kinds of music straight to your phone.

Now lets go back for a second and pretend we did downloaded the music legally, from iTunes for example. How much would Kayne actually make since his music would be sold through a third party vendor? I found some interesting information online which claims Apple would get approxiamately 37% percent of an online music sale, the recording company would make about 53% off that sale......and Kanye....10%. Basically he would need to sell 12,399 songs a month to the same as a McDonald's employee. Still want to be a rapper? Thought not.

I do believe artist have recognized there is not that much return on actual music sales and have decided to give their music to their fans for free. There are websites like datpiff.com and hotnewhiphop.com where one can go and download entire mixtapes for free. I believe the artist encourage this because they know their fans will be more likely to listen to it, and anticipate and album they may actually go pay for.

Erin R. 

Source: http://tinyurl.com/99lpoyc

Kanye West is in the lead for 17 nominations this year at the BET HIP HOP awards 2012. His last album was realeased back in 2010, but Kanye has collaborted with Jay-Z on their last album "Watch the Throne". As a producer, performer and director, there is no question to why he is being nominated for Hustler of the Year, CD Of the Year, Best Club Banger, Impact Track, Lyricist of the Year, Best Hip-Hop Video and Perfect Combo Award along with the nominations of Producer of the Year and Video Director of the Year. he isnt throwing in the towel anytime soon especially not with competition like Drake who is also up for a few nominations as well. Kanye has proved himself over the years to be where he is today in the music industry. i am sure he'll be going home with a few awards this year. mike Epps is returningas the host this year being the fourth time he has hosted. Chris Lighty who commited sucide earlier this year will be honored during the show. He was once the manger of artist such as Mariah Carey, Sean "Diddy" Combs and 50 Cent. The Show airs October 9th on BET.                                                                           Nikia T

Kanye West is set to release a new album, in which he collaborates with some of Hip-Hop's and rap's new school and old school, like R. Kelly and 2 Chainz. The album includes songs in which he talks about his mother's death as well as his new relationship with Kim Kardashian. Kanye West has not released a new album for some time now, so many fans are already static to see what this new album may bring.


http://tinyurl.com/8w5f3as

Kanye West openly criticizes Mitt Romney in recent song

In recent news Kanye West is gaining a lot of attention for lyrics in his newly released song "To The World" off the upcoming "Summer Cruel" album.  In the song Kaye raps, "I be all up in Goldman Sachs like these n—– trying to hold me back, these n—– trying to hold me back, I’m just trying to protect my stacks, Mitt Romney don’t pay no tax, Mitt Romney don’t pay no tax."  Mitt Romney has been criticized for not paying taxes in the past and it seems that since the election season is coming to a head, those accusations are becoming more frequent and have even branched out so far that people in the music industry is speaking out.

In my opinion this is just another BOLD move (which can only be done in Kanye fashion of course) to get attention and buzz about him.  If we look at the past, weve seen Kanye make countless countless statements like these.  For example, during the Celeb American Hurricane Relief event he stated on public television "George Bush does not care about black people",  which sent the internet world into a mad frenzy of criticism and shock.  This is just one of MANY examples of times when Kanye has shocked his fans and media with his blunt, poorly worded statements.  But i find it amazing how no matter what this man says or does he is able to remain an icon by the public.  Theres no denying the timing in which this song was put out had direct correlation with the political battle going on currently.  Kanye knowingly puts out his stuff,  his statements are premeditated and he knows what he is doing.   So the question is....has Kanye West reached a level of stardom where nothing he says will affect his sales or image?  Or does he understand that the more controversy his stance on things, or the more outragoues his behavior is, will garnish more publicity and talk around his name?

-Daniel Dresser
Source:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/09/14/kanye-west-declares-mitt-romney-dont-pay-no-tax/

ex. "George Bush Does Not Care About Black People" - Kanye West
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUzLpO1kxI

How could Kayne benefit from Google Analytics?

Google Analytics...what the hell is that? I just found out myself. Its a free service provided by Google that tracks information that pertains to a website such as the number of page views, web site clicks, and will even tell you what search engine a visitor found your website through. All this information can be analyzed so that users can make more informed decisions regarding where to advertise online and what parts of their website are successful and which ones aren't.

OK. So how does this pertain to Kanye? I'll give him credit, when you type his name in Google, his website IS the first to pop up (There's an AdWords feature Google Analytics offers that would show him what key words to use to make his website come first, but apparently he's figured that out already). Now Kanye's overall website sucks. There are hyperlinks you can click on to view other content, but you don't know what your about to see until its loads. Even then I had no clue what I was looking at. The website is supposed to sell products as well, and if Kanye's marketing team was using Google Analytics, they would be able to track all the non placed orders from their page. The would also be able to track the high click and bounce rates. They would be able to see all the people coming to the website, aimlessly clicking around trying to find something interesting...and use this information to grasp an idea of how many people left the website without purchasing music or whatever else he sells there that I couldn't find.

Moral of the story: Kanye needs to hire someone to run his site that has heard of Google Analytics...or at least knows how to build a functional website.

Erin R

Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music Group plays surprise closing performance at the Made In America Festival last week.

Jay Z's highly anticipated "Made in America" Festival brought in upwards of 40,000+ people last week and as day one kicked off, Jay had a "surprise" by letting Kanye and his music collective take the stage to close out the night.  Kanye, Common, Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz performed an array of different tracks  and hits from their recent albums.  Jay and Kanye also performs N*ggas in Paris together off of their notable "watch the throne" album.

Kanye states that G.O.O.D. music (which is an acronym for "Getting Out Our Dreams")  is not a record label but more a collective of similar artists.  In his own words "Its basically a family and a production company."

Whatever the case may be, its safe to say this "surprise" performance was no random spontaneous act but more of a promotion to build up hype to their upcoming G.O.O.D. Cruel Summer Mixtape, "The Clique" slated to drop on Sept. 18, 2012.  Jay-Z and Kanye throughout the years have been experts on staying on top of the game by getting exposure and creating a buzz around themselves and their company.  Almost instantly after the performance the video was streamed onto several platforms including youtube, viemo, worldstarhiphop etc. etc. gaining quick exposure throughout the internet.  They both recognize the power and value in promoting through these media streams and this was an excellent marketing strategy.  Even though they may not get any royalties from anyone watching their performance from home on their computer; they understand the buzz it creates for themselves and their upcoming projects.  This is just one prime example of where Kanye uses the internet to market himself and his brand.


View the performance here:
http://www.highsnobiety.com/2012/09/02/video-kanye-wests-good-music-performs-at-made-in-america-festival/

Sources:
http://popdust.com/2012/09/02/made-in-america-fest/
http://www.sohh.com/2010/07/kanye_wests_good_music_is_not_a_record_l.html

-Daniel Dresser

On September 2nd, Kanye West asked an opened ended question to his followers: "Is the word Bitch acceptable?"

He went on to say that Hip-Hop has made the usage of Bitch and Nigga acceptable. He believes that these words are never endearing, or that is you add certain words in front of them, for example "BAD BITCH" as some use to define an attractive, exotic, or sexy woman, should not be a flattering statement, but infact an insult, because it has the word BITCH in it.

He states that Stevie Wonder, one fo the greatest artist of all time, never used these words in his music but yet created eternal classics without profanity.

He attempts to imagine a Utopia, were profanity is exiled from Hip Hop and artist create music with meaning and sense.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/242318398078459904








Fernando Navarrete

Kayne's new album Cruel Summer soon to be released

Kanye West is working on his solo album. Chicago producer and Def Jam Executive VP of A&R No I.D. is working on the album and he says 'It's what you expect, and everything you don't expect". 

 One of the songs featured on his new album Cliques ft JayZ and Big sean is now availble to listen to on itunes, hotnewhiphop.com, hiphopwired.com and you can listen to it now on youtube http://youtu.be/67JkyFKOe3Q  The album will be released on West’s GOOD Music label on September 17 in the UK and September 18 in the US. posted by Nikia Trapp.

Kayne West Uses E-Marketing To Build His Fanbase

August 22, 2010, Kayne West posted a tweet letting his followers know about "Good Fridays". Every friday, Kayne planned to release a new track for his fans to download and listen to for free. In order to download his music, users needed to use an email address to register for his site. This was pure marketing genuis. Instead of having to hope his fans would take the time to come to his webpage, or even check his Twitter, he has direct access to their smart phones and computers. He can send emails letting his fans know about the upcoming projects he's going to be involved in, concert events, etc. By sending the emails to people he knows are  interested in the product (which are already following him), Kanye has emilnated most if not all the waste coverage the comes with marketing, while simutaneaously providing his fans with content that is current and relevant. 

Erin R.

sources: http://www.inboundpro.net/kanye-west-content-email-marketing-build-empire