Photo Planning

The images for my music magazine will be taken in a range of different backgrounds featuring more than one person with a variety of different shot types as well as the costumes being rather casual for some. Whereas one or two of my photos will feature rather hood or gangsta clothing i.e. hats, hoods, large coats. I will take the photos against rugged walls, corridors and school playgrounds.

Double Page Article

For years the grime music genre has been hidden from the mainstream music industry and has stayed primarily underground in East and North London where it originated rarely making an appearance in the music world but still producing grime artists that literally blow out the mind of those who are lucky enough to listen to their tracks. One of the best artists that the grime genre has produced and is making the grime genre known and famous is Hackney born, co-owner of the record label The Base and all around phenomenal artist Spectre.

Benny Flakes is 19 years old grime artist who was born in hackney and raised in Tottenham in a council flat with his two parents and his brother Joseph Flakes AKA Ghost. Spectre graduated from the University of Greenwich smashing graphic design. After the sensation had finished university he went on to work for many different companies that wanted his graphic design skills incorporated into their own creations. Spectre worked for a variety of graphic design companies such as Mario paint, fruity loops and Gameboy camera where he did awesome graphic design work which made some of these companies what they  are today. After Spectre was finished working for graphic design companies he then went on to further his music career by co-owning uptown records which allowed him to create his own designed and printed grime t shirts to be sold and purchased in turn giving Spectre the funds and underground fame he needed to continue his music career.

After getting the word out about himself he and his brother Ghost then created the ultimate music group and record label known in the underground of East and North London as The Base. So now Spectre had a record label and a clothing chain all before the age of 20 which is an amazing achievement for anyone in the music game especially for a person who was born in Hackney who is immediately judged by society as to be a person who does little or nothing with their life. Now that Spectre had all the pieces in place to start a music career he began by featuring at a range of concerts as a follow up act and Djing at various raves and clubs in order to get his name known around the different ends.

Spectre soon then released his first single known as “More Then Noise” this was the start of the king of grimes success’s in his career. Spectre’s songs got fame everywhere in East and North London and soon him and the new members of The Base were getting hired for concerts and raves everywhere and rapidly becoming the music group to hire for any occasion. However Spectre may be a musical sensation in the East and the North but his refusal to burst into mainstream media with his tracks had led to him falling short of the number 1 spots in the UK charts. Spectre’s reply to not going main stream is that he has no need for the fame that it brings to go mainstream and he would rather keep his music with the fans of the North and East than change his style of music. If Spectre  appeared in mainstream media he would have to change the style of his music in order to accommodate the mainstreams quota of blurring out what they believe are inappropriate lyrics. So Spectre staying true to himself has stayed known as a grime artist loved by the east and the north of London who love his music and everything he stands for.

Despite this set back Spectre has managed to release a ton of tracks varying in beat and lyrics never repeating the same bars in any of his songs and always giving the audience something knew to listen to and what he does give the audience to listen to is nothing less than utterly phenomenal. Spectre does not talk about drugs, gangs, knives, guns, girls or even being better than other rappers all he raps about is his passion for music which is different from the common rapper.

 Spectre also made sure that his record label did not include any rappers that rapped about guns, sex or gangs which he did very successfully keeping to his own record label style of not conforming to the black rapper stereotype.

Spectre has allowed quite a lot of rappers to join his and his brothers record label The Base the current artists and beat makers that reside under the record label music group The Base are… Spectre, Disco, Ghost, Scammer, Horty, E_gritz, Solo41, Friskey (on and off), DJJ maximum, D3EKO (occasional work). Spectre and The Base also create tons of songs feauturing all of the members of The Base  within the songs which turn out to be the most spectacular tracks you will ever hear in your life. The Base have played in a wide range of areas around the entire country and anyone who sees them and hears their tracks are automatically mesmorised by the style, pace and beats that this group/record label produce.

Spectre has not been involved in any type of beef or problems with any rapper throughout the rap scene he has kept his nose clean of drugs and his finger prints off straps he is really a perfect example of a clean rapper who still produces great music. Although Spectre and The Base may not want to burst into mainstream media I’m sure they will get their through sheer determination and still have their epic style of rapping when they finally do go mainstream. Spectre is a great rapper who destroys stereotypes and has worked his way up to the top through sheer hard work and sick lyrics we believe one day he will be known by the whole of the United Kingdom rather than just two areas of London because his music is GHOSTLY BLUD.

Front Cover Artist Plan

The name of my artist that will appear on my front cover will be the artist known as JME who is the leader of the music group and record label Boy Better Know situated in East London.

JME is a 28 year old music artist who was born in Hackney with both of his parents being Nigerian born he is situated mainly with music genre known as grime. He co owns a music label known as Boy Better Know with his older brother Skepta. JME studied Graphic design at the University of Greenwich and worked for several graphic design companies such as Nintendo. JME for a few years worked as a solo act before creating his co-owned record label but for some reason JME does not want fame as he has said so in various interviews and radio shows he is just in it for the music which is just one of the many things that makes JME an inspiration in the grime world.

I will represent my artist through various images accompanied by text and keywords from his various songs in order to highlight how good of a rapper JME really is. I will also represent JME as humble through the text and not really a rapper looking to seek fame and money but a rapper who raps just for the pleasure of hearing his own music unlike other rappers i.e. Eminem, lethal b etc. When writing articles and sections about JME I will be sure to use informal style language because JME’s personality itself is not formal in the least so informal language suits the article better for JME.

I believe my artist will challenge stereotypes such as black rappers only think about swearing and getting money through a bio about JME which will include how he does not want fame or cash and how he just wants to make music which overall is  challenge to rappers who also are not black to break this stereotype.    

Contents Page Mock Up

Here i had to create a mock up for my contents page that will be featured with my front cover of my magazine.

Front Cover Mock Up

Here i had to create a mock up of my front cover featuring my cover artist and a range of front cover conventions to accompany the central image fo my artist such as anchorage text, Graphic design and secondary images.

Mood Board

In these front covers the main artist with the double page article is shown in either the middle of the front cover or seen taking up the entire front cover looking at the camera to make out as if the artist in the image is looking directly at the audience in order to attract the eyes of passer-by’s. in almost all of the music magazines front cover in this mood board all of them  are wearing generally dark colors on their costumes this is used in order to covey grimes music genre as unknown and quiet and not loud and proud like pop or RnB distinguishing the genre from other music genres. Overall the artists in these magazines are represented as cool and collective and quiet all apart from the RWD magazine front cover in the top right where the artists seem to be excited but apart from that magazine cover all the other magazine covers perfectly represent grime as a calm genre that is quite unknown and does not have artists that look for fame unlike pop and RnB. The fonts in the title blocks of these magazine covers are very similar in appearance, they use bold large text with either two colors or one color throughout the lettering which further relates to the simplicity of the grime music genre also these title block lettering have subtle altering to specific letters to highlight them such as the G in the bottom left grime music magazine and the R in the 2^nd RWD magazine. The color scheme for these grime magazines are seen generally to be a dark color followed by a bright color in order to balance the darkness out and give the magazine a brighter outlook in order for it to be  recognized by the  masses that may glance upon it on a magazine stand. By looking at the front covers of these magazines us as the audience can infer that the articles in these magazines will be focused on grime artists or more specifically the grime artists that were featured as the central image on the front cover so we can also expect informal language being used in the articles because of the type of artists that are seen on the front cover.