J. Cole got signed to Roc Nation in 2009, shortly after that he released his second mixtape, "The Warmup". Roc Nation was founded by Jay-Z in 2008, In June 2009, Roc Nation signed a 4-year distribution deal with Sony Music, this basically meant that Roc Nation, and Sony Music made an agreement for Sont to take care of distribution for 4 years. Some well-known artists that have been or are signed to Roc Nation include; Rihanna, J. Cole, Rita Ora, Vic Mensa, Kanye West, Meek Mill and more. After that signing, J. Cole featured on Jay-Z's album "The Blueprint 3" on the song "A Star is Born". He then featured on Wale's Mixtapes; Attention Deficit (2009) and Back to the Feature (2009).
A year later, after signing to Roc Nation, J. Cole released his third Mixtape, "Friday Night Lights" which included features from Drake, Wale and Omen. J.Cole has been part of his own record label since he founded it in 2007, this record label is known as "Dreamville Records".
After the 4-year distribution deal with Sony Music expired in April 2013, Roc Nation then signed a multi-year partnership with Universal Music. As part of this agreement, forthcoming albums from Jay-Z, Rihanna and others would be released through UMG worldwide. Lucian Grainge, the Chairman and CEO of UMG said "In just five years, Roc Nation has established itself as one of the most successful brands in music with a reputation for developing some of today's most influential and popular talent." He went on to say that the partnership between them and Rihanna would be extended and it would be a homecoming for Jay-Z "an artist and entrepreneur, who has been a creative cornerstone of our company."
"Señorita" is a song by American rapper, Vince Staples. This song features on Staples' debut studio double album "Summertime '06" which was released June 30th 2015. "Señorita" was released as a single first however, May 4th 2015. The music video for this single was released on May 12th 2015, and on 21st October 2015 the video has 3,415,102 views.
The video includes what would seem like a rundown estate in America, with a group of people walking through the street, holding a bible above their heads. One by one people get shot, and die, therefore the group gradually gets smaller and smaller. Vince Staples, is walking about by himself, and eventually egts up onto a pickup truck with a microphone, and proceeds to rap the rest of his verse. At the end of the video, the camera continues to pan outwards and it becomes obvious that the main gang leader, and his followers are trapped behind glass, and what seems to be a middle class, white family is sitting on a sofa staring at them.
Camerawork -
The camerawork during this music video, contains many long, pan shots that give the viewer a feel to the scenery. The first shot is a close up of the leader's back, he then turns aroundand looks at the camera. Then there is a cut to another shot, that is of a hand on a piano, playing the keys. The man playign the piano, then suddenly drops to the floor, and it would seem that he got shot. The next shot is a tracking shot of the group walking forward, with the leader holding a book above his head, that has "VS" written on the front, from what I can gather it means 'Vince Staples'. This shot is repeated although not identical, throughout the video, showing that people keep getting picked off one by one by a gun that you don't see right until the last few shots of the video. There are many tracking shots of Vince Staples during the music video, of him walking towards the truck that he performs upon. The shots follow him, while he is rapping, most of the time looking away from the camera. There is a shot of Vince, on top of the truck performing the rest of his verse, and it keeps cutting to different shots of him, some close up, some long shot, in which you get to see the whole truck and Vince on top, with the microphone.
The tracking shots have inspired me, and I would like to include some shots similar to them in my own music video. The shots are short, but they grasp the scene perfectly, as Staples covers some ground, moving to a new unseen part of the set. I intend to include a shot like this, with my main actor walking towards an object that is off screen, while I follow him towards the object, he will be lip-syncing the song.
Editing -
The editing in this video is very simple, there are just a lot of simple, fast-paced cuts that change the shot from Vince, to the group of people holding the book, to people sat in their gardens. The editing helps make the shots sync more and look smoother, they also add variety into the order of shots, for example; it isn't all just shots of Staples, there are ome shots of the gang/group and some other shots of a police man in riot gear, and some people sat in their garden having a barbeque, all of which help the flow of the video, and mix it up a bit, rather than just being a linear video. The entire video is shot in black and white, whether that is to do with the meaning of the song/video, or they just liked it better that way, it certainly grabs the attention of the viewer and makes them think. I take a lot of inspiration from this video inparticular as the editing is rather simple, and the cuts that they make, help the video flow, and looks seemless. The black and white works very well with the mood and meaning of the song, and even the video, therefore it has given me ideas for my own music video, in which I might have it all/ selected parts of it, in black and white. Mise en Scéne - The mise en scéne in this video is rather simplistic. The lighting is very simple, either natural lighting, or a slight artificial lighting that gives off the impression it was shot in the day. The fact that the video is black and white, takes off the stress of worrying about lighting, as long as you can see everything you want to be seen and the actors/rappers are well lit, it shouldn't be a hassle. The clothing in the video varies a lot to do with the character. For instance Vince Staples is wearing his casual clothing that he probably wears on a day-to-day basis, which is a sort of stereotypical, American skater/gang member style of clothing. He is wearing light, skinny jeans, with a hoodie and a denim jacket over the top, he also looks as if he is wearing some kind of boots. As for the group of people holding the book, the main leader is wearing jeans, with no top, and has tattoos all over his body. As for the others, they are wearing, plain, ordinary, everyday clothing that you would most likely see on the streets of America. There a few props that stand out, such as the book that the group leader is holding, which could be linked with Vince Staples. Another prop is the microphone that Vince uses to perform the rest of his verse, this indicates he could be performing to a crowd, or wanting his voice to be heard. As for inspiration, I think a take a lot from the clothing part. I want my actor to dress up in casual clothing and seem as if he is a casual guy, nothing striking about his appearance etc. The plain skinny jeans and the hoodie are becoming a definite for my clothing, as they are stereotypical clothing for rap videos, and rap artists, they are also seen as comfy, casual and plain.
This is a magazine advert for Jay-Z's album "The Blueprint 3" that was released September 14th 2009. The ad contains the album cover, which is all the white instruments in the background. It also has the date of release and featured songs added at the bottom of the advert. At the very bottom of the advert, it shows that Jay-Z has his own website "www.jay-z.com" and what record label he was signed to "Roc Nation".
The colours are simple, white and red, with black text. This can be quite easily associated with the record label, Jay-Z was signed to when this album was released - Roc Nation, which can be seen below.
The other good thing about this album magazine advert is that, unlike a lot of adverts, it shows two featured songs which were released as singles before the initial album release, therefore it isn't giving away any knew material, but still it is letting people know that those songs will be feautered, and if they know, and like them it will possibly persuade them to buy it.
This is an advert for Kanye West's album "Yeezus" which was released June 18 2013. As you can see from the image, it is very basic, and only features the Album cover, which is very plain and simple. It is a transparent case, in which you can see a CD contained, with a red post-it note on it saying 'Yeezus'. It has the date of release on the bottom of the ad, which is good for notifying potential customers of when they can pick this CD up in stores, worldwide.
Although the design is that the case is basic, and it has a good look to it. I believe that it should have at least something on it, such as; Featured songs, artists or lyrics etc.
The simple colours give an original look to it, and will draw people in to look at it. It could have more colours to represent the album, or the mood of the songs.
It says the date clearly below the CD cover, this way it is easy for people to see when the album is going to be released, so that they know when they can buy it.
This is a Magazine Advert for Drake's Album "Take Care" that was released November 15th 2011.
The advert shows the front cover of album, and highlights that the name of the album is 'Take Care'. It tells the reader that the Album is out on Monday, which would have been helpful for them around the time of the release. The advert has the exact same image as the album cover, so the colours and text don't give much away to the readers of the advert, other than that they will know the cover of the album.
It should have been more specific with the date of release, rather than just 'Monday' as readers could be confused as to when the exact date of release is.
The advert notifies readers of some of the featured songs, such as; Headlines, and Make Me Proud ft. Nicki Minaj
It also mentions some of the featured artists, such as; Rihanna, Lil Wayne and Andre 3000.
When thinking of what genre of music I would like to base my music video off, I had already narrowed it down in my head to three possible genres; Hip-Hop/Rap or Indie.
I came to this conclusion rather easily, as these are the genres of music that I listen to most, and the ones that I enjoy the most. I also think that these genres of music have very good backing beats to the songs, and are easy to coordinate the shots around the pace of the track, and they tend to be easy to relax and listen to.
Hip-Hop/Rap:
When looking into Hip/Hop a few big names came to mind, such as; Drake, Eminem, Dr. Dre, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar etc. All of the above are artist I listen to, so therefore it would be easy when it came to choosing a song, as I am familiar with their songs and lyrics. Rap/Hip-Hop has been popular for years, but in more recent years (2010 - ) it would seem that the Rap game has become more and more popular as time goes by, including the fact that there are new artists becoming incredibly popular regularly, for example; Fetty Wap made his well-known, well loved track "Trap Queen" in 2014 and ever since, his fame has kept on growing. Especially with his newest release of his debut album "Fetty Wap" that was released 25th September 2015.
Rap has a very unique track sound, it is very different in comparison to genres such as Rock or Indie, the backing beats that are produced have their own originality and can vary from, slow, chilled out beats that you can relax to, to very fast paced, bass enthused beats that get you pumped and wanting to dance.
Indie:
As for Indie, I had a few bands that came to mind, that I thought would be a potential choice for my music video, artists such as; Arctic Monkeys, Oasis, The Kooks, The 1975 and Bombay Bicycle Club. The beats for these bands, are usually upbeat and slow, therefore you feel chilled, and it makes it easier to relax while you're listening to it. Indie bands are far more popular in the UK than the US, although there are still unknown bands in the UK as the genre isn't as popular as Rap or Hip-Hop because Rap/Hip-Hop have many singles that are played on the radio, and become mainstream. Whereas you barely hear songs from indie bands, played on the radio.
Here is an example of a song and music video of an Indie song that I personally like and listen to, and it has inspired me, and given me some ideas for my song choice and music video:
A year later, after signing to Roc Nation, J. Cole released his third Mixtape, "Friday Night Lights" which included features from Drake, Wale and Omen. J.Cole has been part of his own record label since he founded it in 2007, this record label is known as "Dreamville Records". 
