Jeyda Yilmaz

FASHION STORY - Hip Hop: The Culture Of Getting Rich...

Get Rich or Die Trying was a mantra coined by rapper 50 Cent - who did get rich, seriously rich, and who almost died in the process.
With fluctuating share and property prices, it is impossible to determine exactly how much any artist is worth at any particular moment. But although 50 Cent's estimated wealth might not surpass that of Sir Paul McCartney, he is able to rub shoulders with the mega-rich music elite such as Sir Elton John, Sir Mick Jagger and Madonna.
Meanwhile, Sean "Diddy" Combs sang the hip hop track All About the Benjamins - referring to the portrait of Benjamin Franklin on $100 bills.
Hip hop music is not all about the Benjamins, but it has generated an enormous amount of them.
The fact that hip hop was largely created and owned by African-Americans has led to some extraordinary claims about how that particular music genre has transformed American society.
Some people even argue that the Obama presidency would not have been possible without hip hop.
Muscling in
Hip hop began in the late 1970s as an urban subculture, initially confined to two of America's most notorious ghettos - Harlem and the South Bronx in New York City.
Since then, however, it has grown into a multi-billion dollar business spanning music, film, television, books, fashion and sports.
And many hip hop stars - Sean "Diddy" Combs and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter for example - have become music moguls themselves, owning and running huge businesses.
"In order for hip hop to survive long enough to make it into the mainstream, it actually had to develop a business sense," says Dan Charnas, author of The Big Payback.
"Hip hop had to foster entrepreneurship, it had to develop these very powerful external institutions - because nobody else would touch it," he says.
Brand awareness
Hip hop went way beyond just music - it expanded into numerous other business areas.
"Run DMC were very brand-conscious - they wrote a song about Adidas because they love Adidas, and the endorsement deal came afterwards," Mr Charnas says.
It went from hip hop artists seeking endorsement deals to basically creating their own brands, such as Wu Tang Clan creating Woo Wear and 50 Cent manufacturing his G-Unit clothing.
"You now have these power houses like Rocawear and Sean Jean, almost pushing aside folks like Nautica and Ralph Lauren Polo for space in the young man's and young woman's department stores across America and indeed, across the world," he says.

- STORY BY JAMES MELIK - BBC.CO.UK -