Gangsta Grillz: How A Mixtape Series Hacked The Consumer Journey
The Story of DJ Drama & The Affiliates
Yo! Happy New Year & welcome back. This is the first SNOBHOP post of the year, and there are a ton more on the way. This year we’re gonna do a range of things from cultural deep dives to trendspotting, and guest posts.
Above all, it’s gonna be an amazing year as 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Hip-hop! Yep, that’s right.
So, if you know a friend, colleague, arch nemesis or loose affiliate who should be along for the ride, put ‘em on game. I’m outside wit it.
Alright. With that said, the new piece is below. Let’s get it!
Let’s talk about consumer journeys for a sec. For those who don’t know, a consumer journey can be loosely defined as:
The cumulative actions that a customer takes to buy your product. It includes everything from how they conduct preliminary research to their final experience in-store or online.
Sounds fancy, but really it’s just about identifying what a potential customer does in each part of the buying cycle, and seeing how you can adjust to meet their needs along the way.
A typical consumer journey goes like the one in the graphic below. It starts with general awareness of a product, then research, consideration, and finally, a purchase decision.
Brands typically use consumer journeys to map determine a few key things about their customer:
Questions: Knowledge gaps, or lingering questions they have surrounding a product that need to be answered.
Actions: The key actions that the consumer takes on the on road to buying the product.
Motivations: Underlying impulses & stimuli that make them seek out a solution/product/service.
Obstacles: Factors or objections that may stop them from buying your product.
A solid understanding of the consumer’s journey is incredibly important when bringing a product to market. The thing is, it’s never just about what you’re selling — it’s about HOW people are finding it, what their first interaction is with the product, etc.
The same can be said about pop culture & music.
Consider this:
In music, breaking an artist requires priming consumers at many touchpoints. The awareness phase of the consumer journey might consist of seeing underground shows, or watching radio interviews, while the consideration phase might be represented by an introduction to a viral Tiktok sound.
The point is that each of these touchpoints is important because they help people enter the sales funnel and eventually stream a song. Each touchpoint is a part of the consumer’s journey.
That brings us to today’s focus:
Gangsta Grillz
Gangsta Grillz was a mixtape series like no other. Its rise happened at an important time in hip-hop culture, and it presents a great case study in understanding the consumer journey because for an artist, having a Gangsta Grillz mixtape was like having a cheat code to relevancy and stardom.
Before Gangsta Grillz, getting consumers to become familiar with an artist took time, and lots of money. Labels would prep singles, promotional tours, album signings, radio appearances, and more, just to get the artist in front of as many eyes as possible.
However, after Gangsta Grillz that wasn’t as necessary. Having that mixtape attached to an artists brand effectively “hacked” the consumer journey and…
IT ALL STARTED WITH DJ DRAMA
I. Awareness
In the early 2000s, a Philly-based DJ named Drama (aka Dramatic) graduated from high school. He applied to many colleges, but ultimately selected Clark Atlanta University. His goal? Come down to ATL where the music scene was popping. At the time, Gucci Mane, T.I., and Jeezy were making waves, and Southern Rap was becoming a force in the culture.
While attending Clark, Drama met two other aspiring DJs (Don Cannon & Dj Sense), and together they formed a Collective known as "The Affiliates."
By 2003, The Affiliates had a slew of successful mixtapes under their belt, Trap Music was in full swing, and Atlanta emerged as the new epicenter of Black Music.
Drama & his crew received some financial backing from a music industry exec who saw an opportunity to capitalize via a new mixtape series. In a flash, Drama came up with a name for the new series: Gangsta Grillz.
Now that he had a name, Drama (courtesy of DJ Sense) reached out to Lil Jon to provide some vocals to use on the tape. After some editing, Drama found what would become the iconic “Gangsta Grillz” drop. With the name and the tag, he now had something special on his hand.
The first Gangsta Grillz tape would eventually be released right before Atlanta’s inaugural Hip-hop event: Birthday Bash — and with that awareness began to spread.
II. Research & Consideration
As the first Gangsta Grillz tapes made their way into the mainstream, music discovery made a real-time shift. Before Drama the consumer journey to looked like this:
Fans hear single #1 > See artist on Promo Run > Hear Single #2 > Buys the Album/Tour Ticket
After Gangsta Grillz the journey became:
Fans hear Single 1 > Hears Gangsta Grillz Mixtape > Buys the Album/Tour Ticket
Gangsta Grillz “hacked” the research & consideration phases of the consumer journey by providing Social Proof to consumers looking to buy!
How? Because you couldn’t just proposition DJ Drama for a Gangsta Grillz, you had to be chosen to do one. Ergo, having a Gangsta Grillz signaled to consumers which artists were “up next.”
And, because Gangsta Grillz mixtape hostings weren’t "pay to play" like radio, PR, or other forms of media, fans could trust that the artist was of some quality. In many cases, they knew that an artist’s Gangsta Grillz tape could even eclipse the label album itself.
In short, Gangsta Grillz was the rawest, most unfiltered version of who the artist was at their core and it was the perfect co-sign for both new and established artists.
By 2005, DJ Drama’s mixtape series had taken over the streets. Anybody who was anybody in Hip-hop had a Gangsta Grillz project — even Jeezy, who we mentioned in an earlier piece as one of the forefathers of Trap Music, even completed a Gangsta Grillz project entitled “Trap or Die” before his album dropped, which propelled the anticipation surrounding the album to almost immeasurable levels. It’s considered one of Drama’s best tapes to this very day.
III. Purchase Decisions
“The feds Did a Sweep” - Future
Gangsta Grillz became so wildly success that it’s movement spread online and into mom & pop stores, and gas stations.
This created a problem for Drama.
By 2008, the music industry was knee-deep in its fight against piracy, and the mixtape market was adding fuel to the flames by becoming the final step in the consumer journey over the major label album.
Artists were slowly using their Gangsta Grillz projects to seed singles & records to the masses, and a black market around bootleg albums began to develop. Unofficial Gangsta Grillz, album bootlegs, and mixtape knockoffs soon created enough buzz for the FBI to get involved.
They eventually seized all of Drama’s tape, shut down his studio, and jailed him for violating music piracy laws. It was effectively the end of Gangsta Grillz… or so we thought.
IV. The (unwritten) step of the Consumer Journey
Changes in Consumption lead An Unlikely Revival
As the years went on, the music industry adjusted to the digital era and the consumer’s journey continued to change.
With streaming now becoming the dominant form of music consumption fans moved aways from the mixtape format opting for libraries that had endless amounts of music for the same price of one Gangsta Grillz tape.
Drama’s series had become dormant because of the FBI raids, however there would occasionally be whispers of artists looking do one here and there for the nostalgia.
All of the rumors came to a head in 2021 when Tyler The Creator announced his new album “Call Me If You Get Lost” would be hosted by DJ Drama as an official Gangsta Grillz album!
VI. The Epilogue
Since Tyler’s Collab with Drama, the Gangsta Grillz’ resurgence is still going strong.
J. Cole’s label Dreamville released their very own Gangsta Grillz project in 20202, and before the new year the hip-hop community learned that Drama is currently working on a Gangsta Grillz tape with Pusha T — something that’s sure to be dope (ha).
With the nostalgia for early 2000s rap continuing with the new generations of music consumers, I’m sure that that the cultural pendulum will swing back to mixtape culture and Drama will once again find a way to hack the consumer journey in the digital age.
It’ll be a sight to see.
Peace.