Music artist research - Clifford Harris a.k.a T.I / T.I.P

I decided to begin researching an american rapper called Clifford Harris, better known as T.I/T.I.P, the second being his alter ego. He began writing his songs and starting to rap since he was about nine years old, almost twenty years ago.

The target audience i think is for teenagers. My reason for this, is that he wears stylish, flash clothes which will attract to this age range. I would suggest it would be mainly targeted ad the male audience however, as his video's include the lifestyle some fantasise of. His image emphasis on how the audience is based around the males, as he also dresses to appeal to them, by the way he looks, in terms of apparel, designer clothing, what most men who listen to rap would desire.

T.I holds with two record labels, 'Atlantica' and 'Grand Hustle' which are famous within the rap music industry. These two record labels are very well known within the music industry of rap, and help manage several other artists, which build their company to become richer, as their artists become well known, so they help to advertise them, and sponsor them to help them bring in more money. These record labels help to promote the artists in terms such as; they show other links relating to their artists, contain information,pictures and music of their artists, but also have accessability to include fan areas, to give more interaction from the site and the fans. That is just from their websites, they also promote clothing by their artists which can be purchased. Tours are also listed, along with almost every piece of detail about the artists you would need to know, including some of their music which has been produced. Without these record labels, T.I and the other artists along with him would not have made so much money as they have today.

The music is distributed world wide, from several locations. T.I's music is easily puchaseable from iTunes, but also Amazon, eBay, and several other well known sites. It is also distributed in several shops across the world.

His image is typical of an american rap artist, he nearly always wears a baseball/new era cap, slanted on the left side of his head. Stylish clothes are worn, to attract the younger audience, and aspire to be like him possibly.