In our recent interview with BHH’s Ali Shabazz, we discussed some of the many ways in which he helps unsigned and independent artists to find performance opportunities. One of the biggest ways in which they fulfill this goal is by teaming up with other companies who have a similar mission. In particular, there's one company with which they do a whole lot of work, Atlanta's NDaGame Entertainment. Read on to find out more about this company and how and why Bama Hip Hop hooked up with them.
By far, Bama Hip Hop's biggest marketing partner is Atlanta's NDaGame Entertainment, a Stone Mountain, Georgia based company that they started working with about 4 years ago.
Just like Bama Hip Hop, NDaGame Entertainment was launched in the year 2000. And just like Bama Hip Hop, they got started because of the numerous complaints they were getting from artists who were having a hard time getting booked for shows. So - just like Bama Hip Hop - their main purpose is to provide performance opportunities for artists.
But while Bama Hip Hop tackles this problem by finding performance opportunities for artists, Atlanta's NDaGame Entertainment actually is one of those performance opportunities itself. Come again? Well, artists couldn’t get on the stage anywhere else, Ali explains, so the owner of NDaGame Entertainment, “built a stage and came up with a membership fee and said, 'you can perform on my stage wherever I go.'”
Wherever he goes? What does that mean? It means that NDaGame’s stage is a fully self-sufficient, go-anywhere, mobile stage that comes equipped with all the sound, lighting and power equipment they need to put on a show. As long as NDaGame Entertainment secures a location and a sponsor before-hand, they can take it anywhere.
Right now, Ali says, "they've been concentrating on going to college tailgating events, setting up in the tailgating areas and then putting on a live show, "music mix, dance party, karaoke and things of that nature," Ali explains.
Hot Block Magazine
Atlanta's NDa Game Entertainment is not Bama Hip Hop's only big partner. There's also Hot Block Magazine, a magazine and advertising franchise that was started by Atlanta's Mykel Myers.
The main purpose of this pocket-sized, quarterly publication is to provide advertising and promotional opportunities for the entertainment industry.
The magazine is an independent franchise, so “it’s open to anyone with a plan,” says Ali.
As a result, there are currently Hot Block Magazines for several different regions, states and cities around the country.
“So with Hot Block Magazine, we've got a lot to offer somebody who wants to do a campaign for a particular region now.”
Bama Hip Hop handles the Alabama area, so get in touch with Ali if you want to take advantage of any of Hot Block’s advertising avenues.
And those ad avenues are numerous and quite diverse.
For as little as $25 on up to about $1000, artists and other advertisers can buy ad-space in the magazine or commercial spots on one of Hot Block’s DVDs.
They can also be featured in a short magazine article, appear on the TV show or be included on a HB mixtape.
In addition, Hot Block’s website and MySpace page tout a large number of promotional and other services that include such things as email blasts, fliers, business cards and t-shirts.
They even provide things like body guard service and music video filming and production.
Local and unsigned artists are, of course, invited to perform. But since NDaGame doesn’t always have the time to work with all the performers on an individual basis, Bama Hip Hop does it for them.
"We do the stage management now," says Ali. "We also do the marketing and the artist membership services."
Their Black College Football Games Tour is NDaGame's signature program. As you can guess from the name, they travel to HBCU games all over the country where they set up the mobile stage and put on shows.
For a fee, artists can sign up to be members of the Black College Football Games Tour. This buys them the privilege of performing in front of crowds of tailgaters who come from all over to see their favorite teams play.
So what drew Ali to Atlanta's NDaGame Entertainment? “We’ve always been looking for a way to do programs bigger than the nightclub stuff that we did, and of course, the few festivals that we was doing,” he explains.
“With Atlanta's NDaGame Entertainment, we have a much broader program.”
How much broader? This year the tour will hit up 8 games in 6 different states. That’s a lot of exposure for Bama Hip Hop and, ultimately, for the artists they serve.
For one thing, the crowds are huge and usually number way up into the 10’s of thousands. They’re also very diverse.
People will travel quite far to go to a college they really like, and even after graduation, says Ali, “they come back during the classics & homecomings from all over the country.”
And everyone enjoys these games, no matter how old or young.
“The college games bring in the high school age, brings in the college age, brings in the college graduate age, and even the retired alumni who bring in their grandchildren to these games,” says Ali.
“And so you have that generational continuation with these games, and that’s why this is, like, a real centerpiece for us.”
The fall Football Games Tour has been going strong for a while, but NDaGame isn’t content to just stop there. About two years ago, they decided that a spring program would round things out nicely, so they set about making that happen. Of course, Bama Hip Hop has been right along-side them every step of the way.
In 2008, they went down to Daytona Beach during Spring Break for the Black College Reunion and set up on the beach at the Band Shell. This year, they packed up the stage and went up to Atlantic Beach, South Carolina for the BikeFest.
Also known as Black Bike Week, this 30-year-old event consists of a 4-day block-party and street festival that pulls in well over 300,000 attendees each year. Getting artists onstage at an event of this magnitude is a great way to take advantage of numerous opportunities to be seen and heard by hundreds of thousands of potential fans.
And that's just what NDaGame Entertainment and Bama Hip Hop did this Memorial Day weekend. According to Ali, their Bike Week shows were highly successful, so much so that they've already been invited to participate in next year's event.
Next up for the two companies? Hopefully, a national military program. They'd love to be able to take the mobile stage out to military bases around the country and put on shows and throw block parties for the people on those bases.
In particular, they're targeting bases that have schools on or near them. "They have a lotta people who're between 18 and 25 which is just ideal for the music and entertainment that we focus on - that hip-hop, rap and urban pop and R&B," says Ali.
Teaming up with other companies, like Atlanta's NDaGame Entertainment, seems to be working quite well for Bama Hip Hop. So well in fact, that they're pushing more toward projects like these rather than holding their own events. In particular, Ali refers to the work they do with NDaGame as a “top priority” for Bama Hip Hop.
But don’t worry. Bama Hip Hop hasn’t stopped doing their own thing. They’ve just found that helping other companies is a great way for them to reach a larger audience and to provide artists with the best performance opportunities available, so "right now we're playing a supporting role for other people's programs," says Ali.
