Photography by Chris Chrisman C'03
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60 MARCH | APRIL 2012 THTHEE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS CHRISMAN C’03 WhenHOODIEStevenMet Hip-hop artist Hoodie Allen (aka Steven Markowitz W’10) is using the latest in social networking and the old-school marketing skills he learned at Wharton—minimize barriers to entry; provide speedy, individualized customer service; build brand loyalty— to conquer the music world. By Joel Siegel HE was a young man living two lives. By day, he was Steven Markowitz W’10, part of the latest wave of bright young graduates to descend on Silicon Valley. He was barely 22, four months out of the Wharton School, and working in a coveted job at one of the most successful companies around. As an account executive at Google, he was using his marketing smarts to convince com- panies to spend their advertising dollars with the web giant. THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2012 61 At night, he was Hoodie Allen, hip- of the Internet and social networks like says at one point. “There is no big money hop artist. Every evening he retreated Facebook to build a fan base, reflecting behind us. You are looking at the crew!” to his San Francisco apartment, writ- the new economics of entertainment. His breakout song, “You Are Not a Robot,” ing rap lyrics and corresponding with And so far, it is paying off. a tune that generated enormous buzz on fans. On weekends, he performed—even Now, as Hoodie Allen, he is trying to Internet music sites the summer after flying all the way home to New York for take the next step. In April, a little more his graduation from Penn, is saved for a weekend gig before flying right back than a year after leaving Google, he is last. Eighty minutes and 16 songs after to California to be at his Google desk releasing eight original songs for sale on taking the stage, Hoodie, his tee-shirt now Monday morning. iTunes, gambling that his fans are ready soaked with sweat, is done. Almost. “I’ll be “I would wake up, go to work, come to purchase his music, 99 cents at a time. back in five minutes, in the back,” he says. home at about seven or so, and I would And he’s preparing for his biggest tour “Let’s hang out and have fun!” try to ‘switch brains,’ to 2 a.m., 3 a.m., yet—playing 25 cities and larger venues. And so begins Part II of a Hoodie Allen working on my music. And then I would “We’re on the precipice right now. I feel concert, a free meet-and-greet that begins go to sleep, get up, and do it again,” he we’re at the moment where everything when the music ends, a ritual virtually says. “It definitely wasn’t healthy.” blows up to the next level.” unheard of in the music business. After He loved Google, but his hip-hop changing shirts and drying off, Hoodie career was taking off, too. A new mix is a rainy Thursday night, three reappears behind a table at the back of tape that he posted online was being It days before Christmas, and a sell- the club, where 100 or so fans have lined downloaded thousands of times a day. out crowd of more than 400 people up to say hello. He signs autographs and Promoters were showering him with is standing inside Sounds of Brazil, a poses for pictures, a smile always on his more offers to perform than he could well worn New York night club on the face. Within minutes, as Hoodie knows, squeeze into his schedule. And record- edge of Soho. A parade of hip-hop musi- many of these photos will be posted on company executives were calling, ask- cians has played here at SOBs on their Facebook and Twitter, reinforcing, in a ing to take meetings with him. way to becoming boldface names, from way, his own viral marketing campaign. Hoodie Allen, or Steven Markowitz? It Grandmaster Flash to Kanye West. On That marketing is how Aaron was becoming increasingly difficult to this night, Hoodie Allen has top billing. Lieberman, 16, of Manhattan’s Upper juggle his two lives. Four months after Shortly after 10 p.m., the lights dim and West Side, became a devoted fan. “My starting at Google, he flew home to New he bounds on stage, flanked by his drum- friends told me about him, and then York and decided to roll the dice. He took mer and his producer, Reginald “R.J.” I looked him up on Twitter, and every a leave of absence from his day job to try Ferguson W’10, who creates the rhythms time I wrote him, he wrote me back,” his hand at being Hoodie Allen full time. and instrumentals for Hoodie’s music on Aaron says. He and a friend, Zev Mark, Barely one year later, the results are a laptop. The crowd, mostly quiet during an 11th grader from the Bronx, had just impressive: More than 100,000 fans on two warm-up acts, erupts. “We are look- gotten Hoodie’s autograph. “This really Facebook and nearly 60 performances ing good tonight, NYC!” Hoodie shouts. makes an impression,” Zev says. “It across the country, including sold-out “Make me one promise—make this the shows he cares about his fans.” shows in Chicago, Boston, and New best night of your life!” Such interactions are crucial for York, where he filled a 1,200-capacity The first song, “The Chase is On,” sets Hoodie—not just because he likes doing hall. A new mix tape—the appropriately the tone for the evening. Like most of it, but also, he explains, because it titled “Leap Year”—has clocked nearly Hoodie’s music, it is sunny, exuberant, makes business sense. In an interview 300,000 downloads; one of his music anthemic, and fun—party rap. A catchy 10 days before his Sounds of Brazil videos has been seen more than 2 mil- tale about love at first sight, it also show, he compared himself to a new lion times. Type “Hoodie Allen” into reinforces a message Hoodie is sending company, trying to break into the mar- Google, and the search engine responds to his audience. “I truly care more about ketplace. “I am taking this new product, with more than 10 million results. you than anybody else in the world!” he which is my music, which I think has Yet, he really hasn’t left his business says. “Even your parents! Your parents unique qualities to it, and I am trying career behind. Instead of selling Google aren’t here, are they?” He is clean cut— to convince people to try it, and then to products, he now pushes brand Hoodie, short hair, a flannel shirt over a tee- become involved with it and supporters using the marketing skills he learned shirt, gray jeans, Nike sneakers, and not of it,” he explained. To do this, he has at Wharton to build his music career. a tattoo in sight. His fans—for the most taken a number of his classroom les- And he’s doing it with a business plan part in high school or college, more sons to heart. First, he is providing easy that turns the traditional path to fame male than female—sing along and wave access to his music, what he describes and riches in the music business on its their hands from side to side over their as “creating as few barriers to entry as head. Rather than seek a record con- heads in unison with the beat. possible.” Like many musicians trying tract, he has resisted efforts by record Hoodie moves through his catalogue to build a following today, he concluded companies to sign him. And instead of of most popular tunes, sprinkling in new it was better to give his songs away selling his music, he has insisted on songs—the music he will sell on iTunes— rather than charge for them. He and giving it away over the Internet. This along the way. Between songs, he chats his equally young manager, Michael new paradigm is a big bet on the power up the crowd. “There’s no label here,” he George, 22, then took this one step 62 MARCH | APRIL 2012 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE further, creating a clean, eye-catching The reason I stay committed to doing it sense, what he is doing is unique.” website (hoodieallen.com) where fans is I wanted to create something that’s The website socialnomics.com wrote could download or listen to any of his not fleeting, that’s lifelong, that if I admiringly of his approach in a “social songs with one simple click. was always there for them, they would media case study” and concluded, “Hoodie Hoodie also identified the influential [always] be there for me.” Allen now performs upwards of 15 times music bloggers in the hip-hop world and He singles out a Wharton class he a month, selling out venues across the cultivated relationships with them, send- took during his senior year, Interactive country. The corporate day job? History.” ing emails and copies of his mix tapes. Media Marketing, “where I kind of Hoodie’s path to a music career began in “You get the people who are cool on board honed in on a lot of the digital market- his home town of Plainview, Long Island. with you, and you are cool,” he explains. ing strategies that I employ today. I He displayed an interest in writing songs “It’s not rocket science.” Other new art- didn’t get any other A-plus except for at an early age, but aside from some piano ists are sending their music to bloggers, that class.” Suzanne Wiener Diamond and guitar lessons, he received no formal “but I know we do it better based on what W’83, an adjunct lecturer in marketing music training.