60 MARCH | APRIL 2012 THTHEE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS CHRISMAN C’03 WhenHOODIEStevenMet

Hip-hop artist (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

was a young man HE 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 , 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 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 , 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. “I started writing rhym- I have learned from school.” who taught the class, remembers her ing songs to different sorts of music when But the foundation of his approach is former student as “very enthusiastic” I was five or six, and I can’t really say why. the marketing staple of creating “brand and “able to take the ideas and synthe- It must have been innate, because no one loyalty.” “How do you get someone to be size them.” was pushing me to do so,” he says. His a repeat customer, to talk about your “We would talk about how to use father, Ernest Markowitz, remembers his music, share it, and feel like they are social media, about how you can’t son recording songs with a $20 micro- valued and important? You engage with just push content on customers, that phone on the home computer. “I would them,” Hoodie explains. He does this you have to create a dialogue and take him to work with me and he would sit not only through his meet-and-greets, build a relationship between the con- in the conference room, writing—music, but also by trying to answer every email tent provider and the content user.” short stories, cartoons. It’s always been sent his way, every Tweet, every post After being contacted for this article, what has motivated him.” on Facebook—a task that can consume Diamond went online to check out what By the time Hoodie was a teenager, hip- hours a night. (To ease the time pres- her former student was up to. “It blew hop had migrated from the inner city to sures, his manager sometimes will me away,” she says. “What Steven has become enormously popular among white respond in Hoodie’s name.) “It all makes done is come up with a way that really suburban kids. Hoodie became a fan, too. business sense. Show me someone else keeps his fan base engaged and builds He would record rap tunes, post them doing it. There is nobody,” Hoodie says. a relationship with them. I don’t know online, and soak up the feedback. “There “Obviously, I like it ... But it would be of anybody who is personally respond- was a lot of discussion that helped me to so much easier not to do it sometimes. ing to every email, every Tweet. In that learn about the technical aspects of rap, Hoodie shouts: “Make me one promise—make this the best night of your life!”

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE MARCH | APRIL 2012 63 like flow and delivery,” he says. He thinks At Penn, R. J. Ferguson W’10 was follow- we should enjoy that, and then go on with he was 16 or 17 when he first appeared ing a somewhat similar path. Growing our lives.” His partner, however, insisted before a paying audience. “It was a club up in Stamford, Connecticut, he earned on staying the course. “Steve was think- called the Crazy Donkey on Long Island, money on the side by performing as a DJ ing about the big picture,” Ferguson and I performed with a few friends. We at parties. At Penn, he began producing says. The release of a new mix tape, “Pep had the early slot, 6 p.m., and the main as a hobby, borrowing bits and pieces Rally,” soon after Hoodie began work- act didn’t go on until nine. I think 15 from other songs—some horns here, ing in Silicon Valley, brought even more or 20 friends showed up to watch us.” some guitar riffs there—and then mix- attention. Friends watching all this real- He applied early decision to Penn, after ing in drum patterns, to create, in effect, ized Hoodie’s days at Google were num- studying screenwriting during a summer new music. Ferguson and Hoodie had bered—not that leaving the Googleplex program for high school students at the heard about each other on campus, but would be easy. “He was definitely willing University. “After that summer, it was they did not strike up a friendship until to take that risk, but I think there was kind of like I had no other option. I knew they found themselves taking Suzanne a certain fear, to an extent,” Rubenstein I wanted to go to Penn … I had a good Diamond’s marketing class at the same says. “In the same way he might be pass- experience there doing something that I time. “Steve was working with anoth- ing up a hip-hop career, maybe he was loved, which was writing.” And obtaining er producer, but they split, and Spring passing up an amazing opportunity to a Wharton education, he believed, would Fling was coming up and Hoodie Allen work at a place like Google.” be “something practical … to prepare for was supposed to perform,” Ferguson told Shortly after Hoodie left Google, the future.” His application was deferred, me. “He said it would be cool if he had Ferguson quit his marketing job to join “but I bugged them, I really bugged them, new material. We said, OK, we should him. Through performing and selling and they let me in.” start working on tracks and ideas. It all Hoodie Allen merchandise, they earn During freshman year he largely put kind of grew from there.” Their Spring more now than in their corporate days. music aside to focus on schoolwork, Fling debut, a 45-minute performance Soon, income from iTunes will start making friends and playing on Penn’s in the Lower Quad, was well received, rolling in. And there is the potential for sprint football team. By sophomore and they decided to continue the col- even more: if Hoodie’s new music sells year, he felt himself being pulled back. laboration. By now they had both lined well, record companies likely will be “I think it just was something that up work after graduation, Hoodie—with more eager to sign him, offering more found me again,” he says. “I had played his degree in marketing and finance—at favorable terms than in the past. For safety on my high-school football team Google, Ferguson at Blue Flame, a digital his part, Hoodie says he would be open … but I came to the realization that I marketing company in New York. With to the right deal. was not good enough at it to be spend- their post-graduation futures secured, Ferguson admits it’s a career path he ing my time doing it at Penn like I was. they found the freedom to concentrate on never envisioned at Penn. “It’s pretty So music ended up winning, taking my their music. “I knew that I had this thing surreal to see people do a cover of a time up, at the end of the day.” that was bubbling up, that I’d finally be song you made, influencing culture His friends say Hoodie’s music and able to kind of explore,” Hoodie says. in a way I never imagined I would be writing talents became clear. One Penn Two mix tapes under the name Hoodie able to. And doing the shows, seeing roommate, Lee Rubenstein W’10, says Allen already had been released online; that the shows paid pretty well—both Hoodie showed an “amazing” ability to one of them earned an MTVU Best Music of those things came together to over- freestyle—an improvised form of rapping. on Campus award in 2009. And Hoodie’s power what I had set out to do, which “We would be hanging out in our house, work cultivating bloggers was beginning was get a job in marketing.” there would be girls over, and he would to pay off. “They started supporting me But Hoodie says a music career is some- go from one girl to another, singing raps and started supporting what I was doing. thing he secretly dreamed about. He says about each one, saying something funny That did add, for one, legitimacy, and has no regrets choosing the life of Hoodie about each one,” he says. “It takes a lot then two, a fan base.” But his collabora- Allen over Steven Markowitz. of confidence to just rap off the top of tion with Ferguson took everything to “This is what I wanted to happen, but your head like that.” A turning point a new level. In June 2010, they released it is strange seeing those dreams—it gets came when Hoodie posted his music on “You are Not a Robot.” The song was lis- different when those dreams come close Facebook, and his friends began sharing tened to 60,000 times the first night, and to coming true, because it is put-up or it online. “The word just got out,” Hoodie soared to No. 1 on The Hype Machine, an shut-up time. But you know, my philoso- says. It did not hurt that, in an early bit online aggregator of new music posted phy on everything has really changed, of marketing savvy, he came up with the on blogs around the world. “There was an because I very much see things now as, name Hoodie Allen, as a word play on instant reaction in a way that had never ‘You should seize the moment, and you the famous film director. “I just thought occurred before,” Hoodie says. really should go after what you want it was a catchy name that applied to Seeing that reaction, Ferguson began in life,’ which might not have been my me, that applied to my background as a to doubt the strategy of giving away their outlook going into college.”◆ Jewish kid from New York who was doing music. “I was like, ‘Let’s try to make this something unconventional. I thought it money now.’ I didn’t see it going further. Joel Siegel is a writer and producer for the ABC stuck in people’s minds, and it has.” I didn’t see this going another year. I felt News program World News with Diane Sawyer.

64 MARCH | APRIL 2012 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE