TikTok US Hip-Hop Content Opportunity Analysis™ 2019-2022

Content Opportunity Methodology

1. Measure & Categorize. Sample a large number of social posts to find ones that are significantly outperforming the average.

2. Identify Top Themes. Identify the themes that are resonating most with the audience by sorting the themes by their aggregated performance metrics.

3. Identify a Benchmark. Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.

4. Identify Opportunities. Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.

5. Repeat For Each Platform. Repeat the analysis for every platform that matters to your brand and audience to find platform-specific opportunities.

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TikTok Content Bucket Definitions

• Rap Battles: This format is popularized by the success of the show Wild ‘N Out that features a variety of rap battles between recurring show hosts and surprise hip-hop guests.
  
• Open Mic Session: Open Mic Sessions are a video format that creates a space for artists to perform either with a live band or in a studio set-up.
  
• Acoustic Rap: A series of artists performing their songs with Einer Bankz, a ukulele artist who walks alongside rappers as they perform outside.
  
• Fast Rap Challenge: A challenge circulating the internet where content creators are attempting to complete fast rapping verses from Eminem’s ‘Rap God’.
  
• Behind The Scenes: Sharing behind the scenes moments from video shoots from both content creators and hip-hop media outlets.
  
• Autotune vs. Talent: A format sharing compilations of artists performing with and without autotune.
  
• Rapping A Trend: Artists taking trending sounds and videos on TikTok and creating their own raps over the audios.
  
• Organic Freestyle: Hip-hop content creators rapping in organic moments such as behind the wheel or in public.
  
• Interview: This format features a variety of unique ways that rappers engage with interviewers to share more about themselves with the audience.
  
• Guess the...: TikTok videos that ask viewers to guess who rappers are by small parts of their hair, wardrobe or edited images.
  
• 10 Things: A series by GQ that invites artists to share 10 things they can’t live without.
  
• Duet: A form of digital collaboration where artists can duet videos together to share their verses over different productions through native TikTok features.
  
• Rap Styles: Content creators demonstrating several different rap styles within one video.
  
• Rap Quiz: Fan-forward creator format where content creators quiz each other on elements in rap through challenges like “how many artists/albums can you name that start with J in 30 seconds”.
  
• Over/Under: A format where artists are asked to decide if a topic is over or underrated for them on the spot and why.
  
• Word Prompt Freestyle: A series where artists conduct freestyles only with randomly generated words to showcase their true talent.

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Content buckets that had the highest average views & engagement in the USA hip-hop space include:

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Good performing content opportunities for the USA hip-hop audience on TikTok include:

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Substandard performing content opportunities for the USA hip-hop audience on TikTok include:

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Low performing content opportunities for the USA hip-hop audience on TikTok include:

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Content Opportunities:

1. Rap Battles

Rap Battles are hosted by Wild ‘N Out, a show which features various creative segments within hip-hop and comedy. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Pivotal Moments: As long form content is not as circulated on TikTok, creators tend to cut the most exciting moments of performances and create a caption overlay to share a captivating moment from the larger show.
• All in the Summary: TikTok videos of Rap Battles will are often un-optimized and feature borders on the top and bottom of the videos that are used to write captions that summarize the content for the viewer in a way that pulls them in to watch.

Content Opportunities: This category is missing an optimized format specifically for the platform. Similar to Instagram, find a way to build short, attention grabbing diss-moments from rap battles that rely on peak creativity and lyrical content to pull viewers in.

25M  Views

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23M Views

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2. Open Mic Session

Open Mic Sessions is a series by Genius that invites artists to perform their top hits in a studio accompanied by their original soundtrack. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Angles: Opposed to this Instagram category, the TikTok Open Mic Sessions feature more close ups of the artists as opposed to long shots. At times however, the camera will switch up the angle to show more of the artist, but tend to start close.
• Text & Visuals: To elevate sonic moments for the viewer, the editors will add effects to the colours or visuals to create a more immersive experience.

Content Opportunities: Similar to Instagram, consider creating a mini-series that can be repurposed for Reels, that leverage artists performing the chorus of their top songs in different scenarios.

39M  Views

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18M  Views

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3. Acoustic Rap

Acoustic Rap has been popularized on TikTok by creator Einer Bankz, who follows rappers along with his ukelele as they perform their top songs. 

Tactics to Implement:

• No Autotune: Einer Bankz likes to leverage the fact that these are organic and unique performances with no autotune by rappers using text on the screen. It puts him in a unique category to share truly exclusive content with followers.
• Unique Settings: Videos are often performed all around LA outside in different areas. 
• Intention: Einer Bankz directs viewers to watch full length videos on YouTube if they enjoy the short excerpt. 

‍Content Opportunities: Viewers tend to love this unique performance format that can be replicated through various ways of exploring other instruments (think classical instruments meet hip-hip), like this viral saxophone rendition of Future’s “Mask Off” (15M views). 

24M  Views

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23M Views

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4. Fast Rap Challenge

The Fast Rap Challenge was created based on an Eminem song “Rap God” where he raps at incredibly fast speed. Creators on TikTok have taken to trying to recreate his verse in this challenge.

Tactics to Implement:

• About the Spectacle: Currently this genre is more about the spectacle of being able to rap along with Eminem, some creators even 1.5x the speed of the video and rap along with him to prove a point. 
• Organic Filming: Rap challenges such as this perform well when the artist is filming themselves organically on their phone as a method to portray a moment in their day.

Content Opportunities: Think of challenges that can tap into pulling out the creativity and ability of rappers on the platform. This could be something similar to a fast rap challenge with different songs or asking an artist to try switching up one of their own popular songs on a different beat and with a different cadence.

18M  Views

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17M Views