In this post, I will be analyzing a front cover of a professional magazine. This magazine is with my chosen genre Rap.

In August 1997, Harris Publications released the first issue of XXL. It featured rappers Jay-Z and Master P on a double cover. In December 2006, XXL took over the struggling hip-hop producer and DJ magazine Scratch (another publication owned by Harris Publications), re-branding it as XXL Presents Scratch Magazine.

What we see first on the front page is the big bold red ‘A$AP ROCKY’ text which stands out very nicely while using a sans serif font. This helps us to identify who is the cover start almost instantly.

Next, we see the logo in the top left-hand corner, again this is nice and bold with a box around the outside. The producer has used again a sans serif font as this fits more with the rap genre.

The use of boxes outlining the text really catches the eye and makes us want to read more as it sets a nice modern feel to the rap magazine which is following the rap culture.

The target audience is people aged from 16-32, as this is an age group with the majority listening to rap or hip-hop. This age group has proven with the amount of social media posts.

Some message that is given from this genre of music is not very good for some of the younger views with a lot of smoking, drinking and drug use which is also referenced in most of the songs. Some messages are good, showing good signs of a good role model. Things like the support at Glastonbury for banning plastic bottles from the festival encouraging the use of cans that could be recycled which all the artists and groups at the festival supported to help climate change.