Music Supervising for Snoop Dogg’s Reincarnated: Meet VICE Media’s Ricki Askin

When you’re with a media company capable of pumping out 60 minutes of new video per day, there’s a need for your music supervision services.

Ricki Askin is stylin’ as a Music Supervisor for VICE Media.

That’s the happy situation that Ricki Askin, Music Supervisor for Brooklyn-based VICE Media finds herself in. A constantly expanding multi-media youth culture brand, VICE has long had a talent for making content that’s magically delicious.

Whether you’re watching it, reading it, wearing it, or otherwise experiencing it, VICE has developed a very enticing knack, and their reach is worldwide – these were the crafty content creators behind Dennis Rodman’s surreal trip to North Korea last week.

Formerly a music supervisor with MTV, Askin’s current post keeps her knee-deep in music discovery and licensing, which is just the way she likes it. Her responsibilities at VICE include clearing all the music in the company’s multiple online franchises including “The Creator’s Project,” “VICE Guide to Travel” and “VICE News.”

Also under Askin’s auspices are music synch scenarios that go beyond visual media. She pitches and places talent for various performance, programming and event opportunities including coverage on VICE’s live music discovery site, Noisey.com, plus brand partnership opportunities in conjunction to VICE’s VIRTUE, which is a full service agency that pairs brands with VICE’s production expertise and style, among other endeavors.

Now her latest project is about to get plenty of ears and eyes on it: VICE Film’s Reincarnated, centered around hip hop hero Snoop Dogg himself.  With the theatrical run of Reincarnated about to kick in (on March 15th), it felt like a fine time to check the head of this busy music supervisor – our Q&A commences.

What attracted you to being a music supervisor for VICE – what makes this a unique gig in the world of music supervision?

VICE has a strong, raw voice in the world of pop culture and news, and I love that while it’s rapidly expanding and creating some major programming, it still has a startup feel.

I really have the best of both worlds here: It is a staff, stable position but the projects I work on are so diverse and constantly changing in subject matter and nature.

In addition to doing music supervision for visual media, you also pair music to brands for VICE Virtue. How is that the same as traditional music supervision, and how is it different?

Once you start to get involved with a brand, you have to step into the mind of the brand’s messaging and position the music placements to align with what the brand is trying to represent.

Any kind of music supervision requires this, but often this area has more limitations on how far you can push the creative boundaries.

Licensing for “Reincarnated” was a revelation.

Let’s talk about Reincarnated, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September and is slated for a limited theatrical run starting March 15. What’s the scope of this film musically?

Reincarnated is a music documentary, so it is very heavy in both old school Snoop Dogg hits and his upcoming album [also entitled Reincarnated and slated for released in April 2013] as the film follows his journey to Jamaica where he explored the roots of reggae and collaborated with Major Lazer to produce his latest album.

It has been a music lover’s dream to be involved in this project, which documents a new avenue for Snoop and is an up-close-and-personal look at the methods behind his madness.

When you’re working on a film like this, what do you get the opportunity to learn from a music knowledge perspective, and/or from a licensing perspective?

This was my first major film and it was such a great learning experience to see the expanded variables that effect licensing fees on a larger scale. The film is a great marketing tool for Snoop’s upcoming album, also called Reincarnated, and a great look at the creative process behind his music making.

We’re stoked to see it ourselves! Pulling back to the 10,000 ft. view, what are the biggest ways in which your job as a music supervisor is changing?

The ways in which music is shared and discovered is constantly evolving. There is unlimited space for musicians to get their music out there and for quality to rise to the top – be it YouTube views or sites like SoundCloud or Bandcamp.

When I started, everyone sent out physical CDs, now I don’t receive any and listen to everything online or via Spotify. While it makes sifting through the weaker artists more time-consuming, it gives more opportunities for non-label artists to be heard.

So what are some of the primary ways that you discover music today?

Plenty of new music is getting synched via VICE.

I am on a lot of label distribution lists and often get to hear new music that way. I also have an array of music lovers in my life that keep me up to speed on breaking artists, as well as my own blog perusing.

Here’s our last probing question: What are some songs or artist that you’re just dying to place in a VICE project and get some exposure for?

Being a music fanatic, I fall in love with far more music than I’m ever able to place. I often make mental notes of music I come across that would be great in film/TV/online and try and go back to it when opportunities present themselves.

Some artists I’ve been really into lately that I would love the opportunity to place – not necessarily in VICE programming, but somewhere! – Blondfire, Imaginary Friend and Outasight.

– David Weiss is the Founder/Editor of SonicScoop, and co-author of the book Music Supervision: Selecting Music for Movies, TV, Games & New Media.

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