Although Tyga released his debut album “No Introduction” in June, his manager Anthony Martini recently went on record stating Tyga’s bigger and better plans for the future. These plans include shunning major record label support and instead shopping a partnership between Tyga and a major consumer brands company.

“With Tyga, we have all the control,” Mr. Martini told brand trade magazine Ad Age. “We don’t have to go through the record label system.”

To Tyga and Martini, the future of hip-hop is not with Def Jam or Sony Records, it is with the likes of major brands such as Coca-Cola, RIM Blackberry or Ford Motor Company. Before the online age, it was every aspiring hip-hop artist’s dream to sign the record label deal, get the advance money, make a lavish music video and see your album sell millions of copies at Tower Records and The Wherehouse.

Those days are long gone. Tower and The Wherehouse have gone bankrupt, labels have cut back from funding million dollar videos and they have made contracts even more stringent reducing royalties on everything from tour money to merchandise. With the emergence of online distribution, the record label is becoming less and less attractive and artists and are turning elsewhere to find the funding necessary to launch and promote an album.

It’s no secret that the music industry and especially hip-hop has turned to the millions of promotional and media dollars that consumer brand companies possess in order to help underwrite album promotional costs. Recent deals where brands are footing promotional costs include:

TAG Bodyspray – The much publicized partnership with Jermaine Dupri and Def Jam to create an entire new record label called TAG Records. Under the deal, TAG will pony up the promotional and media dollars necessary to launch the new artists from the emerging label

Fila - Nas signs his first major promotional deal with a brand company in order to fund his multi-million dollar ad and tour campaign for his latest album. In exchange, Nas lends his likeness to promote the Fila brand in print and outdoor ads

Drinks America – Dr. Dre teams up with Drinks America to launch Aftermath Cognac which was planned to be timed with the release of his long-anticipated album “Detox”

Sears – In a fully integrated marketing campaign, LL Cool J will be releasing his LL Cool J branded fashion line at Sears in conjunction with the release of his new album. Sears will pony up the money for promotional dollars that will be split between promoting the clothing line and the new album.

Verizon – Hollywood hipster rapper Shwayze signs a deal with Verizon Wireless which has Verizon as the exclusive online distributor for his next single “Corona & Lime” and will pay for all other promotional costs in order to push the single

So does the future of hip-hop rest in the hands of Corporate America? Just as long as we don’t see a Charmin Toilet Paper Records or “Crest Toothpaste Presents Eminem” album…then perhaps this is not such a bad thing. After all, hip-hop has always been a tale of survival and in these trying times for the music industry it is definitely survival of the fittest. And what about Tyga? Considering his recent single “AIM” perhaps a deal with American Online is in his future.