WASHINGTON — From a generic suburban office building, Tony Rome is creating a niche in an artless side of hip-hop that some people would rather not discuss.

Rome hooks up rap stars, R&B singers and urban comedians with major corporations that want to reach their fans. The ideal relationship, says Rome, would have an artist write a brand name into a song, feature the brand in a music video, and partner with the brand in other promotions, getting paid by the brand's owner along the way.

Rome, 37, held a recent meeting at his six-person marketing firm, with the Seagram's Gin Live tour among items on the agenda. Rome arranged a meeting between the liquor brand and hip-hop artist Lil' Mo, and now the deal is done, he said. Seagram's will pay for the concert, the singer will headline the tour, and the promotional posters will prominently feature the gin.

"No other media outlet gives away anything for free," Rome says. "We are trying to bridge that gap" between hip-hop artists and corporate America.

With that philosophy as a guide, he has built Maven Strategies into a player in urban branding and product placement in hip-hop music and videos, advertising industry watchers say.

"In the past, (product placements) were negotiated in a somewhat informal way. What Maven Strategies has done is to really codify the relationship and create a structure for how much people get paid," says Lucian James, president of Agenda Inc., a San Francisco-based brand research firm. "That's one of the holy grails for product placement: to really work out what it is worth."

Rome began showing celebrities the money when he founded his company as an independent sports agency nine years ago, representing NFL players Kevin Hardy and Brian Mitchell. But as America's idols changed, so did Maven. As Michael Jordan grew older, kids no longer wanted "to be like Mike" but like Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z.

Soon Rome was no longer inking deals for football players. A deal in 2000 promoting the national Kings of Comedy tour, headlined by black funnymen Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac, led to a focus on urban entertainment and eventually hip-hop music. Rome got the HBO cable network and other sponsors to back the tour with $1 million.

"What we are really about is helping our clients connect with their customers in unique, creative ways," Rome says. He also works on product placements in urban films and finding corporate sponsorships for events targeted at blacks, such as a program to stop childhood obesity.

Maven's prices vary depending on the branding a company is after, but Rome made news last spring when Advertising Age splashed a story across its Web site about a deal Maven stuck with McDonald's. According to the story, McDonald's confirmed that if rappers would include "Big Mac" in their lyrics, the fast-food giant would pay them $1 to $5 each time their song was played on the radio. Rome won't discuss the deal in further detail.

Most brands that hire Maven would rather not draw attention to the money exchanging hands between companies and the rappers, and Rome guards his client list closely.

Corporations want consumers to assume that rappers name-dropping hamburgers, cell phones or cars wrote the brands into their lyrics because they love them, not because they were paid, says William Chipps, senior editor with IEG Sponsorship Report.

"It has to be organic," Chipps says. "It can't be blatant."

"Organic" is subjective. Robert "T-Mo" Barnett, a member of the Atlanta rap group Goodie Mob, is working with Maven on a deal to promote a brand, which Rome declined to identify. Barnett wrote the product name into the single he plans to release this year. How much the company pays him for mentioning the brand depends on the radio popularity of the single.

Barnett was in the studio recently to record the song, "What's Happening." "I heard a good beat, and I just flowed with it," he says.

"I am helping them brand their company, and at the same time they are helping me," he says. "I got a brand new baby boy, and I'm trying to feed him right now. I want to be smart about every move I make so I can maximize my earnings."

Larry Khan, senior vice president of R&B promotion and marketing for Jive Records, says this process for making music is "pretty much accepted."

"I guess in days gone by it would have looked like the artist was selling out, but now it has become a part of American culture. It doesn't hurt your street cred," he says.

1986: "Adidas" by Run-DMC helps spark the popularity of the athletic-shoe brand among rap music fans. In 2005, Adidas celebrates its 35th anniversary by releasing a pair of sneakers dedicated to Run-DMC.

1999: Rapper Jay-Z invests in RocaWear, an urban fashion line, and promotes it during his "Hard Knock Life" concert tour. Other rappers, including Nelly, Master P and 50 Cent, go on to promote their own clothing lines, often in their song lyrics.

2002: "Pass the Courvoisier," by Busta Rhymes featuring P. Diddy, not only promotes the French cognac but uses it in its title. The song reportedly helps send Courvoisier's sales soaring.

2002: Jay-Z (pictured) invests in Scotland-based Armadale Vodka and begins promoting and rapping about the liquor brand. He also incorporates Armadale into some of his lyrics on songs such as "All I Need" off of his double-platinum album, "The Blueprint," to introduce Armadale to the hip-hop audience.

2003: Petey Pablo's "Freek-a-Leek," which includes a fully disclosed product-placement for Seagram's Gin, is released and later tops the chart. At the end of the song, it says: "Now I got to give a shout out to Seagram's Gin/Cause I drink it and they payin' me for it."

2004: Advertising Age reports Maven Strategies struck a deal with McDonald's to find rappers who would include "Big Mac" in song lyrics. The fast-food giant agreed to pay the rappers $1 to $5 each time their song was played on the radio, according to the industry trade publication.