Hip Hop Magazines Worth Reading
Hip hop magazines certainly have their hands full: they must focus on new artists, rising stars, new rap and R&B releases, video reviews, urban fashion reports and interviews with existing superstars. Here’s a list of the top three hip hop magazines, as well as my personal endorsement for which I feel is the best.
The Source. What originally started as a rap newsletter by two Harvard graduates turned DJs eventually became one of the largest and most respected magazines in the genre. It has, however, fallen on hard times due to unfavorable publicity regarding a feud between co-owner Benzino and Eminem, as well as concern over their biased rating of albums (including Benzino’s own record). True, this publicity could have helped keep The Source in the headlines, but this reflected a poor business practice which reduced their advertising revenue, eventually leading The Source to declare bankruptcy. While its future remains clouded, this is still a magazine hip hop fans should look into for themselves.
Scratch. The Source focuses most of its energy on hip hop as entertainment, whereas Scratch focuses on rap music as a business, and provides numerous articles for those interested in making a living from it. Scratch is mostly made up of former Source employees who became dissillusioned with their former employer. While rappers can certainly learn a lot about the nuts and bolts of the industry, Scratch’s target audience consists of DJs and music producers. Purchased by XXL in Nov 2007- a powerhouse in the industry- Scratch certainly seems poised to grab a larger part of the market in years to come. Read the rest of this entry »
Rolling Stones Magazine
Posted by admin in Rolling Stones on December 26, 2011
The Rolling Stones Magazine is a bi-weekly publication that was founded in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the publisher and editor, along with Ralph Gleason, who is a music critic. Founded in San Francisco during a time when it was popular to combine politics and music, it has evolved from reporting on the hippie-era interests to a mixture of in-depth political coverage, music icons, television actors and pop culture stories, with a circulation of 1.4 million people. In the very first edition, it was written that “Rolling Stone is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces.”
Perhaps many people started reading Rolling Stones Magazine because they liked the famous person on a certain cover. In fact, many people can remember who was on the cover of the first Rolling Stones Magazine they bought and many people collect them for that same reason. Some of the famous artists that have graced the covers include The Beatles, John Lennon, Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Paul McCartney, Donovan and Otis Redding and Jack Goldman. Some of them have appeared more than once for a variety of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »