Blueprint Vol Zero: The Original Rap Blogger

I have a confession to make. I know this blog has been retired for three years, but I have to toe-dip in this pool for just a sec to let all of you know what's real.

When the 1,193 of you subscribed to Hip Hop Blogs years ago, you thought the purpose of this site was to share cool links and advance interesting discussions about this hip-hop culture of ours. Not so. 

This site was designed from the start to serve only The 17. Let me explain.

The Real Story 

I started blogging about rap music back in 2003. This is before Facebook was invented. This is before web video was easy with YouTube, and way before Twitter. 

According to my Googling at that time, no one in the universe was blogging about hip-hop. So, I jumped in and did it first. Later I found that two guys beat me to the self-publishing punch by less than a season. However, one guy is M.I.A. and the other is too modest to contradict my Original Rap Blogger status. So, for now, he is I and I am him.

I started on Blogger and moved to Typepad. I spilled all of my reckless, uninformed thoughts out through the digital ether, and my little audience clicked with me and grew beyond what I could have imagined.

However, I wasn't attention greedy. Every time a new hip-hop blogger sprouted wings, I was there to give him encouragement to be fly. I pushed people to turn on RSS feeds back no one knew what it was used for. I pulled people into the community conversation, knowing that our cross-links would rise all of our boats in the web content waters.

I created an email group that was only built for rap blogger links and shared every new web publishing trick I learned. I helped as much as I could with whoever I could. I wasn't the most popular, the Michael Jackson of the game. Or the Will Smith of the circle. I was the Quincy Jones.

Despite years of evangelizing I saw that the funniest, most insightful, most inspiring voices in the music culture I loved were still not blogging. For them the tech and time it took to build a blog was too much. Bootleg forums were their only outlet (remember again, this was before the social media glut that's out there now. You kids have it so good).

This is where the need for the group site, Hip Hop Blogs came from. I wanted to create a platform and invite all the smart people I could find to speak their truth here. Sorry, 1,193 subscribers. I was using you as a springboard for them.

And jump they did.

There are 17 guest bloggers here.

Eskay started here, blogging about mixtapes. He created his own blog called Nahright and he is kind of a big deal.

Michael Miraflor started here. He spun out and created his own blog and email list about hip-hop advertising. For years he's been sharing his knowledge and using his connections to help small timers become big timers.

But the gang of 17 were all volunteers. When SOHH allowed me to try out the Hip Hop Blogs concept on their bigger site, I was able to cut checks for Ron Mexico, Fresh of Crunk and Disorderly, Angela of Concrete Loop, Eskay, and others. It was the first time any of these talented people were flipped coin for their words. Each of them moved on and became certified entrepreneurs, confident that there was value to their work. They're the real Young Money.

My Magic Career

A funny thing happened while I was out helping others. My own career in the entertainment industry took off. 

It began with my appearance as a pundit on cable TV and New York radio. It steamrolled with offers for consulting, a book deal, and inquiries from major brands wanting to advertise with me. I was invited to exclusive events, met cool people, and promosexuals sent me a ton of swag to wear, listen to, and read.

Before Hip Hop Blogs I had no intentions of working for the media companies I grew up admiring, like BET, Vibe, and Def Jam. Just the opposite. As a passionate fan, I blogged about those companies with intense love and intense criticism.

My friends who were already in the game warned me that swag exhibitions like my public feud with XXL Magazine's EIC would sink my career before it started. Instead, the same dude who dissed me in his magazine's editorial section three months in a row offered me a job the next year. 

I broke the entertainment industry rules every which way, yet it has paid off. I've never worked the coffee pot as an intern. I never finished college. I've never used a business card. I don't "network". And I don't go to industry parties. What gives?

The Scientifical Explanation

Whenever a co-worker hears about my unconventional career path I'm always asked the same question - "How can I use social media to help with my own career?"

They want to know how to jump over gatekeepers and get the attention of decision makers. They want to know how to connect with interesting people and collaborate on projects. They want to know how to sharpen and communicate their "personal brand" (not my favorite word in the world, but it's the one I hear used in my circle.)

I used to shrug off the question and mumble something about being lucky, but recently I've been more thoughtful. How can I reverse engineer what has helped me? What advice would I give my old self with the knowledge and experience I have today?

I've learned there's a science to what has happened with me. Here's the formula - generosity triggers reciprocation. Humans are hardwired to give back to people who give first.

The industry began to know me, like me, and trust me because of how much I gave to others. How else do you explain me being hired as an editor for four media companies (and counting) when I have a blog full of typos? :)

So What?

But who the heck cares about my success, other than Ms. Warren and Mrs. Warren? That's not what I have you here for.

I'm starting a new blog that will help you. That is, it will help if you are asking the question, "How can I use social media to help with my own career?". And that's only if you work in the film, music, or television industry, like me (everyone else is on their own. The stuff I suggest might get you fired if you're not working in a creative field).

Here's how I'm kicking off the new blog. I'm re-retiring Hip Hop Blogs this week. Before I do, I'll post the stories of all the gigs I snagged in the industry, and trace how my web presence made the difference. 

At the end of all that, if the stories inspire you to take control and do your career your own way, I'll give you the link to my new blog. Since I have a sharing disease, I plan to obsessively help everyone I can do everything they want using social media. In that way the new blog will be like the old one, just with a different topic.

If you don't like this at all, avert your browser's eyes and go back to downloading Wale freestyles on You Heard That New, and Twitter-hating on Justin Bieber for no good reason (let that kid be great). If you do like, stick around. This will be fun.

 

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Update:

 

Sign up read the new blog, Career Green Light that just launched!

Comments

[spitler]

not to reign on your parade, but i do believe rebirthmag.com was the first real hip hop 'blog', ryan waxenberg, aka waxdaddy went onto found formulawerks and other companies. so its nice and all to credit yourself as a pioneer but the truth of the matter is, ryan and others were doing it a good 2-3 years prior to you. respect the architects..

[Hashim]

Spitler,
I can hum along to every track of Smoothe the Hustler's first album. From memory. Including skits.

Face it. I'm the Original, my dude.

[Nathan Driver]

Can't wait to see how everything is traced to here man. Congrats on all your early success and wish many blessings upon you.

[Waterblocknyc]

wow its been that long?
I remember being one of those lowly subscribers..
I look forward to your new blog and hopefully will learn a few things.. Good to see ya back.

[Waterblocknyc]

also lettin u know theres an address on 8th ave that comes up when I subscribed. Theres an apt # too. Don't know if you meant to post that :\

[Hashim]

Thanks, WaterblockNYC. I changed the address to the correct one.

[Cameron King]

Congrats on all your success man. This was an interesting read, very inspirational. I just subscribed to the newsletter. Good luck w/ your future endeavors.

[spitler]

great album hashim. don't make you original but still, look into it and you'll see i'm right. hell, if you all linked up, look up ryan waxenberg and aks him.

[Hashim]

All jokes aside, Spitler as soon as I read what you wrote I looked up Ryan to see how we could connect. I love talking to any of the triple OG's out there

[Span Cole]

My children were listening to a song on a online radio cast from a group called "RTBYM". I thought it was some of the most conscious rap that I've heard in a long time. They even have a ringtone for iPhones @ the iPhone store. I hope that maybe this group will get a review on your page soon. Just something I thought after listening would be uplifting for our community and our youth if only it gets more play.

Thanks.

[spitler]

real talk hash, people been doing this kinda ish pre-blogs and what not, you want a real interesting view on who really started this whole championing obscure hip-hop movement, talk to some of them mp3 ripping groups. they been doing the equivalent of what blogs are doing now for damn near 15 years. they're the ones who deserve the real credit. i can think of a lot of records added to my collection cause of stuff i downloaded that they ripped.

[Jay Smooth]

Rebirthmag was not a blog. Maybe it became one later but at that time it was (as the name suggests) a magazine style site, and far from the first site to represent hip-hop in that manner.

When it comes to being a hip-hop blogger, this post is correct: Jon from Hip-Hop Anonymous, myself and Hashim were the first. (you could make a case for lynne d johnson and maybe one or two others)

[spitler]

Rebirthmag focused on overlooked/indepedent hip hop artists and promoted them. How is that any different than 99% of blogs that exist nowadays? They had editorials and what not as well as one would find on any type of blog, and yes, it had mag in it's name, but I'm sure Ryan will confirm this; it was done to legitimize a medium that had no respect in mainstream media. Calling it a mag(azine) just made it easier for doors to open, but it was essentially just a blog, albeit pre-blogs. Its nice that you're taking credit for legitimizing hip hop blogs but thats simply not true. Give props to Ryan and the rest of the Rebirth crew for giving birth to the rest of y'all. I'd like you to name a similar site that existed before it?

I can't think of any and I've been fairly net and tech savvy for a good 12-15 years, so please jay smooth, enlighten me.. or are we just conveniently re-writing history to heap accolades on ourselves?

[Liz]

I'm pretty sure Hashim is correct. Sure, there have been people writing about hip hop online before blogs existed in the format they do now (forums, message boards, online email lists)....but in terms of an independent blogger writing about hiphop on a blog? That's definitely located right here. No offense spitler but you're def off the mark here.

[Lynne d Johnson]

Thanks for mentioning me Jay. Back in the early days of my blog (2001) was when I started. I blogged a lot more about music, and specifically hip-hop music, lifestyle, and culture. I was writing early reviews and giving out samples of stuff way before it even came out. I even held the title of hip-hop feminist blogger for a while until there were others.

But the way I remember it, is as Hashim said it was.

Sure, I was even someone who was writing online about hip-hop pre 2001, but not for a blog. It was for an online mag, a print mag that had an online component, or an online community. If we want to go that route, there are loads of names I can throw out.

Not sure if you guys even know what NetNoir was, but Greg Tate was a music editor for it at a point, and people like dream hampton wrote for it, but again not a blog, and that's the way I feel about Rebirthmag.

[spitler]

if it looks like a blog, reads like a blog and has the exact same content as a 'blog' but existed prior to the word blog, does that not make it a blog?
from wikipedia: A blog (a contraction of the term "web log")[1] is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

So rebirthmag, which only existed on the net, and was not the online portion of a regular print mag, and had the exact same content as what we now call 'blogs' is not a blog, why?

Perhaps I am mistaken in crediting rebirthmag as being the first hip-hop blog, but it's the first one i remember (and yes, i would call it a blog) and pre-dates anything anyone has mentioned here, with the exception of a vague references to sites like netnoir, which is not a music site so therefore cannot be considered a hip hop blog.

Rebirthmag focused on hip hop and hip hop only. It put shine on artists that nobody was paying attention to at the time (isn't that the cornerstone of blogs now??), as well as commentary on the hip hop scene and reviews/promotions of concerts and new singles/albums/etc.. again, how is that different then a 'blog'?

Anywho, even if i am wrong about rebirthmag being the first 'blog', it still proves my point that hip hop blogs existed long before hashim, jay or liz were 'blogging' and that Hashim is not the innovator he claims to be on this site. Everything you've listed to credit yourself as the first hip hop blogger existed well before you ever threw your hat in the ring, and rebirthmag was the first site that sprung to mind. the only thing you've done that they didn't do was email people tips on how to blog (again, more than likely because it existed for the most part pre-blogs).. so again, please explain to me the innovation here?
and Lynne, i'd appreciate if you said what sites it were you were writing for pre-2001, because as outrageous as my claims may seem to some, I've backed it up with names/sites that can be checked and verified. Not vague statements concerning anonymous online mag's. oh, and since you too have written for an online mag.. can you explain to me exactly what the difference is? XXL's only original content (i haven't checked that site in years so forgive my ignance) were the blogs by bol, noz, etc, etc (oh and eyecandy).. so is XXL a blog or a magazine? Where do you draw the line? Seems to me that people are conveniently drawing lines here and there to make themselves appear as pioneers when they so clearly were not. I may be wrong about rebirth, but I am definitely not wrong about you guys being the 'first' bloggers... unless you have some vastly different definition of what a blogger is..