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DAILY HIP HOP FACTS

VIBE magazine was the brainchild of legendary music producer Quincy Jones. VIBE launched in 1992 with a striking image of Treach of Naughty By Nature. The magazine was all set to go to press when at the last minute they had to change the name from Volume because of a trademark issue. Scott Poulson-Bryant came up with the new name and Gary Koepke freaked the redesign over a weekend. The magazine was in publication for 19 years or so until going all digital.

NOV 1

VIBE

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Rap Pages Magazine was launched in 1989 and covered the rapidly expanding West Coast rap scene. Owned by Larry Flynt Publications, 3rd Bass was on the cover for the second issue, and that issue sold off the newsstands breaking records for West Coast publication sales.

Rap Pages

NOV 2

From its humble beginning in 1988 as a printed, text-only newsletter founded by Harvard students and hosts of Beat Street a hip-hop radio show on WHRB, Harvard's radio station, David Mays and John Shecter, The Source quickly grew to be an influential Hip Hop powerhouse. Known for its legendary cover photos, “The Bible of Hip Hop” was the definitive word on rap and Hip Hop culture. The Source also served as a launching pad for a new generation of writers, photographers, and artists. Popular features of The Source included the Record Report, with only 45 albums ever being awarded the coveted 5-mid rating, and Unsigned Hype, a column that gave critical early nods to The Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, DMX, Canibus, Common, Mobb Deep (appearing as Poetical Prophets). For an artist to be featured both on the cover and in André LeRoy Davis's The Last Word caricatures meant that they had hit superstardom.

The Source

NOV 3

The Bomb evolved from the newsletter of a college rap radio show to a full-fledged magazine covering all the elements of hip-hop culture. The first issue featured Cypress Hill. The artistic approach favored graf-style illustrations over photography. And the roster of writers—reflected a decidedly left-coast sensibility. The first cover was drawn by 8th Wonder, who did a lot of art for DJ Shadow and Blackalicious.

The Bomb

NOV 4

Chris Hunt and Andy Cowan brought rap news to Britain with Hip-Hop Connection magazine. The duo featured some of the most popular acts of the time and added a unique overseas perspective to hip-hop discourse. Hip Hop Connection, which ran from 1988 to 2009, gave MCs in the UK a platform to discover their voice. It was the longest-running monthly periodical devoted entirely to hip hop culture, earning universal recognition and going toe to toe with larger US publications like The Source, Vibe and XXL.

Hip-Hop Connection

NOV 5

XXL was first conceived by Don Morris, but born out of frustration with The Source, where the editorial staff walked out over Dave Mays and his associate. Benzino tampering with the publication's editorial integrity to promote Benzino's rap group. XXL released its first issue, a double cover featuring Jay Z and Master P, in 1997. The double cover came out of necessity because XXL was planning on putting Jay Z and Master P on one cover, but neither were willing to shoot together. XXL is one of the most popular hip hop publications in the country thanks in part to their annual "Freshman" issue, which has helped to spark the careers of artists like Lil Boosie,Joey Bada$$, Kendrick Lamar and Chief Keef.

XXL

NOV 6

Blaze Magazine was VIBE's response to the challenge posed by XXL, whose hard-driving hip-hop editorial and stepped-up graphics had VIBE feeling the pressure. The premiere issue of Blaze was a huge deal and one of the largest magazine launches of its time. With two different images of Method Man a.k.a. Johnny Blaze on their first cover, Blaze set the bar high.

Blaze Magazine

NOV 7

Launching back in 1995, Stress started things off properly with Raekwon on the first cover. The name of their flagship issue was “Getting Lifted With Raekwon The Chef” and also included features from DJ Red Alert, DJ Enuff, and Stretch. Founded by Alain “Ket” Mariduena, Stress magazine was purely New York hip hop.

Stress

NOV 8

Murder Dog was founded by Black Dog Bone, a Sri Lankan photographer who moved to California's Bay Area with a burning desire to shoot rappers. Young D-Boyz were the very first Murder Dog cover. They were real and raw. Murder Dog's philosophy was to take risks and always do covers with unknown artists.

Murder Dog

NOV 17

Drake broke The Beatles' 55 year Billboard Hot 100 record. The Canadian rapper now has more songs on the top five hits list than any other artist in Hot 100 history.

Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove - Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Ben Greenman

NOV 9

Originally a regional Orlando magazine, O-Zone covered local musical talent. From reggaeton to rap, photographer Julia Beverly decided to launch a publication that would capture the uniqueness of Orlando’s music scene, so she became editor-in-chief of O-Zone. The premiere cover features two popular Florida acts, rapper Red Dogg and DJ Prostyle. Operating from 2002 to 2010, the magazine was able to forecast and document the saturated Southern rap scene of the 2000s.

O-Zone

NOV 10

Launched in 1991, Beat-Down Newspaper holds the distinction as the premiere Hip Hop publication started in New York City by Queens natives Haji Akhi Gbade and Sacha Jenkins. The paper seriously covered Hip-Hop Culture, Rap Music, Graffiti and Graffiti subculture, art, film, fashion and Socio-Political issues affecting youth. Beat-Down Newspaper helped lay the foundation for gritty authentic Hip-Hop culture media, music, and art at the apex of the 1986-1994 Golden Era of Hip-Hop.

Beat-Down Newspaper

NOV 11

Sacha Jenkins, EiC of Ego Trip, and Nas were classmates back in the day, so he didn't have trouble booking him for the first cover of the upstart magazine he was founding with super-friends Elliott Wilson, Chairman Mao, Gabe Alvarez, and Brent Rollins (with staunch support from not-so-silent partner Ted Bawno). Though Ego Trip had a relatively short run in print, its unique take as "The arrogant voice of musical truth" evolved into a brand that has spawned books and TV shows.

Ego Trip

NOV 12

Back in the Days documents the emerging Hip Hop scene from 1980-1989-- Back in the days, gangs would battle not with guns, but by breakdancing. Back in the days, the streets--not corporate planning--set the standards for style. Back in the days, Jamel Shabazz was on the scene, photographing everyday people hangin' in Harlem, kickin' it in Queens, and cold chillin' in Brooklyn.

Back in the Days by Jamel Shabazz

NOV 13

The Fader grew out of Cornerstone, a hip-hop promotion company known for their mixtape series. Lee Harrison had the idea for a magazine about DJ culture and all the things that inform it and Cornerstone founders Rob Stone and Jon Cohen gave it the greenlight. Funkmaster Flex was locked in for the cover of the first The Fader magazine.

The Fader

NOV 14

Drake broke The Beatles' 55 year Billboard Hot 100 record. The Canadian rapper now has more songs on the top five hits list than any other artist in Hot 100 history.

Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius written by Rakim

NOV 15

Geared toward African-American and urban male audiences, King featured articles about hip-hop and R&B as well as sports and fashion. A spinoff from XXL, the magazine was started in 2002. It ceased publication on March 31, 2009. King magazine is mainly characterized by its lavish photoshoots, which usually feature scantily-clad women, often complete with an interview from the featured model.

King

NOV 16

Caught In The Middle emerged out of Chicago at a time when hip-hop media—if not hip-hop itself—was strictly a bicoastal thing. During the 90s, there was a feeling in Chicago of frustration because they weren't getting noticed by the West Coast or East Coast record labels. The cover is quietly dope, and the money-green hue made clear they were all about the paper. Although the publication proved to be short-lived, it made an important statement that would reverberate for years to come.

Caught In The Middle

NOV 18

Written by Daniel R. Day. The story of a legendary designer who pioneered high-end streetwear, from a storefront in Harlem to the red carpet in Hollywood, dressing everyone from Salt-N-Pepa and Eric B. & Rakim to Beyoncé and Jay-Z along the way. With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the early 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own flamboyant designs.

Dapper Dan-Made in Harlem

NOV 19

Hip-hop heads and record collectors Andre Torres and Brian DiGenti moved to New York and created a music magazine, one that would be for fellow fans. Wax Poetics was soon celebrated for its coverage of music icons—Prince, Marva Whitney, MF Doom, Erykah Badu, Bobbito, and many others. Issue one gave Wax Poetics immediate credibility: it included a profile of legendary producer David Axelrod, interviews with turntablists DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, a story on Madlib, and a track listing for Ultimate Breaks and Beats, a notoriously hush-hush compilation.

Wax Poetics

NOV 20

The stunning national bestseller written by Sister Souljah has sold more than one million copies worldwide and introduced readers everywhere to the real ghetto experience. Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, she knows and loves the streets like the curves of her own body. But when a cold winter wind blows her life in a direction she doesn't want to go, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test of a lifetime. Unwilling to lose, this ghetto girl will do anything to stay on top.

The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

NOV 21

Complex was the brainchild of graf writer, hip-hop head, clothing designer, and entrepreneur Marc Ecko. Today Complex is recognized as the curatorial platform for real American culture. The first cover shoot was Nas and Uncle Junior from The Sopranos. Founded in 2002 as a print magazine focused on streetwear and hip hop, Complex doubled down on its online presence in 2007, launching an entire network of online sites that covered everything from sneakers to music, and over the next decade it took on venture capital investment as it expanded into video, live events, and even its own retail products.

Complex

NOV 22

Scratch was a magazine about the art of creating hip-hop. It featured articles regarding producers, musicians and DJs that make beats for rap records, and details the secret methods, stories, partnerships, philosophies and equipment behind the music. The magazine's tagline was "The Blueprint of Hip-Hop". Scratch was owned by Harris Publications, the same company that publishes the popular hip-hop magazine XXL, as well as King, Rides and Slam. Scratch debuted in January 2004, and was published bi-monthly. Various hip-hop producers, DJs and rappers have graced their cover, including Dr. Dre, The Neptunes, RZA, Lil Jon, Kanye West, DJ Drama, Timbaland, Jermaine Dupri, Mannie Fresh, Just Blaze and Eminem.

Scratch

NOV 23

Respect Magazine launched in 2009, was the first publication to position hip-hop and its vibrant imagery as art for its own sake. Designed as a journal of hip-hop photography, the premiere issue featured archival pictures of 2Pac taken by Danny Clinch, and of Jay Z taken by Jonathan Mannion, the photographer responsible for the cover artwork for Reasonable Doubt. The whole purpose of the magazine was to be a piece of photojournalism. They were not trying to make a magazine in any traditional sense, and wanted to create something that was going to be classic and embody the name of Respect.

Respect Magazine

NOV 24

Meshack Blaq started The Kronick in his home office in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. Kronick creator Blaq explained that the title of his zine was a double entendre – it was a chronicle of the streets, and, like good chronic, he gives it to readers “raw, uncut, and fresh off the bush. The Kronick did well to cover both LA’s diverse rap scene and larger, national stories.

The Kronick

NOV 25

Seattle’s Alison Pember, launched The Flavor in 1992. The magazine’s explicit goal was to promote Seattle’s rap scene; local stars DJ B-Mello and KCMU radio host Mike Clark contributed to the magazine. The Flavor was the first magazine to put Nas on the cover. For The Flavor’s second anniversary in 1994, the magazine celebrated with a performance that included Nas, The Fugees, and Coolio. In 1996, Flavor ceased publication, its final cover featuring De La Soul.

The Flavor

NOV 26

Written by Gucci Mane. For the first time Gucci Mane tells his story in his own words. It is the captivating life of an artist who forged an unlikely path to stardom and personal rebirth. A New York Times Bestseller, Gucci Mane began writing his memoir in a maximum-security federal prison. Released in 2016, he emerged radically transformed. He was sober, smiling, focused, and positive—a far cry from the Gucci Mane of years past.

The Autobiography of Gucci Mane

NOV 27

London’s Fat Lace was a quarterly founded by DJ Yoda (Duncan Beiny) and Dan Greenpeace in February 1997. Known as “The Magazine for Ageing B-Boys,” Fat Lace was the English equivalent of Ego Trip, and shared the same irreverent tone. Initially friendly, Fat Lace and Ego Trip turned rivalrous and in a moment of divine rap fan cliché, tensions came to a head between members of the editorial staffs at a Big L tribute concert. When Fat Lace petered out in 2001, much of the staff moved on to Hip-Hop Connection, with Yoda and Greenpeace continuing to DJ and hover around the rap scene in London.

Fat Lace

NOV 28

Authors Jeff Chang, D.J. Kool Herc pen a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created. Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop's forebears, founders, and mavericks, including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can't Stop Won't Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation's rise from the ashes of the 60's into the new millennium.

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

NOV 29

Gerrie Summers was the founding editor of Word Up! Magazine, a monthly publication dedicated to Hip Hop and R&B's up-and-coming prodigies, performers, and producers. Founded in August of 1987, Word Up! stood out from other publications of its kind due to its emphasis on Hip Hop music and rap artists, including artists that had not yet made it into the mainstream. Word Up! is the sister publication to Right On! Magazine. Features in Word Up! Magazine proved indispensable in both launching and propelling the careers of innumerable Hip Hop and R&B legends - like The Notorious B.I.G who famously name-checked the magazine in his classic hit, "Juicy."

Word Up! Magazine

NOV 30