When I received an email this week from XXL’s Editor-In-Chief Elliott Wilson, I recognized it as a form letter being used to generate media attention for the upcoming release of XXL Raps, Volume 1. I assumed other websites were receiving a similar email and found it interesting that XXL was reaching out to at least one blogger given Wilson’s extremely derogatory comments regarding bloggers.
However, I was particularly surprised to find out that XXL reached out to Hashim Warren, one of the magazine’s most intense critics from within the blogging community. For the backstory on that relationship, see the following ProHipHop posts:
XXL Editor “Goin’ Nuts”?
Magazine Job Shifts and a Tiny XXL/Blogger Controversy
Actually, it’s quite possible that Wilson handed off the assignment to an assistant who then wrote the email and distributed it to whoever he or she identified as being highly visible hip hop bloggers, possibly using tools like Technorati, as Sean Coon suggested.*
In his Media Chin-Check response, Hashim takes the email that bloggers received and provides an alternate take by doing some creative line editing in an effort to be “helpful”. It’s actually pretty damn funny and well worth a read as are the wide ranging comments that have been accumulating.
Connect the Dots blogger Sean Coon (I’m wondering if that’s a pseudonym) commented at Media Chin-Check and also posted a response to XXL’s blogger outreach entitled XXL: Keep Your Viral Marketing Efforts To Yourself*. It’s strong stuff and indicative of the fact that once you f*ck with bloggers, they don’t roll over and play nice like the mainstream press tends to do. Business is always personal around these parts.
But I was happy to be given the opportunity to send Elliott Wilson a handful of questions on blogging, the upcoming cd, Elliott Wilson and the future of XXL. And I’m looking forward to seeing what he has to say since I’ve been more puzzled than offended by his antiblogger rants, especially since they’ve appeared in his editorial column which seems to be focused on the longstanding tradition of talking smack. For once, I get to play the level headed blogger rather than the ranting outsider, though I’m always ready to return to my vicious ways of old.
Besides, I’ve been noticing that SOHH Blogs, which hosts Hashim’s Media Chin-Check blog, has been creating an awfully large number of hip hop artist blogs that look like paid promotions, yet they haven’t been identifying them as such. Actually, they’re not even always linked directly from the main navigation pages, so you may not see them when you visit, but that’s a separate concern. The point is, Hashim’s response seems like a double standard, at least on the issue of XXL’s appearance as an unacknowledged Interscope booster crossing the traditional journalistic divide between editorial and advertising.
In any case, I expect to hear back from Mr. Wilson on Monday and look forward to sharing his response to my questions.
[*dead link removed]
yeah, “sean coon” is my stage name. ha! man, i can’t tell you how many ill references i heard regarding my name growing up, but i’m damn sure lucky i was raised in jersey and not alabama.
as for EW and XXL; when i received the email, i too thought about replying with some open ended questions. i figured it would be a good opportunity to dig into the community more. but that’s the problem. if EW took more of a level-headed business approach as the editor-in-chief of XXL, recognizing that *community* is what supports him (and saved the smack talking for the *talent*) i might have joined in with an interview.
this just goes to show, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
The thing is, a lot of people start out antagonistic towards various Internet communities and later find ways to connect with whichever ones seem appropriate. For example, a while back an album of El-P’s was leaked online and it was very upsetting. He seemed really dismissive of the Internet as anything useful at the time but gradually Def Jux has developed a wider range of Internet strategies.
So I think that people who generalize about bloggers or whatever may sometimes shift and recognize that current developments are more complex and that it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing relationship.
The Internet also has enabled a shift in the media power structure that is throwing established folks off kilter. The newspaper industry has been particularly instructive in that regard, with some folks antagonistic and others embracing the changes. The latter are the ones who appear to be succeeding.
True. But I think it’s a bit of a cop out to give players in hip-hop a pass on their reaction to blogging and interactive communities.
Hip-hop, first and foremost, is street. It originated there, the culture is grounded there, the vibe always returns to street and community. Before hip-hop hit vinyl, and way before it hit the radio, it was on the corner and word filtered through *community* to come back and impact word.
I’ve been designing interactive multimedia and the internet since 1994. I’ve been a hip-hop head since the mid-eighties. What I love about this medium is what I love about hip-hop; it’s open and raw, the community is tight, yet receptive, and we all want to enable progressive and positive changes to society, across the board.
Hip-hop players hating on the open format of the internet is an oxymoron. We’re actively changing the revenue models of capitalism for the betterment of the common man *and* the content creator (whether the content be music, video, articles, etc.) For *any* player in hip-hop to not appreciate this effort, they’re just rolling with the same mentality of the record industry who tries to leverage the street/community essence of hip-hop to turn a buck in an old school business model.
Sure, people can change to make positive contributions and leverage the web community, but if you don’t come correct first and foremost, you’re going to have a rough time getting out from behind the eight ball.
You know?
You raise some good points but I wouldn’t equate the streets with blogging. I think forums and other forms of open discussion are the closest you get and the ones related to rap music are generally a madhouse. But so are the somewhat mythic streets to which you refer.
Peep the interview:
http://www.prohiphop.com/2005/11/elliott_wilson_.html
Elliott makes a convincing case that he appreciates bloggers but has problems with specific individuals. Of course, his prior public statements don’t read that way so he’ll choose to address that or not. And bloggers aren’t going to forget about that anytime soon.
But the thing is, he’s a trash talker and rap music fans love that. I mean, look at all the nonsense that makes money. I don’t see him undermining XXL with that approach.
On the other hand, I had an interesting conversation the other day with someone who won’t go public with these statements but claims that a lot of people in hip hop are looking forward to his fall for that very trash talk.
So we’ll see. In a world where WWF can go public and people actually respect Donald Trump simply because he has a lot of money, yet undermines his own public companies with his private deals, why shouldn’t Elliott Wilson be able to talk junk that sometimes borders on nonsense and still make money?
“In a world where WWF can go public and people actually respect Donald Trump simply because he has a lot of money, yet undermines his own public companies with his private deals, why shouldn’t Elliott Wilson be able to talk junk that sometimes borders on nonsense and still make money?”
Well, that’s my point. The world of the very near future will be less about the packaged selling of image and hype, and more about unbundled nuggets of information, providing accountability and insight. And monetized to work with capitalism at that (see: http://donatacom.com/papers/pomo48.htm)
EW has complete freedom to engage hip-hop, community and capitalism how he wants.
Actually, I think there will also be a market for unbundled nuggets of image and hype. For example, graffiti style screensavers of the word PHAT.
But I like your thinking and hope you’ll write more about this on your blog, for which I’ll be checking.
By the way, I had a much more interesting comment but Typepad magic made it disappear! And I hate reconstructing such things.
PS – My hip hop web activities started in Greensboro in 2000 with an early version of NC Hip Hop Online:
http://www.netweed.com/nchiphop
Peace