Yesterday the blogosphere buzzed with word that Vibe magazine just died. For some, like me, who have written for Vibe and worked at or with the publication over the years, this death was slow, agonizing. Some of us were making visits to ICU to check in on her, but most of us had already said our fond goodbyes. She wasn?t the same and had gone from generating substantive content that offered sharp analysis of Hip Hop culture to gossip-y pr promoting marginal talent and loads of ads for things few young readers could even afford. She had, unfortunately, gone the way of Hip Hop.
Of course the magazine closing is yet one more indication that this Golden Age of the Black Press is over. Like the mid-twentieth century high that started at the cusp of the 1900s, this latest surge in mass media focusing on the lives of African Americans was glorious. Through the 1980s and 1990s, magazines captured the moment when Black culture mainstreamed bigger than ever before, magazines like Honey, XXL, The Source, and (please don?t ever forget) Emerge, Savoy, Shade (Yes, Shade!), and Urban Profile (Yup, that one, too.). The Art of Hip Hop, the rise of new media, and us, the Gen X beneficiaries of Civil Rights, Black Power, and Women?s Liberation: all forces converged to document, celebrate, critique, and Love the soul force of the new strivers. Writers, publicists, editors, graphic artists, stylists, producers, investment bankers, designers, directors, actors, rhymers and designers ? we were young, we were gifted, we were Black, and (finally, in this generation!) we could support ourselves by committing to our passion. It was exciting. It was Hip Hop.
We lived in neighborhoods like Fort Greene and Harlem, and, there, Hip Hop lived. Thrived. When I walked the city, I never thought to marvel at the brothers head-nodding in ciphers, spitting rhymes. I never clapped and sang with the old heads blasting ?Flavor in Your Ear? from a Delta 98. I didn?t wonder at the magic of sisters in braids and locs, smelling fresh as Shea butter and black soap, as they talked business. None of this was anomalous. None of this was unique. It was all around as art and culture made Vibe, and those other magazines, happen.
And now, it?s gone. Fort Greene has gentrified, displacing the community of artists who can no longer afford to live here. If a group of brothers were to form a cipher, the post-Giuliani police would clear them from the corner faster than you could say Hip Hop is Dead. Biggie is dead. Tupac is dead. Jam Master Jay is dead. Some of the best innovators in the art of Hip Hop. Gone.
Other equally gifted Hip Hop artists, including Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, and Ice Cube, have gone on to do grown-up things like star in movies. The commoditization and corporatization of a culture means that young heads don?t spin and loc in the school cafeteria anymore, so it?s hard to see a future as bright as the past has been.
And that?s too bad.
Many of us were able to eat because of Hip Hop, so as record sales plummet and magazines close, I wonder where all the stylists and publicists are going to get their next gigs. The Bling and the beefs tore it all apart. Faxes and fights, emailed rumors and mean (just mean) blogs ? all these folk struggling over a small pie that wasn?t even finished cooling, so we all got burnt.
The cause of Vibe?s demise is not the recession. We were knee-deep in a funky recession in the 1970s that seeped into the South Bronx and ? poof! ? Hip Hop was born. The Black and Puerto Rican originators, whose parents came from Southern States and the West Indies, had been through hard times, survived hard times, and could create magic by jacking power lines despite the hard times.
And it?s not decreased readership. Not really. We can sell ?water to a whale,? so I know we could innovate a way to get online and in people?s heads with something powerful again.
It?s the lost culture. Hip Hop is art, and the role of business is to invest in and support that art. Multinationals took over content and sound, but multinationals don?t know how to ?make the music with their mouths,? and they failed. The control was tight-fisted, cock-blocked true gift, packaged perversions of Hip Hop culture, and sold utter shame here and abroad. Of course sales have declined. Who wants to spend money to be insulted, grossed-out, or (worse, maybe) bored?
Where was the Michael moonwalk moment at the BET Awards the other night? What is the next great wonder to come from our communities? To resuscitate Hip Hop (also in ICU now, dying) and re-launch some offspring of Vibe and others, we need to recommit to the streets, and the people who live there. The art is not going to come from recycled sounds generated in plush corporate offices.
It?s gonna come from our hearts, our love of self, our joy in art. It?s gonna come from someone young, gifted, and already thrilling the masses online. It?s gonna come from community. And, I?m sure, it?s gonna be fresh.
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Beneath all of this, are we, as readers, just tracking what’s going on in the majority society: we’re just dumber than we were decades ago? Lazier? Shorter attention span? Demanding drama and gossip, not news? It’s got nothing to do with money, and everything with culture and reader tastes. That’s something pervading every issue we face.
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strong words, as always, chris!
thanks for your comment below, guy!
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“The Bling and the beefs tore it all apart. Faxes and fights, emailed rumors and mean (just mean) blogs ? all these folk struggling over a small pie that wasn?t even finished cooling, so we all got burnt.”
Truer words have never been spoken regarding all of this. When it comes to our endeavors, too often and too soon we think we’ve got it made, and we make no provisions for rainy days or what’s around the corner (technologically speaking, the future is now).
I think there’s room and interest in online entities that create the same excitement that these magazines did in their hey day. And hopefully the forward thinking amongst us is at work on it.
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hey, julia –
thanks for your comment. it will be exciting to see what quincy jones does if he buys it back.
joy!
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Very aptly put.