“XXL” Magazine May Or May Not Have Strong Feelings About The Internet

Brian Raftery | December 13, 2006 8:56 am

A post on Still Listen To Gangsta Music pointed us in the direction of a recent XXL feature about the Internet and hip-hop. There were some interesting observations in the piece–such as the lack of a true Internet-nurtured hip-hop star, and the backlash against Diddy’s YouTube campaign–but just as the story was getting going, we bumped into this:

jeezyxxl.jpg

We understand that the big-name music magazines are still adapting to the blog world, but if XXL really wants us to take its Internet-music exegesis seriously–if it wants the piece to be read, forwarded, heralded, savaged, etc.–it has to put the whole damn story on the web. No more of this “Here’s a lil’ taste, now buy the issue” pussyfooting around: Publications like XXL, Complex, The Source, and Spin all need to realize that momentum for their bigger stories is created online, and in order to get that heat, they’ve got to release those features to the wilds of the web, free of charge (even if that means the ad-sales team throws a conniption). It’s the only way to engage a young audience that’s grown accustomed to reading about music solely on the Internet.

Besides, do you people have any idea how hard it is to hit 24 posts a day without more stories to make fun of?

New World [XXLmag.com, excerpt only]