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I conceived ThaHipHop.Com in 2000. After a few failed attempts, the site was finally launched on January 5, 2004. The purpose of the site is to increase hip-hop’s coverage on the net. The ultimate goal is to provide site visitors with extensive, comprehensively structured, and hip-hop related quality content. Additionally, the site will continually provide features that would allow visitors to test, play with, and increase their hip-hop knowledge.
To achieve the high expectations I’ve set for myself, I have decided to start by providing the essential sections of the site and expand from there. This means that the structure of the site will be changing as it evolves. Off course, all future changes will be reflected in this guide. Currently, the site’s content is divided into five core categories:
In French
I’ve always wanted to have a bilingual site. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to maintain a team for the french part of ThaHipHop.Com. I’ve decided to regroup the articles that were meant for that part of the site under “In French” category. The content is divided into two sections: “Chroniques,” which contains reviews of hip-hop projects, and “Perspectives,” the french equivalent to “Our Insights.”
Our Insights
The “Insights” category regroups all articles that are meant to engage your views or perceptions on/about hip-hop and other topics that relate to the “hip-hop generation.” There are three “Insights” sections thus far. “Outlooks” contains all content wherein we expose and argue our thoughts on/about someone, something and/or someplace that affects the so called ”hip-hop generation.“ “Short Stories” is pretty much self-explanatory. And “They Say” presents snapshots of “hip-hop” beliefs and growth.
Music Features
The “Music Features” category is a way for us to dissect the enormous amount of music “hip-hop” has brought out and brought up. This is where, along with our “Reviews”, you find most of our streams and the occasional downloads. There are four sections for “Music Features.” “Battle of Beats” was inspired by James Brown’s music, which has been sampled countless times. It gathers songs that have a common element and pits them against each other. You chose which track made the best use of that common element in a poll. The “Mixtape” is where we give the opportunity to DJs all around the world to introduce themselves and their style to our visitors and make their mixtapes available for listening and downloading. The “Shiznit” contains thematic playlists with added commentary. Finally, the “Showcase” section gives us the chance to present rising acts and producers around the world. (We are still fine-tuning the “Showcase” section.)
News & Interviews
With time, it is expected that this category will be the most significant, in terms of how frequently content is added to it. Presently there are two sets of interviews. There are two sets of interviews. “Sound Session” regroups interviews that were made during a radio show called “Sunday Night Sound Session.” The show is hosted by DJ Hyphen and J. Moore, and it’s broadcast’s on Seattle KUBE 93.3 FM. All the other interviews, which are exclusive to ThaHipHop.Com, are in the “Conversations” section. Currently, there are only two news sections: “Feeds,” which takes advantage of the RSS technology to offer the latest hip-hop related news bits, and “Buzz,” which chronicles upcoming events/projects as their unveiling/releases approach.
Reviews
This is a no-brainer. The “Reviews” category has several sections, all of which are self explanatory. To stay in line with our ultimate goal of providing extensive reading material, we not only review new events/projects, but also the old ones. This will permit us to cross-reference a certain review to related reviews and/or other articles, and will allow you, we hope, to discover new stuff. Music reviews are often complemented with streams. We hope to enhance all reviews in the same way and we’re working towards that end.
As the ThaHipHop.Com’s founder and administrator, I write a significant amount of the articles and features on the site. But, the site wouldn’t have enjoyed such success and growth if I wasn’t properly surrounded. My team is a growing network of hip-hop fans and friends who’ve been kind enough to donate their time and work to the site. I’m thankful and glad that they’re a part of this adventure, and I wish I could do more to shine the spotlight on each of them. The least I could do was come up with a section about them. The “Team” section is still in the works. It’ll help you find out more about the minds behind the stories you can enjoy on the site.
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