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Welcome To The Terrordome: An Open Letter From Our New Editor

blame it on Andreas Hale March 1, 2016
terrordome-intro

“Hey, you people, you know who I am, but you don’t know why I’m here.”

Scott Hall’s WCW debut. (May 27, 1996)

Hey everybody, “The Bad Guys” are back together!

Okay, wait, many of you are not familiar with what I’m talking about so allow me to go back in time, Marty McFly style, and bring you up to speed.

About a decade or so ago, myself, Shake and Meka all worked for a website you may have heard of called HipHopDX. Back then HipHopDX wasn’t the powerhouse hip hop media outlet it eventually became. It was still in its early stages but with me as the editor in chief, Shake handling the visual and audio and Meka spearheading the blog section with his biting commentary, we were well on our way. Anybody that followed us back then may recall me coining us as “The Bad Guys” whenever I penned an editorial like The Turkey Awards or Who The Hell Am I. As a lifelong wrestling fan, I like to say that we were the heels of the industry. We didn’t play nice with others for the sake of being friends with the industry big wigs. We called it as we saw it and if it rubbed you the wrong way, well, f*ck you. Over the years, we formed a strong bond as friends who loved this culture of hip hop and were dedicated to never becoming shills. We liked what we liked and hated what we hated. And if you were in our way, sorry for you.

Yeah, that was fun.

Well, by 2008 we had gone our separate ways. I took a job at BET as the Executive Editor of Music and Meka & Shake blindly went into launching this blog as a full time gig. 2DopeBoyz was one of the major leaders in the blog era while I had a somewhat interesting fallout at Black Entertainment Television and departed in 2009 (google it, if you must). [Shake Edit: Oh, please google it.]

For the next six and a half years, I’ve done a few cool things you may have read about. I spent some time as an editor at AOL; launched a blog called TheWellVersed, which eventually gave way to putting time in as a staff writer and YouTube channel producer for Jay Z’s LifeandTimes.com — where I had the opportunity to shoot documentaries with Kendrick Lamar & TDE, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Manny PacquaioPaul George and Gennady Golovkin. I also began covering boxing and mixed martial arts for a few media outlets including Ring Magazine, Sherdog and Yahoo. But I always kept a foot in music by contributing to magazines and websites such as GRAMMY, Billboard, MTV and a whole bunch of others. I’ve covered a ton of events I always dreamed of attending including Sundance Film Festival, Comic Con, E3, The Grammys and a bunch of others. Meanwhile, I’d pop in from time to time on 2DopeBoyz to drop a few editorial jewels about Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, J. Cole and others.

I’ve stayed as busy on the keys as this little guy (that I find f*cking hilarious).

But here’s the funny thing: after my stint at BET, I made a conscious decision to transition out of music because I was so damn jaded. I figured I could grow old with sports and leave this music game to the young, hungry music journalists.

Welp, suffice to say, that shit didn’t work out as planned.

Regardless of what I was doing, hip hop culture has always been on my mind. I can’t escape it. And when I look around the Internet, I don’t see enough voices calling a spade a spade. Instead, I see a bunch of “microwave journalists” cooking up half assed reviews and not-really-thought-provoking commentaries that oftentimes feel like word vomit that exists to appease the masses rather than rattle the cage. That’s not to say that there aren’t dope writers out there who aren’t afraid to keep it real, because there are. But I found myself missing the times when Shake and I would sit around thinking about how to shake shit up.

Meanwhile, Shake and Meka have been pretty vocal about transitioning 2DopeBoyz away from being a blog that just posts music and into a media outlet that encompasses all things dope. Because, you know, everyone posts music and doesn’t really attribute anything to anyone anymore. So that’s when the idea of bringing me onboard in an editorial capacity became a “thing.”

I say that because this “thing” has been something we have discussed for a couple of years but, for one reason or another, ended up being too busy to execute. But with the industry constantly shifting, it made sense to finally sit down and figure out exactly how I could become the official 3rd Dope Boy in 2DopeBoyz. You know, like Eddie Murphy was the 5th Beatle on that SNL skit.

So, without further ado, I’d like to announce my official arrival as the Editorial Content Director of 2DopeBoyz.

I’m not here to go through the motions. I’m not here for a check. I’m here to whoop ass, take names and leave this gotdamn world a better place. I want you to think and expand your boundaries on what hip hop is and all that it encompasses.

Here’s the thing, hip hop isn’t just music. It’s our way of life that exists in just about everything. You’re going to get political commentary and interviews with people that exist outside of the music industry. But you’re going to get the best hip hop content that the three of us can concoct. Scathing editorials, well thought out album reviews, interviews that don’t ask stupid ass questions and so much more.

I’m not necessarily looking to change hip hop culture, I’m just here to enhance it. For some of you, it’s going to take some time to adjust. The music will still be there, but we’re just going to have some fun and be creative with how we deliver it to you. For those who remember, “The Tens” is about to have a revival. Holiday themed content that I created at HipHopDX like The Turkey Awards will be brought back to life. I’m going to spend some time with your favorite artists to really dig into who they are and what they have to offer. Oh, and you’re also going to see 2Dope.TV finally launch because we have a shitload of video content that we’ve been sitting on for a half a decade because we’re lazy.

So buckle up, grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride.

The bad guys are back and ready to take over the world, whether you like that shit or not.

“Welcome To The Terrordome.”

Thanks,

Management