R.I.P. SCRATCH Magazine May 2004-October 2007

Well, another rap mag has bit the dust, but I gotta say, this one stings a little. SCRATCH Magazine was one of the few Hip Hop mags left that actually talked about well, Hip Hop. It focused on producers, DJs and other behind-the-scenes people who actually make the music happen. I've written a few pieces for them and I really enjoyed working with them. We all know that controversy sells, but it was kinda refreshing to see a mag talking about music itself, instead of why the rap game is like the dope game and who's beefing with who.

From what I remember, they were the only mag to do a feature actually breaking down how many songs sampled old James Brown tracks when he died. They might have gave Kanye West his first cover. They gave the severly overlooked DJ Toomp his first multi-page feature [shameless plug]. And sheid, they were my first placement back when I was doing PR for Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford.

"Purists" started complaining when the mag started straying away from putting producers on the cover by themselves and pairing them with popular artists. I thought the idea was dope myself, but what do I know?

The staff was very cool, knowledgable, open-minded and fair. Rap nerds to the fullest. I don't know who is going to be the cover subject for the final issue, but I have a piece in there on producer M-16 who did the beat for Playaz Circle's "Duffle Bag Boy" featuring Lil' Wayne. Check it out when it hits the newsstands.

UPDATE: Here is the cover of the last issue. Shouts out to B.Fred