One of the hottest hip-hop ensembles around, Kris Kross-those guys who put a backward spin on fashion-may be hard to catch in the charts, but they`re not untouchable when it comes to critics at a splashy new hip-hop magazine that makes its debut Sept. 14.
”You got two little kids who fit a certain mold. You have a producer who has a really strong vision of how to make these kids sell. It`s kind of fun to listen to but it`s not very interesting,” said Diane Cardwell, executive editor of Vibe, the publication that hopes to be to hip-hop what Rolling Stone was to rock `n` roll in its infancy. If response to the magazine`s test-run issue is positive, Time Warner (as in Time, People, Sports Illustrated) will give Vibe monthly appearances at newsstands nationwide.
”We set forth to be brutally honest about the issues. Not to shock or provoke but to just be honest. Hip-hop is very frank, and I think the magazine reflects that,” said Jonathan Van Meter, the 29-year-old editor of the magazine. Van Meter, who hails from New Jersey and whose past jobs include music editor at Vogue and part-time deejay at an adult contemporary radio station in New Jersey, said he`s ”always been interested in pop music-hip-hop is a part of that.”
For the uninitiated, hip-hop music is loosely defined as an amalgamation of rap, jazz, blues, gospel and other popular music forms. But hip-hop is also a culture, a lifestyle.
”Hip-hop culture includes everything from Spike Lee movies to the Knicks,” explained Van Meter. ”It`s like the way you say rock `n` roll is an attitude and a style. Hip-hop is many things. It`s a way of dressing, a way of looking at the world. It forms people`s political points of view, the music they listen to, the clubs they go to, the films they watch. There`s a whole lifestyle that surrounds hip-hop.”
Like a Rolling Stone
It`s that broad context that gives Vibe a springboard on which to launch its editorial mission.
”I`ve always conceived it as a black musical Rolling Stone,” said Van Meter. ”It takes hip-hop as the center of its musical coverage-a street, urban music perspective-and branches out musically from there to R&B, soul, funk jazz and house music-music that has influenced or has been influenced by hip-hop. From there, covering the culture that surrounds it, the politics, the sociopolitical issues of race and color as well as fashion, sports, TV, film and books.”
The Fall 1992 maiden issue includes stories on whites who want to be black, a spread on model Naomi Campbell that gets the dirt on the supermodel`s nasty public fistfight with a girlfriend earlier this summer in New York, an interview with rapper LL Cool J and a 5,000-word story on Bobby Brown in which the singer talks about his children, the mother of his children and his then- impending marriage to Whitney Houston. Vibe senior editor Scott Poulson-Bryant, who wrote the Brown article, spent four days with the singer in Los Angeles.
”I`ve written a lot of profiles,” said Van Meter. ”And the point is to get as much access to the subjects as possible. If they don`t give you access, then don`t bother. … This is a two-way street. I tell them, `We`re giving you publicity, which you desperately need, but it`s not good writing for us unless you give us the time we deserve.”`
Getting a jump start
Vibe, geared toward readers aged 16 to 35, is the size of Rolling Stone and runs 146 pages in its first issue. The $1.95 magazine is a cooperative venture between record company president/producer Quincy Jones and Time Publishing Ventures, a subsidiary of Time Warner.
Vibe will not be the only hip-hop magazine on the market. It will have to compete against The Source, which relies primarily on newsstand sales, and, to a lesser extent, YSB (Young Sisters and Brothers), a teen magazine owned by Robert Johnson, the majority stockholder of Black Entertainment Television
(BET).
Still, Van Meter is confident that Vibe won`t be a one-issue flash.
”I think this magazine is going to rocket right off of the newsstands,” he predicted. ”Everybody is trying to figure out hip-hop.”
And the hip-hop crowd will be the first to welcome another publication that sets out to demystify their music and culture, says Roland ”Baybay”
Royal, a 20-year-old dancer. Royal performs with Dem Dare, a 10-member Chicago ”crew” of rappers, hip-hop dancers and musicians who have performed in videos for Public Enemy, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Michael Jackson and other performers.
”A lot of people have misconceptions about it. It`s an artform of self-expression,” he says about the moves and the lifestyle, as well as the music. ”If Vibe goes straight to the source and tells what`s real about hip- hop, yeah, it`ll get a good response.”
