The editors of The Seminal, a new Chicagocentric hip-hop and urban culture monthly, sold most of their 600 debut copies for $1 each on street corners — and in the Northwestern University Library.
“When we approach people, we ask `Are you into underground hip-hop?’ ” says Jason Rosenbaum, one of the paper’s creators. “When you find the right person, you certainly pique their interest.”
The Seminal may not have the staff or the distribution of other Chicago publications, but it is no less ambitious. Started by six college students from DePaul and Northwestern, it’s a mix of concert reviews, interviews and essays. It seeks to bring attention to the city’s diverse hip-hop scene and also bring it together. It’s an attempt to “raise people’s awareness of one another, both inside and outside of the scene,” says 21-year-old Alex Thurston, one of the editors.
“Our question is why don’t people [in Chicago] know about all the great talent in Chicago?” says Rosenbaum, 20. “There was amazing talent on display at the Chicago Rocks show [a two-day showcase in March of Chicago hip-hop acts].”
The Seminal came together over the last few years as friendships formed in classes, dorms and even on elevated trains. Thurston, who grew up in Oxford, Ohio, met Rosenbaum, originally from Westchester, N.Y., two years ago at their Northwestern dorm. Thurston had recently started rapping, influenced by Nas, Common and A Tribe Called Quest. When he met Rosenbaum, a music technology major who plays guitar, they started playing together. A band — Wine Poetry — emerged.
Once the band starting playing shows in Chicago, Thurston began taking stock of the local hip-hop scene.
“My impression was that the scene was a little disorganized,” Thurston says. “It’s difficult to get booked and to get people into the venue.”
These challenges inspired the group to devise some creative methods of self-promotion, including distributing the band’s CDs to “L” passengers. On one such train ride last winter, Thurston and Rosenbaum struck up a conversation with Lance Steagall, another Northwestern student. The following spring, when Steagall found himself in a Dostoevsky class with Thurston, they continued to talk about writing and hip-hop.
By the fall of 2004, plans emerged to start a hip-hop paper as an outlet for their own essays and poetry, and a way to help promote the local scene.
“It came from a desire to produce and create,” Steagall says. “We wanted to make something creative and consistent.”
Steagall called on two friends, DePaul students Kwame Johnson and John Jacobs, to work on the paper. Vassar Oenbring, Thurston’s friend since freshman year, completed the staff.
They started working on the first issue in January and funded the start-up costs out of their own pockets. Steagall and Thurston were the main editors, Jacobs and Johnson did much of the writing and Oenbring was in charge of the design and layout. Rosenbaum runs The Seminal Web site (www.theseminal.com) and is also in charge of advertising. He considers it a very intense hobby.
“Instead of surfing the net, I call advertisers,” he says.
The first issue of The Seminal is a sprawling, 20-page set of stories that makes a claim to covering a culture, not just music. Thurston admits it’s a bit random. Everything from police corruption in Englewood to Evanston graffiti is fair game, along with interviews with local rappers Joe Glass and Iroc, and a story about Da South Side Show, a program on Radio DePaul, the student-run online station (radio.depaul.edu) that showcases Chicago music. A list of upcoming shows and a reference guide to Chicago hip-hop round out the paper’s coverage.
The second issue, which came out April 1, is no less ambitious, featuring an interview with local rap group the Pacifics, concert reviews and an article about artist KRS-ONE.
“We see the paper as an excellent product,” Thurston says. “Lots of journalism just discusses the facts of the situation, but because hip-hop contains so much social commentary, we want to go beyond that. We want to help readers understand the context of the event, album or artist that’s being written about.”
The Seminal also has a sense of humor. The March issue includes “The Truth With Some Flavor,” an article reviewing different brands of flavored blunts. The Peach White Owl was judged the best, since it’s “attractive aroma renders you helpless as soon as it enters your nostrils.”
The paper features a hip-hop crossword, a comic strip and the innovative personal hype ad, where anyone can buy bragging rights for $25 an issue.
The idea of a local hip-hop publication isn’t new. A defunct magazine called Chicago Rocks, which focused on the local graffiti scene, was printed for years in the early to mid-’90s. Still, many members of the city’s hip-hop scene are encouraged by this renewed effort.
“From what I saw, it looked good for a start-up paper on Chicago hip-hop,” says Tim Stroh, the founder and CEO of local label Gravel Records. “They already seem well connected with the underground culture. I think they’re putting in just as much work if not more than people that have been here for years.”
Local deejay Aleycia Ryan, who spins hip-hop under the name DJ AM/PM, thinks The Seminal “speaks a lot of truths.” She works at Gramaphone Records, which she says sells a few copies of the paper every week.
“I think that Chicago hip-hop definitely needs a forum,” she says. “There are a lot of inconsistencies in our scene, and there are a lot of people who don’t want to come together because of ego and other reasons. I’ve been a hip-hop deejay for eight years and I’ve encountered many of the issues The Seminal mentions, like problems booking shows and publicizing events. The paper is a good first step.”
The Seminal has ambitions to become a part of the local hip-hop community.
The paper has sponsored a local urban music showcase — the Iron Mic — and Thurston hints at including a CD compilation in a future issue. The paper’s logo, a tree with long roots, says it all: The Seminal is planting a seed.
“We’ll continue however long we have money,” Rosenbaum says.
“We want to meet everybody in the local scene and get the word out.”
