I “grew up” on hip hop blogs. Before I even knew what a “blog” was, I was visiting sites like 2dopeboyz and NahRight on a daily basis. At this point, I was still relying on magazines and word of mouth to get my indie rock fix and to find out about other obscure artists outside of the hip-hop genre.
After a year of being in the blog game, I’ve realized that there are blogs for every genre, and I can keep up with any genre through the blog world (Almost. I’m still looking for a good reggae blog). But the weird thing to me is that these different types of blogs have developed in different worlds and include their own styles, cultures, and accepted cyber norms. The blogs that I’m most familiar with are the indie blogs and the hip-hop blogs, and I’m starting to see that the two are completely different animals, and there are new ones popping up every day and following the same standard procedures. Hit the jump for my observations and advice.
The Frequency
If you’re familiar with either type of blog, this is the first big difference you’ll notice. In the world of hip-hop blogging, if you’re not posting 20 times a day, you’re slacking. This is partly because hip-hop artists grind. Mixtapes, freestyles, remixes – give a rapper a beat and that motherfucker will have a song up on the internets within 24 hours. I think it also has to do with the “hustle” associated with hip-hop. The term is thrown around a lot, but don’t get it twisted, it’s a quality that everyone in the hip-hop world truly applies to whatever they do. In the blogging world, that means being timely, getting things done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and doing as much as you can within a given time period. They don’t want to waste the time to sit back and listen to an album 20 times and then write an insightful post about the intricacies of the music. If a new Lil Wayne mixtape track leaks, you better have that shit up within 12 hours or you’ll quickly be told to get your hustle up.
Indie blogs don’t get this. Or maybe they just see things differently. It’s perfectly acceptable for an indie blog to take weekends off. If a new Surferzz (name made up) song comes out, take your time with it. Let it sink in. Post it up a week later with some deep commentary about the textures of the song and how the lo-fi quality qualifies it as a meaningful piece of art. Unkempt kids with neon glasses everywhere will eat that shit up – until next year, when Surferzz becomes irrelevant. The timeliness and quantity holds little importance in the world of indie blogs. The important thing is that you can come up with some clever words to convince readers that what they are listening to is somehow significant. The harder it is for people to see this for themselves, the more likely you are to be seen as the cool guy – the guy who understands something that they can’t. This is an idea that leads perfectly into the next glaring difference between indie blogs and hip-hop blogs.
The Ratings
Indie blogs love to rate things. They love lists, designating a number value to albums and songs, and using their highly trained palettes to tell you how good or bad something is. That’s fine with me. If I trust someone else’s opinion, I’m thankful that they’ve taken the time to put a number value on it. My problem is that these ratings have gotten out of control. It seems that it’s become a tactic to pit people against their natural instincts and instead get you to rely on their site’s opinion. I won’t mention any names, but the big indie blogs love to give accessible music devastatingly low ratings. Your favorite indie band that is starting to gain traction puts out an album that the average listener likes? Fuck that shit, give it a 2.6. Some unknown newcomer puts out an album in his basement using nothing but whistles, a four track recorder, and a reckless abandonment of melody or structure? He’s a genius, and it’s a perfect album. This causes everyone to jump on the bandwagon, and that site has proven itself once again as a “tastemaker”, able to recognize the best new music before anyone else. In my humble opinion, that site just convinced you to eat a handful of dirt and then nod your head and agree that it was tastier than that filet mignon you had last week.
Hip-hop blogs have the opposite problem. Instead of posting music and giving an opinion about it, most hip-hop blogs look at their posts as products, pushing that shit like a dimebag of shake and trying to pass it off as OG kush. This process doesn’t involve reviews, ratings, or lists. All it takes is some good key words like “hot”, “fire”, “hardbody”, “dopeness”, a few expletives, and a lot of exclamation points. I can’t even recall the last time I read a thoughtful album review on a major hip-hop blog – probably because I have never read one. It’s all about getting your hands on some new music and hyping it up to the people.
The Writing
So far, it seems like I’m talking a lot of shit on the indie blogs. They deserve it. Writing, however, is where they shine. Popular indie blogs employ writers who have unique styles, voices, and a way with words. With their witty banter, impressive vocabulary, and ability to put together sentences that would fit in well inside a classic novel, they are able to publish articles that are actually fun to read. Sure, the article might be about how your old favorite band has sold out and deserves to be publicly hanged, but damn, they couldn’t have said it better.
For the hip-hop blogs, writing is… wait. What writing? The most writing you get out of these guys is a fucking tracklisting. Posts usually include a line that restates the artist and song, where the song will appear in the future, and maybe a joke about how the artist recently got his chain snatched – possibly a *smh* or an LOL for some personality.
The Point
A lot of it is completely exaggerated, and I know there are exceptions to everything I’ve said, so don’t get your feelings hurt. I read both types of blogs every day and for the most part, I really enjoy them. If it doesn’t come across, I mean most of this as a joke.
Why am I saying this? Mostly just to talk some shit, but as more and more people decide they want to blog, they are modeling their blogs after those that have come before them. Don’t do it. Nobody needs another hip-hop blog that posts up the new Slaughterhouse song and exclaims “Hot shit! New Slaughterhouse! Budden killed it!” If that’s your 2 cents, jump in on the comments section of your hip-hop blog of choice. Along those same lines, we don’t need another indie blog to tell us how horrible the new Vampire Weekend album is and direct us instead to some underground noise rock.
To anyone starting a new blog, my advice to you is this – do something differently. Whether it’s your style of writing, the content you’re offering, or your unique perspective, you’re going to be the most successful if you truly bring something different to the table. No matter what you do, be honest. It’s the one thing you can easily do without having any skills, knowledge, or reputation and people will always respond. Shit, to this day I think the most comments I’ve ever gotten on a post (other than when I’m giving something away, you greedy swines) is when I opened up about my personal life and issues. People always respect an honest opinion coming from a source that they’ve learned to trust. I know Pigeons and Planes often falls into the traps of this blogging culture, but I promise that, if nothing else, we’ll keep it honest.
This shit is great man. I just bookmarked a blog post and I think its pretty safe to say that blog posts rarely get bookmarked. You’ve captured the essence of two very different styles of blogging and given them an articulate critique that their authors would do well to read.
Not to shamelessly self-promote but I just started a music blog a few weeks ago with a friend at college that promises to deliver “the freshest music to your campus, daily” (as our banner reads).
What this means is that we end up being part hip hop blog, part indie blog, to cater to the type of music that we like to listen to and presenting it in a way our readers will enjoy. Having read this post I’m taking a good long look at our site and I think it seems to capture the best of both styles that you mentioned: delivering content in a timely manner and offering a decent personal spin on it.
But again, this post is gold and should be required reading for anyone thinking of coming into the music blogging world.
Love your shit man, P&P forever.
I enjoy these rants very much, there is a lot of truth in this one.
i never quite fitted into any scene. so i made my own. it’s better to be yourself than a poor version of someone else. – Mike Skinner (The Streets)
a motto I go by, everyday of the week.
delightfully concise. More people should read this.
I can’t get over how much this helped me out. I actually have a little blog going and people from 2dopeboyz get at me all the time claiming I rip their site.
you da man, confusion.
definitely hit the nail on its head.
The reason why I like this site because it combines the qualities Confusion just described so well up there. I get bored with indie blogs sometime because they do take forever, but I hate hip-hop “blogs” that just post links at rapid pace. I can get an RSS feed of hotnewhiphop or some shit like that. I want the blog to tell me something about it because I’m not a prolific blogger and I don’t want to listen to every bit of shit that drops into the toilet bowl.
So PnP strikes the best balance I’ve seen. Always updated, but thoughtful. Thank you.
This is a great post because in comparing indie and hip-hop blogs you’ve actually drawn in the audience of both, audiences that I would argue, don’t often overlap. You could easily have added a third comparative category in here as well, “electronic” music blogs.
I love that you tie the whole thing up by urging people to create a unique product. It’s something that doesn’t get said nearly enough.
I would put one curve ball into your hip-hop blogger equation though, and that would be Andrew Noz who runs Cocaine Blunts. Outside his site he contributes to Washington City Paper and NPR, one of the only younger voices I can name who keeps the title of “hip-hop music journalist” alive.
You’ve made some great points here. I get peeved about the blog that wants to be the next news reporter. Breaking the latest news that ‘so and so’s’ new album has leaked.
I love reading opinions of albums by other bloggers. Don’t just tell me about a new song, tell me what you think of it.
Sure it takes a little bit of work and writing, but I will happily read that (then maybe disagree) rather than just spitting out the latest news that 10 other bloggers have beat you to.
Nice insight…good post
@V – Definitely. There are exceptions to this and plenty of hip-hop blogs that are full of insight and indie blogs that you wouldn’t dare call music snobs.
And much credit to Cocaine Blunts. I didn’t know that he contributed elsewhere – the NPR involvement surprised me, but that was also one of the blogs I came across way back in the day and he’s always had impressive insight into hip-hop that a lot of people aren’t even aware of.
Great stuff, Confusion.
When we started writing, it was to get our opinion out there, since it’s just as valid as anyone else who was already writing.
Once you relate the music you talk about – whether it’s hip-hop or indie rock or fucking classical – to who you are as a person, and how it affects you, then you’ll always have an audience.
There’s no need to post 20 times per day. Post once. Post twice. However much I do, as long as it’s truthful to who I am, then I haven’t said anything wrong. And readers can tell the difference between the blogs that do and the ones that don’t. At the end of the day, people can get the new MGMT track from anywhere – but they’ll come back to your blog because of what you put into it.
Music blogs are basically like the news but always keeping you up to date because of the useful tool known as the internet. Best to hear the opinion on a artist from somebody with years of knowledge, good taste, or just getting leaks or fresh new music most of the time first than a rookie and amateur blogger. Better to add four or five different blogs/websites on the Safari or Chrome top sites as your go to blogs for music you like then to depend on one blog that might’ve skipped something good and is just posting what’s good or ‘hot’ in the blogosphere to them and probably won’t post that real new shit until the epiphany kicks in after looking at the source blog that some artist is good. Those bloggers posting and dedicating a lot of time and are working from a apartment getting paid doing that best believe I’m supporting that person and not the amateur.
Shits like buying a pizza at Little Ceasars when you know that dude around the block is either an expert pizza maker or straight from the motherland and knows how to cook that excellent pizza and deserves my money. So much goes by the New Music Cartel and mixed genre blogs that unless you spend your time downloading everything on them you honestly don’t know what’s new and good right at that moment. An actual music blog should be just like your local news and letting you know what shit went down at that moment times 24 hours a day and 5 or 7 days a week. Too many music blogs nowadays.
It’s cool just to have a blog to post music and have like friends or random lurkers check it and bookmark it but people shouldn’t take this serious because there are people who have dedicated too much time to music and deserve even a simple visit to the blog because they are the true bloggers and should be taken serious because they had an actual purpose and reason for starting the blog and were meant to do that even as a job.
Thanks for your blog, and this post too (:
Plus there are more better sites to depend on for a opinion than some blog that is inspired by other blogs. Describing blogs is for stoops but of course its your blog. Don’t quit school and your day job generation X and Y kids.
Richard: I wouldn’t want to turn things into radio or news, where people depend on 4 or 5 sources, especially when those 4 or 5 sources are the ones doing it for a living (for money). I think that would drastically cut back on the variety of music you would be able to hear, and an indie artist wouldn’t be as likely to blow up unless they could pay up first.
And I don’t really know if you’re implying that I don’t work hard on this, but you have no idea how dedicated I am to this blog and how much I put into it. It’s fucking ridiculous.
GREAT WRITE UP
I rate it a 9.6 :P
Hahhah thanks Vick
Richard your comment was utterly confusing and actually longer than the original post. Plus little caesars pizza (i could google the correct spelling but ehh) has been a life saver to a starving student such as myself. I know you’re currently serving multiple life sentences for murder but please try and focus on keeping your post relevant to said topic.
Why the hell am I not at Coachella?!?
Thank you defana. You said some of the things I would have liked to say, but I’ve tried to make it a policy to not be rude to people leaving comments unless they are being rude.
Richard’s comment was so confusing that I honestly wasn’t sure if he was being rude or not. Haha. Oh well.
I wish I was at Coachella too. I’m going to Lollapalooza for sure.
Everything you are saying here is the reason I love P&P! I am not exactly an indie listener beyond just a few artists, which is why I really appreciate a hip hop blog that doesnt just post every fucking song or remix that drops. I love and appreciate that you have taken the time to weed out a lot of the crap that hits every other hip hop blog. No lie like 90% of what I download just going here doesnt even get listened to beyond maybe the first 20 seconds, I cant imagine how little I would listen to if I was going to some other hip hop blog that posted 50 things a day. You make my life easier & better, thanks!
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