Ypulse Toolbox: 10 Gen Y Hip-Hop Sites To Know

Today's post comes from Gynae Davalos who kicks off our official coverage of the urban youth media and marketing space with a round-up of go to sites for youth marketers looking to keep tabs on hip-hop culture and multicultural youth today. Expect to see more coverage of urban youth, entertainment, media, marketing and technology in our upcoming Urban Channel set to debut next year as well as our first ever Ypulse Urban Mashup, which will be one of our pre-conferences at the June event in San Francisco!

Ypulse Toolbox: 10 Hip Hop Sites to Know

It’s hard to say exactly what attracts youth to one hip hop site over another. They pretty much all utilize the same news feeds, review the same albums, and offer similar video and audio selections. Almost all of them provide a community section for discussion boards and forums, some much more active than others. The same goes for the top hip hop blogs; even though the content of the posts are relatively the same, one blog will receive tons of comments while another won’t receive any for days. It is also difficult to compete with the likes of Myspace, Facebook and other social networking sites that take up all of a young person’s online time on a personal level. Social networking sites aside, the following links represent well-established commercial hip hop hangouts on the web.

AllHipHop – Offering news, contests and ringtones, AllHipHop has been around for ten years and also features fashion, gaming, gadgets and sports stories.

HipHopDX – Several hip hop artists blog from this site and they have active guest bloggers as well. They also have a DXNext section that profiles up-and-coming artists, which visitors are allowed to add a comment.

Rap-Up – This site is "the first nationwide hip-hop and R&B magazine for Gen Y." The coolest thing about it is previewing the issue like you’re actually holding the magazine.

Rapstation – Launched by hip hop pioneer Chuck D, the site features Rapstation TV and Radio with original programming. Their goal is to empower and educate artists for a better chance of success in the challenging industry that is hip hop and rap.

CONCRETE LOOP – Concrete Loop was started out of frustration for not finding any urban blogs that appealed to the African-American market. Covering politics, events, and black history spotlights, over 90,000 visitors stay in the loop with Concrete Loop.

SOHH – Stands for Support Online Hip Hop and is the web's largest and longest running urban/hip-hop community. The site also hosts the annual Online Hip Hop Awards.

Rawkus – The official site for Rawkus Records, members are able to create profiles and join in their community of blogs: Fat Lace Magazine, The Rap Up Group, and RealTalk NY.

Vibe, XXL, and The Source – All three of these major hip hop and urban magazines compete for the same audience and their online presence is no different. The Source has the least busy front page and does not offer a community forum/message board. XXL offers many contests, while Vibe features Vibe TV and Vibe FM.

BET – With all the usual things you would find on a network’s website (TV schedule, interviews, episode recaps, etc.) BET also has a Shine section where users can create a profile and upload photos to be voted on by other users.

If we missed a commercial hip hop site you think is worth including, please leave it in the comments section. We will be rounding up more lists of sites in the urban space, including non-profit urban youth media and top Latino and Asian youth sites in our ongoing coverage.

About Gynae

Gynae currently works with The Cypher Project in Austin. She's also been involved in Better Hip Hop Bureau Austin and is currently in training to be a Lonestar Rollergirl, which has a program for young girls called Austin Derby Brats.

Categorized under: Urban, Ypulse Toolbox

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. If you are a Facebook user, comment using your Facebook account.