If you read the A3C blog, then you know I'm a big fan of 2DopeBoyz. It's definitely one of my favorite hip hop news outlets right now. Shake and Mek do an incredible job selecting and sharing quality music and I appreciate that.
Up until recently the blog had been hosted on the well known and respected Okayplayer.com but the news went out this week that the duo would be moving to a new home with Complex, which currently hosts a number of online news sources including another well known Hip Hop blog by the name of Nah Right.
Read the statement below from the dopeboyz themselves:
For those that were tuned into this week’s edition of (2)Dope Radio, you’re already aware of the news. For those that didn’t… let me make things clear. As of yesterday we parted ways with Okayplayer and have switched servers. So expect a few bumps during the next few days as things are getting cleaned up and resolved.
I’d also like to announce that the dopeboyz have officially aligned with the Complex network. Nothing will change on our end, but the new deal will allow us to do more things in the future (some great plans are being worked on). Just over two years after being built, the dopehouse continues to progress. Thank you all for being a part of this!
First of all, I want to say congratulations to Shake and Mek. I'm sure this is a good move for you, otherwise you wouldn't be making it. Complex has consistently proven itself to be a respectable outlet for music, style, sports, etc.
The only thing that makes me a bit nervous about the deal (and this might just be my own paranoid mind at work) is that it's a big consolidation of power in terms of the flow of rap information. The combined traffic of the two sites is above 300k uniques per month, which would make the Complex Media Network the #1 controller of hip hop news on the web.
Is this a bad thing? By itself, no. In fact, it's awesome new for Complex and I tip my hat to them for being such savvy business people. The one thing that scares be a bit is that with all that power, the online world of hip hop could easy digress into what the print and TV world of hip hop were in the late 90s and early 2000s.
One thing that was great about the internet was that it helped level the playing field for artists and made good hip hop music more readily accessible by the masses. In the last few years, artists have longer need to grovel at the feet of the Source and MTV in order to gain exposure. This is because there are thousands of hip hop blogs online and, as of right now, there is no monopoly on readership. I personally would really like to see things stay that way.
This deal doesn't mean that the whole house of cards is going to come crashing down but, if more and more outlets continue to merge in the future, we could easily end up with situation were three or four outlets control the majority of the rap audience and this is bad for businesses (just ask Adam Smith).
So, my message for 2DopeBoyz, "with great power comes great responsibility." You guys are officially at the top, don't forget to keep hip hip fresh. But you already know that.
