I’m not sure when exactly it happened, but between Bittervibe’s insider commentaries, Mary J. Blige’s oversized forehead cover incident or the writing by numbers editorial as of late – but I’m not Vibin’ with Vibe.
Growing up in a deeply religious household in the south, Vibe presented a world that I just didn’t see from my world view. With it’s glossy porn friendly fronts to it’s “closer than I need to be,” inside coverage, it was the epitome of hip hop with polish - straddling the line between courting Madison Avenue, yet speaking to the kids who lived on Martin Luther King Avenue. A feat that hasn’t been duplicated quite so well in recent memory.
When it was launched in the fall of 1993 hip hop culture was gaining momentum on the American mainstream, eventually even becoming the mainstream. Rappers were establishing a foothold that was unprecedented, becoming so diverse over time that things like geography and sound could even determine your genre within hip hop – a sub genre was creating more sub genres.
Over time it became to “go to spot” for anything that was urban mode, the stuff Rolling Stone didn’t care to cover. If a there was a beef (Biggie and Pac) or if someone did something incredibly stupid (Left Eye torches crib) Vibe was there, chronicling it – stab wounds and all.
And then something strange happened, after many well-documented editorial changes and masthead additions and subtractions there seemed to be a loss of momentum. Instead of reveling in the culture they covered, it morphed into a thin saccharine filled fanzine. What would once take evenings to devour, could be consumed in a simple sitting. Was I becoming more mag savvy or had Vibe become less?
I realize that over time, I’ve changed. When Vibe launched, I was a high school aged pop culture-consuming consumer - it’s target. At the time it was something new and unprecedented, now with doppelgangers like Complex, Giant and even King crowding its playing field – Vibe is no longer young, fresh or new, and neither am I frankly. And now as someone a little older, a magazine about youth culture shouldn’t speak directly to me, but it shouldn’t feel like a foreign object either.
Over fifteen years later, I ask… Have I outgrown Vibe or is it just regressing?
Tags: Magazine
WHAT NOW?