In an period the place media platforms rise and fall with trending algorithms, AllHipHop.com stands as a testomony to endurance by means of authenticity. When Greg Watkins launched the platform in 1998 alongside Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur, they constructed a digital establishment that might assist outline hip-hop journalism for the subsequent quarter century. From pioneering cellular information supply in 1999 to navigating right this moment’s AI revolution, Watkins has maintained an unwavering dedication to cultural reality whereas pushing technological boundaries. On this candid interview, he discusses sustaining 100% possession of their platform, creating alternatives for the subsequent technology by means of HBCU partnerships, and adapting to rising applied sciences with out shedding their soul. As AllHipHop approaches its twenty sixth yr, Watkins shares his blueprint for conserving the platform forward of the sport – balancing innovation with integrity, fostering Black media possession, and constructing what he hopes might be a thousand-year legacy in hip-hop tradition.
The fashionable media CEO should possess distinct “superpowers” to drive success in right this moment’s complicated panorama. What are your distinctive management items, and the way have they reworked your organization’s narrative and market place?
My distinctive management items lie in my skill to mix cultural perception with strategic foresight. Because the Founding father of AllHipHop, myself and co-founder Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur have at all times prioritized authenticity. I’ve a knack for figuring out rising traits and adapting swiftly, making us pioneers in overlaying hip-hop’s evolution and affect throughout industries. We keep a relentless curiosity and set a transparent and audacious imaginative and prescient for AllHipHop.
Share your media firm’s distinctive worth proposition. How has your model story advanced, and the way do you articulate it in a different way to varied stakeholders?
AllHipHop’s distinctive worth proposition lies in being the heartbeat of hip-hop tradition. Our model story advanced from grassroots beginnings to changing into an authoritative platform for artists, executives, manufacturers and anybody wishing to hook up with the worldwide hip-hop ecosystem.
Describe your inventive management workforce composition. How have you ever strategically constructed and leveraged various views to drive innovation in storytelling?
From our inception in 1998, our workforce has at all times featured various backgrounds and genders, reflecting the dynamic nature of hip-hop itself. Our journalists and content material creators carry a novel view to our storytelling. This variety ensures that our narratives are inclusive and resonate throughout diverse audiences with out shedding sight of the foundations of hip-hop tradition, which was created by marginalized Black and Brown youth. We’ve additionally prioritized hiring people who problem typical pondering to foster an atmosphere the place concepts and opinions thrive and switch into groundbreaking content material.
Describe your technique for figuring out and creating tales that resonate with each core and crossover audiences. How do you keep cultural authenticity whereas reaching broad market enchantment?
We’re a part of the hip-hop neighborhood, so we sustain with rising traits, grassroots actions, and untold tales. To keep up cultural authenticity, we work with writers and artists from inside hip-hop tradition and ensure their voices stay entrance and middle. Our writers and editors abide by the strictest journalistic requirements. Reaching crossover enchantment is a fragile stability of accuracy, understanding our viewers and writing in a fashion to attach with broader audiences whereas staying true to hip-hop tradition.
What position does Black tradition play in shaping your content material technique? How do you leverage cultural insights to create distinctive and compelling programming?
Black tradition is the inspiration of our content material technique as a result of Black tradition is the inspiration of hip-hop. Whereas it’s true that hip-hop is now a multifaceted style, the actual fact stays that it’s nonetheless, to at the present time, rooted within the experiences of Black and Brown folks in america. This strategy permits us to create programming and content material that’s not solely compelling but in addition transformative, uplifting, edgy and genuine.
Share your perspective on the significance of Black-owned media in right this moment’s panorama. How does possession affect inventive management, narrative authority, and financial empowerment?
Black-owned media is important in right this moment’s panorama – particularly with the rollbacks and assaults we’re seeing on Range, Fairness and Inclusion and the filth and misinformation that permeates Musk and Zuckerberg’s social media channels. It’s extra essential now, greater than ever, to make sure genuine illustration and equitable storytelling. Possession gives the ability to push again in opposition to stereotypes and likewise creates alternatives for financial empowerment. Chuck and I nonetheless keep 100% possession in AllHipHop and whereas it has not been straightforward, this has allowed us to remain true to our mission and advocate for tales that matter to our viewers.
Describe your strategy to constructing and sustaining possession of your mental property. What methods guarantee long-term worth creation and generational wealth?
AllHipHop has at all times entered into agreements that prioritize our inventive management and possession of the content material we create. We’ve an incredible library of evergreen video and audio content material of interviews which have long-term worth – and most of it isn’t on-line. This library will enable us to create different and new types of IP. Our new AllHipHop.TV platform and upcoming audio community (AHH.FM) are two methods we’re working to monetize our IP whereas guaranteeing it stays an asset for future generations.
Inform us about your strategy to strategic partnerships and distribution offers. How do you guarantee these relationships amplify relatively than dilute your model’s distinctive voice?
I’ve realized that strategic partnerships are in regards to the alignment of values and imaginative and prescient. We’ve been in nice offers the place they align completely and dangerous offers the place they finally didn’t. We’ve discovered that it’s most essential to collaborate with companions who perceive and respect our model, its legacy and what it means to hip-hop tradition and the leisure enterprise usually. Once I do a deal, it’s at all times with the intention of being the very best companion and dealing to serve the objectives of our partnership. Something lower than that’s unacceptable, and if our companions don’t share the identical imaginative and prescient and objectives, we simply don’t do the deal. It’s a lot better to attend for the proper alternative, which WILL come alongside, versus simply doing offers for the sake of doing them.
Describe your technique for securing and sustaining robust relationships with buyers and monetary companions. How do you talk your imaginative and prescient and worth proposition?
A very powerful half is transparency and belief. We again our phrases with knowledge to show we’re worthy and robust companions to be in enterprise with. And most significantly, we ship outcomes, particularly to advertisers who make investments their {dollars} in our model to get their message throughout to our viewers.
How do you navigate the challenges of scaling a media firm whereas sustaining inventive excellence? Share your strategy to managing progress with out compromising imaginative and prescient.
We’ve at all times labored to take care of a stability to be environment friendly and lean as an operation and use know-how to assist streamline our workflows. We work to assist our writers automate the method and cut back redundancies within the content material creation so our inventive workforce can deal with being inventive. We additionally meet typically to get and obtain suggestions so we will keep true to our core values to make sure chasing progress doesn’t dilute our core values and mission to cowl hip-hop tradition.
What rising applied sciences are reshaping media creation and distribution? Share particular examples of the way you’ve applied progressive options in your organization.
Rising applied sciences, particularly AI-driven merchandise, are reshaping media and content material distribution. For example, ChatGPT is not only a instrument for streamlining analysis and concepts; it’s now changing into a supply of referral visitors. As for audiences, AI is getting used to optimize viewers engagement, in addition to personalised content material supply. From the content material creation standpoint, AI has tremendously diminished time our workforce has needed to spend on repetitive duties like video enhancing, captioning content material, translating content material, getting ready paperwork for conferences and lots of different duties.
How do you consider and spend money on new applied sciences? Share your framework for assessing innovation alternatives and managing the dangers of early adoption.
We consider new know-how by first desirous about its affect on our objectives. From there, we be sure there might be a big return on our funding. Lastly, we take a look at to see how the know-how will assist our enterprise. Often, we take a look at merchandise on a smaller scale earlier than a full rollout to reduce our danger or refine our use of the know-how.
Describe a selected progressive initiative that reworked your content material creation or distribution course of. What have been the challenges and classes realized?
One instance occurred early within the historical past of AllHipHop. To sum it up, we have been the primary leisure model to ship wi-fi information to folks’s two-way units and cellphones. We began this in 1999, effectively earlier than the widespread adoption of recent smartphones. This allowed us to tailor every day information alerts to be delivered to tons of of 1000’s of units, with subscribers starting from unusual followers to artists, executives, tastemakers, and radio DJs. This acted as a pressure multiplier for our model and helped our model explode.
Describe your strategy to viewers engagement and neighborhood constructing. How do you create significant connections past content material consumption?
We interact our viewers in a number of methods. On the digital facet, we have now a neighborhood related to all hip-hop. In actual life, we host occasions to assist strengthen our connection to the viewers. For example, our annual Grammy get together attracts in round 2,000 folks. The identical factor goes with the annual hip-hop Cultural Summit that we produce at The Delaware Artwork Museum on an annual foundation, in addition to film screenings. We additionally actively work together with our viewers by means of social media. Constructing our neighborhood means creating entertaining and academic areas for our viewers to have interaction and be heard.
Trying ahead, what unprecedented alternatives do you see for Black-owned media firms to reshape the business and create generational affect?
There may be nonetheless an incredible alternative for daring entrepreneurs to assist change the panorama for Black-owned media. Tragically, nonetheless, lower than 1% of what’s anticipated to be a TRILLION greenback advert spend in 2025 will go to Black-owned media. So that is nonetheless a vertical the place a lot transformation must and is beginning to happen. There are alternatives to redefine the advert business by prioritizing fairness and authenticity – particularly with the transformation America is present process by way of racial make-up, clashing with the present administration’s DEI insurance policies.
Title three vital elements in sustaining inventive independence whereas scaling a media enterprise. How do you stability these priorities?
The three vital elements are:
- Be sure to are working with the proper folks. Irrespective of how arduous you’re employed, in case you are working with the flawed folks you’ll not accomplish your mission. As Jim Collins places it: “Be sure to have the proper folks on the bus.”
- Determine core values. Your core values will assist outline the remainder of your mission and hold you on monitor as you scale your organization.
- Develop your financial engine/flywheel. On the finish of the day, we’re nonetheless within the enterprise of being in enterprise – which suggests getting cash.
Share three important methods for constructing and sustaining robust relationships with expertise, creators, and different key stakeholders within the business.
Three important methods are:
- Guarantee mutual worth extraction – everybody should profit from the connection. It can’t be one-sided.
- Foster belief by means of honesty about goals.
- Preserve deep business data to make sure worthwhile collaborations and shared alignment to objectives.
How do you measure success past conventional metrics? What cultural legacy do you hope to ascertain by means of your media management?
For Chuck and myself, it has been about making a platform that’s many issues: aspirational, inspirational, instructional, and unapologetically hip-hop. From a cultural standpoint, we have now represented this style for over 25 years. In that point we have now mentored folks, helped artists with their profession trajectories, acted as advocates for Black-owned media, and fought for social justice. We hope our legacy – and AllHipHop – lives on for 1,000 years.
Describe how your organization’s success has created new paradigms for illustration and possession within the media business.
AllHipHop’s success has demonstrated the ability of unbiased, Black-owned media. We’ve proven that illustration and possession go hand in hand, making a blueprint for others to observe. Our journey proves that staying true to our core values and mission can create lasting affect and encourage change throughout the business.
