The ride to the top has been an exciting one for Mimi Valdes, Editor-In-Chief of VIBE magazine. As a fresh-faced college graduate, Valdes’ journalism career was birthed at said urban magazine. While her professional path has had its fair share of twist and turns, the compass has always lead back to VIBE.

These days, VIBE has expanded its branding to include award shows, internet and wireless ventures, and a publication geared specifically to women. Valdes, a formally trained journalist, has exceeded that which is expected of a writer and now manages several of VIBE’s many entities.

How did this self-proclaimed Hip-Hop head go from watching rap videos on Ralph McDaniels’ “Music Box” to capturing the eyes of seven million readers? Read as AllHipHop’s co-chief Jigsaw chops it up with Mimi Valdes, the head of VIBE magazine.

AllHipHop.com: I didn’t realize that you have been with VIBE for so long.

Mimi Valdes: Since day one. I started out as an Editorial Assistant and I was put through a one-month and a half interview process where I interviewed with seven people. I was like “If I don’t get this job…” [laughs] But I left for a while to work for a record company and that didn’t work out. And I was freelancing for a while, and then I was actually at The Source for a little while too. I’m probably like the only ex-employee that didn’t really have a bad experience at The Source. When I got asked to come back to VIBE, I came back here.

AllHipHop.com: What’s been the biggest challenge with VIBE since you have been the Editor-In-Chief?

Mimi Valdes: I always say jokingly that I was given the job at the worst time ever, because, on one level, the music and the culture has gotten so huge and has become such a global phenomenon and, as a life-long fan, it is exciting to see the scope of the influence that this music had on the world at large. It’s such a beautiful thing. Of course, since I have become Editor-In-Chief, everybody wants to do this. The scope of the music has gotten so large that Time magazine wants to put Kanye on the cover. Beyonce is going to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, where they have ignored R&B music forever. As a fan, its beautiful, but as the Editor-In-Chief of VIBE, our challenge – all of us here – have to make sure we are the premier place to find information about these urban music stars.

My big thing, when you consider my reign as Editor-In-Chief, I’m really about trying to find who those new super stars are going to be. VIBE is going into its 13th year. How many times can we do stories on some of these established artists? They are not going to be so open about what’s going on in their life and, more often than not, you know what’s going on. A lot of the superstars are like – you are really still interested in their music, but you aren’t really interested in reading about them. You know everything. I’ve given covers to people, where at first people are like, “[Gasping for air] Like, you’re gonna put Shyne on the cover? T.I.? Game? Are you crazy?” We have had amazing success with those covers. [The Game cover] was one of our best-selling covers. It’s exciting to do stuff like that. Of course it’s about picking the right people.

AllHipHop.com: I noticed you have a lot of diversity with your covers, whether its Allen Iverson, Mary J. Blige, Ciara & Lil’ Bow Wow. Who is your demographic and what involves picking these covers?

Mimi Valdes: We try to reach such a wide range of people, 18-35 is the demographic. If you are 35, your 18-year-old brother or sister might not be listening to what you are listening to. I think, the love of urban music and music, makes the bridge. Allen Iverson was a risky move. Last time we put a basketball person on the cover, it was Michael Jordan and Chris Rock [and] it sold nothing. We’ve learned with VIBE it just makes sense to do music over, even though everything is on the inside. [With Iverson], the NBA dress code was something Hip-Hop was talking about and everybody thought Iverson was the one that started this whole [Hip-Hop/NBA] trend.

AllHipHop.com: Why hasn’t the other Mimi – Mariah Carey – appeared on VIBE’s cover since her resurgence?

Mimi Valdes: Mariah is a perfect example of somebody that is loved by this audience – myself included, love her, love her, love her. But, in the history of VIBE, she’s had three covers – the worst selling covers. They just have not sold. When this album came out, even though it’s clearly her most “VIBE” album, we were thinking, “Is she one of those artists that you love the music, but don’t necessarily want to read about her.” Not to say that we would never do her, but… her next album, just because there is more of a story with the comeback, we could try to figure out something that would be interesting for people to read about.

That is the biggest misconception about covers, they are not about people who are [selling the most], they are about who are people interested in reading about. If you feel like you’ve read everything there is to know about Mariah – you’re not going to pick up the magazine. You’ll pick up her album, you’ll watch her videos, but your not gonna pick up the magazine. Everybody thinks they can run a magazine. I’ll tell you what, Kanye West, last year – worst selling cover.

AllHipHop.com: Worst? Wow!

Mimi Valdes: Second to last.

AllHipHop.com: Speaking of Kanye, he had some disparaging lyrics for VIBE.

Mimi Valdes: We got through that. [Laughs] He was upset because his video didn’t get nominated at the VIBE Awards for “Best Video.” He called me up out of nowhere on my cell phone complaining about it. I was like, “I just got promoted. I had nothing to do with that.” And secondly, “Why are you calling me. I don’t even know you.” This is not the way you start a relationship. We had our words. But then he apologized and sent flowers.

AllHipHop.com: What’s the best-selling cover ever?

Mimi Valdes: The Nas and Jay-Z was the highest-selling cover since I’ve been here. We had never done a Year-End Issue before – of just little pictures of things that went down. We heard about this Jay-Z and Nas thing, and we had to get it. I knew people were gonna see it in the newspaper the next day, they might care, but I had to do it. We’re putting the image in color, on a magazine cover. People will feel that they need to collect this important moment in Hip-Hop. I thought it was great for the culture – two grown men squashing beef. It needed to be celebrated.

AllHipHop.com: With Mary, what did you think what she did [criticizing VIBE cover? Were you appalled?

Mimi Valdes: Things like that – we knew going into the awards she didn’t like the cover. We already had that information. I was more disappointed at where she choose to talk about it. Was like, “You just saw me 10 minutes ago. You didn’t say anything to me.” Even still, she didn’t like it – what am I gonna do. Mary J. Blige was one of the first CD’s I ever bought. I just thought someone like her would have talked to me in her face, in private.

AllHipHop.com: I actually liked the cover – I’m not gonna lie. So how do you manage all of these other entities like VIBE Vixen and The VIBE Awards.

Mimi Valdes: I have 20 jobs. I am involved in everything. It’s not just the magazine. I majored in journalism. It is where I find the most pleasure. That’s the best part of the job for me. But, at the same time, I am honored and pleased that I am involved in everything.

AllHipHop.com: Now is VIBE going to go back to being more of a men’s magazine since you have VIBE Vixen for the ladies?

Mimi Valdes: This is the thing, VIBE was always conceived as a men’s magazine. Of course, as they started [to poll who the reader was], we found that it’s very much a 50/50 split. People didn’t realize that females love the music as well. VIBE’s always had a male sensibility. If the girls were coming, they liked what they saw so there was no reason to cater to them. With VIBE Vixen, that’s straight female or for guys that want to see what the females are thinking about. Guys that are smart! [laughs]

AllHipHop.com: Did VIBE Vixen come before or after Karrine “Superhead” Steffans [who penned the book, Confessions of a Video Vixen]?

Mimi Valdes: [laughs] No, before! I’m mad at Superhead actually. I was like “Damnit.” She gonna mar the word. See, women of color are exploited for their sexuality and also made to feel bad about it.

AllHipHop.com: Now there is a blog called “BitterVibes.” I’m sure you are well aware of it.

Mimi Valdes: Really? A blog? What blog? Who writes it?

AllHipHop.com: I don’t know. Apparently somebody in your organization.

Mimi Valdes: [laughingly] I can’t pay attention to an anonymous blog! When they put their name on it, you will get the excusive. I will let you know what I think about it soon as they put their name on it.

AllHipHop.com: You guys recently started putting “eye candy” in VIBE.

Mimi Valdes: Well, its not eye candy. With the VIBE Awards, we have our “Goddess Award” and we added a “Goddess” page of women that the guys admire for – not only their looks – but they are also trying to do something.

AllHipHop.com: So, as a female, you don’t take exception to the imagery?

Mimi Valdes: I don’t think there is anything wrong with women that want to use their sexuality, whether they are models or actresses. I am so not against that. I don’t like when people talk about the women in videos. They’re not prostitutes. They’re not killing people. If that’s what a woman chooses to do, then that’s up to her. Am I necessarily a fan of the lack of creative ideas in videos? I think its kind of sad that there’s not a lot of diversity in videos. I just refuse to judge women in these videos, because they are not doing anything illegal.

AllHipHop.com: I feel that these videos shape young people’s mind. I think it does create an over-sexualized child or teenager.

Mimi Valdes: Everything has its pros and cons. The flip side of this – and this is why I’m never gonna talk bad about these girls – Growing up, I only saw one body image. It was a really skinny girl that didn’t have hips, and butt and thick legs. If anything, these videos have helped change the world’s perception of women of color. These are images that were frowned upon or thought of as ugly. I remember when that was considered fat and disgusting and vulgar.

AllHipHop.com: Now, you’re a Hip-Hop head, right?

Mimi Valdes: Yeah, definitely.

AllHipHop.com: I know VIBE does both Hip-Hop and R&B…

Mimi Valdes: Yeah, VIBE does R&B, but you know what have always been the best selling covers? The Hip-Hop covers. Always. We do R&B, Reggae – the whole world of urban music. VIBE was conceived with a Hip-Hop sensibility. Treach [of Naughty By Nature] appeared on our very first issue as a test to see where the marketplace was. Then, a year later, we had Snoop on our first cover.

AllHipHop.com: Did you ever used to break-dance?

Mimi Valdes: [laughs] I did, but I wasn’t very good. I’m not even gonna front. I was too lanky.

AllHipHop.com: Who is your favorite rapper?

Mimi Valdes: Biggie. I know that is so typical. People say Biggie or Tupac. But, I interviewed Biggie, when we put him in the “Next” section of VIBE, and later when he was in the cover with Faith. I got to spend a lot of time with him. I like the party jams. Some people like the more subdued nod your head song. I like party jams and storytellers. I like people like Biggie, Slick Rick, Jay-Z, of course.

AllHipHop.com: Speaking of Biggie and Pac, VIBE caught a lot of flack for helping fan the flames of the so-called East Coast/West Coast rap war.

Mimi Valdes: I never understood, I never thought that was fair. Tupac specifically, all he was doing was talking. We’re journalists. All we’re doing is reporting. These men, there’s a lot going on. We fans and we’re journalists and sometimes the natural inclination is to protect. If people are acting crazy and saying crazy things, we would look foolish…they we would be a fluffy magazine.

AllHipHop.com: So, Biggie was your favorite interview too, right?

Mimi Valdes: Yeah, again…nothing was off limits. He was funny as hell. He was a comedian. I don’t think there was anybody funny as him. He was a really, really comical guy and it was a lotta fun. I was on there for a week. It was him and Kim and Cease and I was just rollin’ on the tour bus.

AllHipHop.com: Ok, on the current issue, which features Lil’ Wayne, there is a typo.

Mimi Valdes: [Sighs] Yes.

AllHipHop.com: I personally want to know, what are the ramifications behind something like that? I know AllHipHop.com has typos and they always bother me.

Mimi Valdes: Yes, there is a spelling mistake on the Lil’ Wayne cover, one of those unfortunate things that got caught too late. Definitely heartbreaking.

AllHipHop.com: Are heads gonna roll?

Mimi Valdes: Out of respect for my staff, I don’t want to discuss personnel matters, but it is clearly something…some things are certainly unacceptable. It’s something that’s never going to happen again.

When Def Jam released Licensed to Ill in1986, the Beastie Boys got down with no delay, turning the then dorm-room serviced rap imprint into a full-fledged powerhouse label with their frat boy antics, all the while helping to establish Hip-Hop as a worldly phenomenon with pop cultural clout.

Compiling a timeline of the three white MCs from Brooklyn in his book The Skills to Pay the Bills: the Story of the Beastie Boys, veteran music journalist Alan Light tackles the Beasties’ hi-jinks through an oral history of the group as told through the years by their contemporaries, friends, and even from the group members themselves. Here, in this candied AllHipHop.com interview, the former Editor-In-Chief of VIBE, Spin, and, Tracks magazines, speaks on the heavy impact of the group, as well as the Hip-Hop publishing industries. Ch-check it out.

AllHipHop.com: How much has the Beastie’s being white played into their popularity? What set them apart from other old school pioneers, if not their color?

Alan Light: Where you really saw the color difference was taking the record out to radio, and certainly at that time taking it to MTV, because Licensed to Ill is no more of a rock record than Raising Hell was or Radio was. Where they were invited to participate where black artists were not invited, that made a huge difference to the beginning of their career in that way. I think what distinguishes them is who they are, and what their background was. Race is a part of that, but being NYC kids with a certain exposure to pop culture and the arts was so central to what their writing was about.

AllHipHop.com: But what was it about them?

Alan Light: Several times in the book, people say what was always been cool about them was that they never pretended to be anything they weren’t. From the very beginning, you knew who they were, they didn’t pretend that they weren’t middle-class or better white kids who had these experiences, came out of punk rock the way they did, and had this relationship to Hip-Hop. I think that what people responded to from the beginning was that degree of honesty in their presentation and in their rhymes.

AllHipHop.com: Do you think that, besides color, it was their sense of humor that helped them become more widely accepted? Do you think it hurt their popularity with black audiences?

Alan Light: I don’t think that it did. People didn’t see them as fakes or posers. They saw them as these bugged out white kids, and they thought it was fun and funny. And they toured with Run-DMC and they were obviously accepted within the artists’ community. The core Hip-Hop audience, the black audience, was cool with that. That’s why they have the first number one Hip-Hop album of all time. I mean, that’s why everything came together into such a phenomenon for Licensed to Ill, because it came from both sides.

AllHipHop.com: But how credible did that make them?

Alan Light: I think that there’s always skepticism within the Hip-Hop community when a white act gains prominence, because there’s always that sense of ‘Okay, here we go, this is where the white artist comes in and takes this away from the black artists,’ but Hip-Hop is so obsessed with credibility, and for better or worse, with keeping it real.

AllHipHop.com: Could a white artist or act rise up today and not be considered a parody?

Alan Light: Eminem did, you know? I think that for white artists there are unique opportunities and there are unique challenges. There’s no question that there are still media opportunities that are more open to white artists than to black artists. I think that radio is the most blatant example of that. I think it’s virtually impossible for black artists to cross that line; I think it’s possible for the right white artist to do that. Eminem can get played on K-ROCK, but Jay-Z can’t. There’s a lot more that you need to prove as a white act that you belong in that world, that you’re valid, that you’re not just somebody’s creation.

AllHipHop.com: Are an act like the Beasties even considered Hip-Hop anymore, with every outlet consolidating everything into niche-specific subcategories?

Alan Light: If you make a record with three guys rhyming with a DJ, I think that it’s Hip-Hop. Whether it’s the kind of Hip-Hop that gets played on Hip-Hop radio, there’s a lot of kinds of Hip-Hop that doesn’t get played on Hip-Hop radio. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t belong in the category. [The Beasties had] those Green Lantern mixtapes. It’s not like nobody in Hip-Hop is checking for anything that they do. I think that it’s a challenge for anybody who’s of their age, their generation. The new Public Enemy record, that’s not getting played on Hip-Hop radio either.

AllHipHop.com: You address this in your book, but does writing on the Beasties’ career mean that they’re over?

Alan Light: I don’t think that it necessarily does. I don’t think that they can go forever and ever, but I don’t think that they’re done. I certainly expect that they’re going to make another record. I mean, if they make another record, I have no idea exactly what it’s going to sound like. That’s always pretty exciting to say. It’s a decent time to do this book without saying that means it’s all over and that there’s nothing left to say.

AllHipHop.com: With the release of this book, as well as the high-profile releases of both Ethan Brown and Jeff Chang’s Hip-Hop titles, are publishing houses just starting to realize the importance of documenting this cultural movement?

Alan Light: There’s always a lot of resistance to [whether] kids who listen to Hip-Hop [will] buy books. But I edited a Tupac book that I worked on right after he passed and it was a New York Times bestseller, and would’ve gone higher except that we underestimated on the first printing—we had to go back in and order more books. My answer was if they think it’s cool, they’ll buy it. They’ll spend 26 bucks on a two-disc; they spent it on All Eyez On Me when that came out, so why wouldn’t they spend it on a book as long as they thought that it was actually worth their time?

AllHipHop.com: As a former magazine editor, what do you think The Source can do to—

Alan Light: Ugh.

AllHipHop.com: …to recover from the alleged corruption that ran rampant during the Benzino/Mays era?

Alan Light: I [couldn’t] imagine them recovering with [that] team in place. What this new executive board is trying to do is to burn it down and start over again, but I think that there’s been such incredible damage to the name and the reputation that they would have to make it clear that there’s a new sheriff in town. I can’t even imagine Dave and the team that’s been there could possibly do that. I can’t imagine people being willing to do business with them, with this many contracts unfulfilled and payments not met, and issues not mailed, and just really basic magazine-making stuff not being taken care of. I don’t think that there’s a way to have a viable business unless they convince people that it’s really a new era.

AllHipHop.com: Are you amazed as to how people were actually still buying the magazine?

Alan Light: I think that a lot of people out in the world just don’t pay attention to the industry and the media ins-and-outs. I mean, if you’re a kid and you read The Source ‘cause you know to read The Source, you may have gotten turned off all the Benzino stuff and all of the Eminem stuff or whatever, but you were just responding to that as a reader, not cause you know what’s really going on inside. But the problem is they were losing readers just from that! It’s not like everything was all fine, and they were hitting their numbers and there’s just this beef, scandals, and corruption that are going on. It was also that this business was falling apart anyway, because readers were seeing what this was all about: ‘What’s going on, and why are we as readers being dragged into this?’

AllHipHop.com: Have they done irreversible damage to their legacy, in your opinion?

Alan Light: I have an immense amount of respect for what Dave was able to do at that magazine. I think that any of us who have had anything to do with publishing in the Hip-Hop community do. He pulled it off, he built a real business. Obviously, he got too caught up. Probably the answer is he should’ve sold when he was getting those really good offers that he was getting a few years ago, and figured out what the next chapter should be in his life because that’s just got to be just too much of a high stakes game.

In real life, the ozone layer above the Earth’s surface is depleting at a rate so fast scientists agonize that the gradual rise in temperature will eventually upset the planet’s natural processes. Conversely, Ozone magazine appears to be building at such a rate that it appears on pace to upset Hip-Hop’s long-standing order.

Through the growth, Ozone has found a fan base that is greeted with frank commentary, groupie confessions, exclusive interviews and has placed a megaphone in front of the Southern states. The publication’s founder, Julia Beverly, has found herself embroiled in a number of high-profile situations, most notably with Ray “Benzino” Scott of The Source Magazine. The Orlando, Florida native insists that she’s not seeking the controversy that surrounds Ozone, but admits she isn’t foolish enough to shun the publicity either. Metaphorically she may be the opposite of the ozone layer, but Ozone magazine has still managed to make it hot for the competition.

Here, Julia Beverly of Ozone magazine kicks it about beef, controversy, groupies and being David to the industry’s goliath.

AllHipHop.com: So basically, can you tell people that may not know what Ozone is all about?

Julia Beverly: Well, Ozone is basically a Dirty South rap magazine. It’s kind of the Southern equivalent of a XXL or The Source. I feel like we just bring a different perspective to the game.

AllHipHop.com: What made you start the magazine?

Julia Beverly: Well, originally, I was an amateur photographer and I was trying to get into photography. The magazine was actually kind of a way for me to showcase my photography and develop my skill. I started getting into the Hip-Hop scene in Florida, based in Orlando and I started to travel and when I started to see how there was like a bubbling scene in Orlando, then there was a bubbling scene in Tampa and Tallahassee and Jacksonville, but everybody was kinda like disconnected from each other. We’re so spread out that we kind of needed that outlet and we weren’t really getting it from The Source or XXL because they weren’t there in the South. You know, like they’ll write about somebody once they get hot to certain level, but they weren’t really there on the underground scene.

AllHipHop.com: What’s your approach?

Julia Beverly: Well, me personally, I’m a very competitive kind of person. Like anything that I do, I’m trying to be number one. I watch what happened with the The Source. I look at the game and basically XXL is probably the number one Hip-Hop magazine, so I throw a little snide comments at them in my editorials and stuff that I’m shooting for the top; I’m coming to the top. At the same time, I feel like there’s room for everybody because you know, everybody has their own niche. We’re just going through a growth process because we’ve actually been out for almost four years, but when we started out, we were very small. And we just grew gradually.

AllHipHop.com: What’s your circulation right now?

Julia Beverly: Right now, we’re at 75,000.

AllHipHop.com: Right. Your name seems always to be associated with controversy. Was it planned that way?

Julia Beverly: It’s not really planned. I mean, I agree with you. I always just seem to be in the middle of something, but I don’t really plan it that way. I really just say what’s on my mind. A lot of times people say, “Oh, it’s for publicity, you got [something] about the drop.” Of course I want people to talk about the magazine, because then they’re gonna check for it. Now, I think one important thing to mention is that most of the controversy comes from my editorials every month, which is a very short column where I just say my opinion.

AllHipHop.com: The situation with Benzino is probably the biggest one…

Julia Beverly: If I could plan something that would put my name all over Hot 97, don’t you think I would have done it a long time ago? I’ve been watching what’s been going on with The Source for a long time. With the Benzino thing, you know, I just wrote about some things that I didn’t like about The Source, the way that I’ve seen things recently. Honestly, like when I was coming up, I kind of looked up to Dave Mays – a white guy that had a successful Hip-Hop business. I’m a white female; I’m trying to come in the game, trying to start a magazine. I met Dave a couple times. [At the time,] I had a little magazine, wasn’t that impressive. I told him, “Hey, you know I want to come work for you guys, what’s up?” And he just kinda blew me off.

So, I got a call like a couple weeks after [print date] from this 917 number, and I picked up, and this guy’s like, “Yeah, this is Dave Mays. F**k you, f**kin’ b*tch. F**k. F**k.” Like, that’s all he kept saying over and over and I’m confused because I’m thinking what is he talking about. And you know, he just kept screaming and I hung up on him. And then I remembered [my editorial]. So, he called me back. I hung up on him. Then ‘Zino called me back after that, and started making all these threats.

About three, four days later, I come in the office and they had left a – two voicemails. Benzino had left two voicemails on my office voicemail, so you know, I just recorded it to send it to some DJ’s. I sent it out to the DJ friend of mine and he forwarded it somebody who forwarded it to somebody else and so the next thing I know like three, four hours later, I’m on this conference call with you know, Benzino and Funk Master Flex and pretty much the whole industry. Funk Master Flex had hit me up and said, “Hey, I heard that you know, you have some information on Benzino or whatever, you want to put me on the air?” So, then I started gettin’ calls from the New York Daily News and you know, it was in the New York Times. It was just crazy to me. Once I saw what was happening, you know, I just figured I’d just sit back and enjoy the ride and milk it for the publicity that I could get out of it.

AllHipHop.com: We asked him the same question – we’ll ask you, too. In hindsight, would you have done anything differently?

Julia Beverly: No. Probably not. I said what was on my mind. You know, I put in too much work and too much money and too much effort every month to put out a magazine for me to censor myself.

AllHipHop.com: Are you concerned with the threats, or your safety?

Julia Beverly: I think – man, how do I want to answer this? Give me a minute on that one. I mean, I’m not scared because I don’t feel like I did anything wrong. Like I think that – I think, you know I believe in Karma and all that. I think if you do the right thing and are just true to yourself and you know, I think that you don’t have anything to worry about.

AllHipHop.com: Did you ever consider pressing charges or anything?

Julia Beverly: Yeah. I mean a couple people mentioned it to me. At the time, [Dave and Ray] were still at The Source. I didn’t want to press charges, and give them paperwork and give them an opportunity to print something and twist it and say, “Oh, she’s cooperating with the authorities, or she’s a snitch or she’s that, this or that.” And you know, at the end of the day, I don’t think it would have really made a difference. I mean, if he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it regardless of whether there’s you know, a restraining order against him or not. I could easily have gotten a restraining order. I have recordings of him threatening me basically on my voicemail, then on the conference call, which he also knew we were being recorded. He’s on AllHipHop, threatening me – you know, in your guys’ interview, so I could easily do that, but, you know, again, I just do what I do and no, I’m not really worried about it, you know. I just don’t understand why he feels the need to threaten a female with physical violence. I’m 125 pounds; I’m a white female. So, it’s not really gangsta to be like, “Yeah, I beat up that White b***h.” I mean, isn’t it?

AllHipHop.com: Now, did the term ‘s### monkey’ ever strike a nerve?

Julia Beverly: No, I thought it was hilarious, actually. I still laugh you know, whenever I hear that recording. I was doing drops for DJ’s saying, “This is Daisy the s### monkey.” I kinda have a sense of humor about everything.

AllHipHop.com: Now, Jeremy Miller is taking on The Source now, but before that, he also has Down magazine. Do you feel that they will be coming an increased threat to your brand going forward?

Julia Beverly: No. I really haven’t heard anything about them. I mean, I’m in the streets enough to know what people are talking about. I’m at industry events enough to know what the industry is talking about. I mean, Jeremy, like I don’t have any personal issues with Jeremy. He seems like a good guy, but I wasn’t impressed with the one issue that I saw. And you know, I don’t really see anybody as being a threat to Ozone Magazine, right now.

AllHipHop.com: The most notorious section of the magazine is “Groupie Confessions.” What spawned that?

Julia Beverly: Most of the groupie confessions, to be honest, are like friend of a friend of a friend kinda thing. Like, “Hey, I heard my home girl such and such and such.” There’s a reason I do all the interviews on the phone. Like, a lot of times people email me stories and I don’t print them because I feel like I need to talk to them to kind of get a feel for if they’re legit or not. You know, I’ve gotten emails like, “Oh, this guy is just – he’s so small and he’s terrible,” and it just sounds like they’re just trying to put him out there. They’re just trying to hate on him or whatever.

When you look at the Hip-Hop game, everything is – because it’s so heavily male, everything is from a male perspective, especially when you talk about sex. You know, the videos are always going in there with their a#### jiggling, you know, rappers talk about sex in their songs. And you know what’s funny is, like none of the girls will describe themselves as groupies. It just happened to blow up one year because we had Jay-Z in there, and the New York paper picked up on it and you know, it was all over New York. I mean, if you want get publicity in New York, just talk about Jay-Z’s d*ck, I guess.

AllHipHop.com: Does if affect the relationships? With rappers?

Julia Beverly: It hasn’t. I mean, there’s maybe three rappers I can think of that actually confronted me about it. I just told them straight up, “The girl called in and I interviewed her, and it sounded like it was legitimate, so I printed it.” We managed to smooth it over or whatever. It hasn’t been anything too serious.

AllHipHop.com: Now you seem to have really good relationships with, especially artists down South, do you ever, you know, I don’t know, does that ever interfere with you doing your job?

Julia Beverly: To a certain extent, I understand what you’re saying, but I think it helps more than it hurts. I have a lot more access to artists than any other publication. Like when you look at The Source or XXL or Vibe, – they’re very corporate companies in the sense that they have employees that come in from eight-to-five, and then they go home kind of thing. To me, it’s 24/7 and 50 percent of the time, we’re on the road. So the artists just started to see me so much. They would be like they see me in Miami one day, and then they see me in Houston the next day, and then in New York the next week or whatever.

AllHipHop.com: Okay. Do you feel ever overwhelmed? ‘Cause I know you do most of the book yourself…

Julia Beverly: I feel overwhelmed 90 percent of the time. But I think I perform better under pressure. If I don’t have a deadline, then I’ll get lazy. It’s good for me because it keeps me on my toes and when we were starting out, I did pretty much do everything for the first couple years, as far as photos and interviews and the layout and the ad sales and that wasn’t really by choice; that was more because of lack of funding. But, it really turned out to be a good thing because it helped me to learn every aspect and now that we’re growing and that we have a little more of a budget, you know, we actually have a staff now – a small staff, that I’ve been delegating a lot more responsibilities to other people. I just finish the issue and try to take a couple days to just relax and get back into the swing of things.

AllHipHop.com: What’s the next big step?

Julia Beverly: We’re working on putting together an award show, actually. I’m definitely looking to branch out into other things and other forms of media, I guess.

AllHipHop.com: Are you going to leave Orlando?

Julia Beverly: That’s a good question. I don’t know. We’re still opening our office in Atlanta, where we still have the office in Orlando, and we’re going to see how that goes.

J

erry Barrow. The general population may not know his name at this moment, but the New York native has quietly helped shape the way you perceive Hip-Hop through his work at The Source, Trace magazine, Right-On magazine and even a short stint with AllHipHop. But the self-proclaimed beat junkie has found his calling at SCRATCH magazine, the premiere Hip-Hop magazine devoted to production and deejaying.

With his duties, Barrow isn’t the easiest person to track down, but AllHipHop’s own illseed managed to catch the moving editor after hours on instant messenger. Check out the digital conversation between these two Hip-Hop heads as they talk about Jay Dilla, the state of beats and the difficulty catering to the masses and the core audience simultaneously.

AllHipHop.com (11:57:37 PM): What was your agenda upon arrival at Scratch?

Jerry Barrow (11:59:10 PM): I wanted to make the life and work of producers as interesting to the masses as the MCs they were familiar with. Thus you have Just Blaze with a ball of fire in the palm of his hands, and Cee-Lo literally cooking up music in his kitchen, off the wall stuff like that. When I came in, most of that issue was done so those were the only stories I could touch in that way.

AllHipHop.com (11:59:49 PM): How difficult is it to find an audience that’s interested in production only?

Jerry Barrow (12:03:12 AM): The challenge is that Hip-Hop magazine readers have not been introduced to the idea of making music on a grand scale, and the people who buy production magazines, don’t particular care for certain aspects of other Hip-Hop magazines. So trying to service two audiences is extremely difficult. With each issue, I am trying a new mix of things. I wasn’t prepared for having to cater to two audiences. When I left The Source, I looked forward to just dealing with production, but after the Jermaine Dupri issue hit stands, my bosses wanted to up the ante so to speak. I wished I’d been given more time with the old format, of just production, because that Jermaine Dupri issue ended up selling really well.

AllHipHop.com (12:06:07 AM): That said, you have been accused of dramatically decreasing the more technical aspects of production in exchange for more lifestyle/rapper driven content. How do you address this?

Jerry Barrow (12:09:31 AM): Some people think that I just arbitrarily changed it. I had several long meetings with my publishers, where they essentially said that the technical aspect was good, and we need to keep it, but we have to find a way to attract more readers. They didn’t know what to do because they’d already had the biggest names in production on the cover.

AllHipHop.com (12:09:49 AM): Right, right…

Jerry Barrow (12:12:34 AM): They were telling me “Put Biggie on the cover, put ‘Pac on the cover,” and I was like “Huh? You’re kidding, right?” But that is what has worked for them in the past, so I forgive them to a degree. It was frustrating, but they’re businessmen and needed to see their business grow. So I took a potentially negative situation and turned it into a positive. If we’re going to bring MC’s into the book, lets bring Hip-Hop back to the essence, which is how the Nas and [DJ Premier] cover came about.

AllHipHop.com (12:13:29 AM): That had everybody talking. What was the feedback like?

Jerry Barrow (12:15:54 AM): See, the feedback comes in two waves: people who are Hip-Hop fans and read Hip-Hop magazines LOVED IT. They couldn’t stop talking about it. Even producers I know where like “OH S**T, WORD?” But the complaints have come from some of the old readers and producers who felt like once again producers are being placed in the background. And I understand their frustration. But there is a method to my madness.

AllHipHop.com (12:15:11 AM): Which is…?

Jerry Barrow (12:16:35 AM): The success of Dupri and now Nas/Preemo made it possible for me to put RZA on the cover. That would NOT have happened before. They needed to see results in order to feel comfortable again.

Jerry Barrow (12:17:33 AM): If I had come to them in May, when I first started and said, “I want to do a RZA cover,” they’d have said ,”Hell no.”

Jerry Barrow (12:18:46 AM): And as you can tell, we HAD that RZA story since May. That’s when it first started.

AllHipHop.com (12:19:53 AM): LOL! Right.

Jerry Barrow (12:20:08 AM): but I held it because I felt he deserved a cover.

AllHipHop.com (12:24:33 AM): I know for a fact, Marley Marl wanted the cover and, based on his work, deserves it. How do you manage that?

Jerry Barrow (1:00:48 AM): If it was totally up to me, Marley, Pete Rock, Large Pro…all of those cats would be on the cover of Scratch. They’re icons in production. In a perfect world, I can build Scratch up to the point where they’ll feel comfortable letting me do that. I didn’t think when I started that I’d get RZA and DJ Premier on the cover, and I managed to pull that off.

AllHipHop.com (1:07:32 AM): How do you intend to address the untimely death of J Dilla? Can a brother get a cover?

Jerry Barrow (1:08:36 AM): I was on the phone with ?uestLove the day Dilla passed. Neither of us knew he had died, and after we confirmed to do The Roots cover, he asked me could he interview Dilla for Scratch. I was like, “Hell yeah,” Even though we’d interviewed Dilla in November, we only got a few minutes with him on the phone. I knew ?uest would bring a very personal perspective ,and ask questions we wouldn’t even think of. So we agreed it would run in the next issue to give him some time to do the interview and write it.

AllHipHop.com (1:11:08 AM): Damn.

Jerry Barrow (1:11:21 AM): Then our phones got cut off. An hour later, his manager calls me and then I get [instant messages] from all over saying that Dilla passed and my jaw just dropped. So, the choice then is, ‘Do you bump the Roots cover for Dilla?’ They’re family. It just doesn’t make sense. And who better to pay tribute to the man than them? It was like it was meant to be. And I was finally convinced it was a good idea when I spoke to Mrs. Yancey [Dilla’s mother]. Taking The Roots off the cover would be like taking Dilla off the cover to me. It’s like, support the artists while they’re HERE. That’s why the coverline is “LOVE THEM NOW.” And son, I got some really mean spirited letters [after] Dilla passed, saying that we neglected him when he was alive. People don’t know how hard we worked to get the interview we DID get – we got the LAST interview, man. That’s a blessing.

AllHipHop.com (1:21:24 AM): What’s the state of affairs as far as beats and production are concerned. There are a lotta complaining rappers. What about producers?

Jerry Barrow (1:22:02 AM): Well, I think I hear more beats than the average A&R. [laughs] There are some talented people out there, but a lot of hot garbage. The best stuff I hear is at the beat battles. The playing field has been leveled with software being cheaper, but now everyone with a PC thinks they’re a producer, and they don’t understand the fundamentals of melody. There is no microwave method for being a producer, you have to put in work and time. [Funk musician,] Amp Fiddler told Dilla, “Here’s the MPC, figure it out.” No one was holding his hand.

AllHipHop.com: (2:38:56 AM) Were you bringing this same sort of flavor with Scratch to The Source when you were there?

Jerry Barrow (2:41:06 AM): Oh man, I had a ball because I pretty much isolated myself from the [bulls**t]. I was taking meetings with Jean Grae, Rock from Heltha Skeltah, and Lord Have Mercy. Me and Fahiym [Ratcliffe] called ourselves ‘the last of the Mohicans,’ because we stubbornly held down the underground. I was trying to get J-Live “Hip-Hop Quotables” and all kinds of nonsense. You could tell when I was overseeing a section. When I did “Mic Check,” you saw Murs, Jean, Grits – a lot of Independents. And then I made Paul Wall and Chamillionaire the lead “Mic Check” one issue, instead of Bone Crusher. Dave [Mays] got p#####, and then I got taken off of “Mic Check.” LOL. But look at Paul Wall and Chamillionaire now, compared to Bone Crusher. I knew what I was doing.

AllHipHop.com (1:52:13 AM): Now, some people heard your name being shouted out by Star of Power 105 in New York…care to comment?

Jerry Barrow (1:52:44 AM): LOL.

Jerry Barrow (1:54:04 AM): Maaan, only ‘cause it’s AllHipHop, and y’all are the reason it all happened.

AllHipHop.com (1:55:43 AM): What did we do?????

Jerry Barrow (1:56: 38 AM): The transcript he was beefin’ about is on there somewhere, buried in the AHH archives, gathering dust. All I’ll say is we spoke like two men, and squashed it. I heard he said some nice things about me on the air after we spoke, so I thank him for that.

AllHipHop.com (1:25:13 AM): Moving along, have you ever been a producer?

Jerry Barrow (1:27:07 AM): I dabbled in it many years ago. One of my writers, Sean Sharp, is a producer, and we actually made beats in his home studio many moons ago. I’d make loops in Cool Edit, and bring them to his crib – just stuff I thought could work, I’d raid my dad’s record collection for breaks. Then, I started working at The Source, and the hours just made it impossible to keep doing it.

AllHipHop.com (1:38:56 AM): What’s your take on sampling vs. keyboard beats?

Jerry Barrow (1:41:17 AM) : I’m a sampling head myself, because that’s what I grew up with. But there are some dope electronic beats out there as well. My joint right now is that E-40 joint that Lil’ Jon did, crazy! But sample wise, Just Blaze murdered “The Champ” on the Ghostface album. I think its harder to be original with the keyboards, because they use all of the same sounds. But then the sample cats all fall back on the sped up loop and that gets repetitious. “Grillz” is my guilty pleasure, right now. It’s an ign’ant ass song, but the beat is crazy. Hahaha.

AllHipHop.com (1:42:16 AM): Thoughts on “Laffy Taffy” – more hate!

AllHipHop.com (1:42:26 AM): Sorry! I’m bout to go off, like biz.

Jerry Barrow (1:42:30 AM): Oh, man don’t get me started…

AllHipHop.com (1:42:50 AM): Come on Mr. Barrow, keep it real here.

Jerry Barrow (1:42:56 AM): I don’t wanna be seen as a hater, but I can’t mess with “Laffy Taffy” unless its 2am and I’m drunk in a club.

Jerry Barrow (1:43:03 AM): that will never be on my ipod, but there is a place for “Laffy Taffy.”

AllHipHop.com (1:43:18 AM): Favorite producer?

Jerry Barrow (1:45:29 AM): Oh man…Favorite producer right now, I have to say Just Blaze. He’s killin’ it. That “Safe To Say (The Incredible)” or “No More Fun and Games.” My all time favorite, Pete Rock, hands down. I’mma get Pete Rock his cover.