By Marisa Pjerrou
A self-described hip-hop/urban music "industry pariah"
aimed at industry insiders (and those that want to be insiders), online
media watchdog Urban Expose (http://www.urbanexpose.com)
puts forth juicy news items (gossip, really) relevant to the "exploding
urban media market." It also monitors the influence and power
of individuals and web sites in urban media based on the results of
a clout-ranking engine called "The Infinity Engine" by measuring
a variety of factors such as traffic, press releases, financial data,
market flux, et. (The word "urban," by the way, being used
here to refer to the rap/hip-hop realm of the black entertainment
industry.)
The site's curious but critical outlook on the urban media market
unites both industry insiders and industry fans in some serious ranting
at the discussion board. Judging by the quality of the postings -
mostly under pseudonyms - there are clearly some people here who know
what they're talking about and have humorous, gossipy and insightful
comments to make. (Urban Expose carefully puts forth a disclaimer
describing its entire news story content as "lampoon" and
therefore can take no responsibility for the comments, which could
be "rumors, innuendo or malicious gossip.") A discussion
centered on the merger of hip-hop sites hookt (http://www.hookt.com)
and platform (http://www.platform.net)
to the financial benefit of hookt elicited many a pissed-off
comment at hookt (the site uses Sean "Puffy" Combs
as a spokesperson and features an animated series produced by Eminem
- http://www.slimshadyworld.com
- that has a cartoon version of Eminem/Marshall greeting viewers with
"Yo! What's crackin bitch!") Other discussions also based
on an industry gossip "teaser" had various themes ranging
from the sell-out nature of hip-hop to the potential of libel in the
Urban Expose discussion board postings.
The discussion board is the only real strong feature of this site;
there isn't a great deal of content to www.urbanexpose.com.
But the discussions are interesting and informative because of some
very loyal discussion board participants who, for some reason, obviously
enjoy the forum of Urban Expose. While I'm not a big follower
of the hip-hop scene, I was fascinated by the insights into the hip-hop
industry and African-American culture by reading the discussion board
transcripts. Some suggestions for improvements are that urbanexpose.com
get rid of the clout-ranking feature of the discussion board participants,
as well as the required field entry of stating where one works (in
order to register into the site): clearly the majority of people are
using pseudonyms and made-up company names. Also, in ranking the clout
of real hip-hop bigwigs, it does help to give a little background
information instead of just listing names, websites, and numbers.
The writing, too, could use some editing: the blurbs read more like
rough drafts than final, revised pieces.