From Chuck D’s latest Terrordome update. Link
XXL LOSIN MY WAY? Is it me? But I’m wondering sometimes the overall direction of XXL. It’s one of the best looking magazines ever in hip hop, but at times I wonder if I can even relate to what it is. I know that its region oriented, but with magazines out in the world like FELONS Jim trying to figure out if there’s a nation of college grad journalists who sit in a room and exploit the promoted tastes of gun, jail, and drug culture. I also wonder who buys it? Is it a USA white kids peek into the ghetto? While I dealt with mush of those very same topics as an early artists, I always understood the line of exploitation and tried to tell cats not to f#ck with it. In fact when I was talking jail as in BLACK STEEL, I was talking being jailed for being anti-war, government hypocrisy. Never making light of the prison industrial complex i.e. new slavery. Gun culture was dealt from a militant vs military perspective, and drugs we said no. Although we understood how much of our people were entrapped like gristle. In fact who can explain how black male total USA jail population has gone from 100,000 in 1970 to 1.5 million presently. Either I lost my way, or XXL has taking serious things a bit lightly for their power. If they are claiming to solely reflecting the rapmosphere then they will soon be telling tales from the inevitable crypt the next four years. It’s one of the reasons to cast a leery eye on Murderdog Magazine. Simple questions like who publishes this, and who do they look to sell to?
