Vibe Magazine Review

Today’s review is going to be about entertainment magazine and website Vibe.

I remember when Vibe was one of the major publications to learn about hip hop culture. It was cool, entertaining, and informative. My friends and I use to anticipate every issue that dropped because we knew that they would bring the heat.

I still have several Vibe Magazine issues including the ones with Jay-Z, Biggie, Nas and Tupac on the cover. Vibe use to be as a platform that informed the world about the hip hop culture, and each month it was a treat for us to read up on all our favorite rappers that it featured. Now, in my opinion, the Vibe brand is as good as dead.

It has changed ownership several times over the years, and word on the streets is that Vibe is no longer relevant in the hip hop community. And yes, it does matter what the hip hop community thinks of Vibe because we’re their number one target audience.
At one point Vibe magazine was rocking, but now it’s not much of a company to speak of. Here’s my full review on Vibe Magazine.

Company History

Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine co-founded in 1993 by music producer Quincy Jones and media company Time Inc. The publication predominantly features R&B and Hip-Hop artists, actors and other entertainers. In the summer of 2009 Vibe shut down its production while going through a change of ownership. Now, Vibe is owned by a private equity investment fund Inter-Media Partners, and its publication is now issued every other month.

Content

Vibe had some pretty good content in its publication. There were featured segments that included: the back page list 20 Questions, the Boomshots column about Reggae and Caribbean music by Rob Kenner, Revolutions music reviews and Vibe Confidential, a celebrity gossip column. They also had a segment called Next which profiled up-and-coming artists. The magazine also devoted several pages to photo spreads displaying high-end designer clothing as well as sportswear by urban labels such as Rocawear and Fubu.

Vibe made a consistent effort to feature models of all ethnicity in these pages. Former editor Emil Wilbikin was frequently credited with styling those pages and keeping fashion in the forefront of the magazine’s identity during the early 2000s.

Brand

In my opinion Vibe use to be an incredible and reputable brand. They use to publish books on hip hop culture, and featured many top artists like: Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z, and DMX. They also had a “spin off” magazine called Vixen Vibe which aimed at Vibe’s female multicultural demographic, Vibe Vixen included features on beauty, fashion, and female entertainers. R&B starlet Ciara appeared on the inaugural issue’s cover. They also had a live night talk show which premiered in 1997, but it was shortly cancelled due to low ratings.

Website Analysis

The website really needs a makeover. I have that everything is squeezed into the center of the website. I also dislike as soon as you go onto the site a video on the right hand side starts playing. That’s very annoying. I don’t like the site theme or layout and think that they should change to look more like an entertainment website.

Final Words

My final word is that Vibe magazine and its brand is a good as dead. They haven’t been relevant in hip hop since the late 2003; and it started in the early 90’s! I think it had a good run for 10 years, and couldn’t produce much after that. It’s no disrespect to Vibe; it once was an authority in hip-hop culture. In fact I still own some of the classic covers with Tupac, Biggie and 50 Cent on them. Most new artist just want to be in Vibe magazine just to say that they’ve been in a magazine that use to be a classic; not because it’s a relevant magazine now.

I think that the magazine failed to keep up with the interests of its core audience which are young urban “hip-hopsters.” I think having a magazine with such broad content trying to appeal to youth that are interested in viewing only hip hop content, including hip hop news, lead to their failure. And it also didn’t help that there were several management problems and several changes in ownership of the company. It just became an entity that was unstable, and as a result of that became un-appealing to its core audience. Overall Vibe magazine is no longer an authority in the hip hop community, and I think that it’s only a matter of time before the whole company folds.

Rating: 1 Star out of 5