MediaChannel:    Recently, corporations have directed lots of interest — expressed primarily, but not always, in money — at what's casually called the urban media market. What's the nature of this interest? Is this a flavor-of-the-month flash of attention or a lasting phenomenon? And what do the corporations expect in return?

Scoop Jackson:    Initially, I would say a large part of the interest is exploitation. But that might be too real and [— as well —] not "totally" accurate. Yes, it is the "flavor-of-the-month" syndrome (or, as [Ice] Cube said, "They'll find a new nigger next year"), and it is also a lasting phenomenon. The way corporations look at urban culture is different than we — those who live it and live in it — look at it. I've said it many times before: "A Black man sees 5 brothas standing on a corner and sees trouble; a white man sees 5 brothas standing on a corner and sees opportunity."

It's just the nature of Black people in this country being the software, while other races play the foundation. We are and always have been the program, but never the computer that runs the program.

What corporations expect in return is basically two things: 1) strong financial returns and 2) internal liberation. With the race issue being so powerful in this country, a lot of companies tend to "invest" in the nature of urban culture so that their name is not associated with racist practices or anything relating to discrimination towards minorities. That whole "Well, we-give-to-the-NAACP" escape-sentence that white-owned companies have used for decades is getting played. So now they do other things to pacify the masses. Which is smart, and we shouldn't be mad at them for that. As the publisher of XXL just told me the other day when I asked him how he could put Eminem on the cover of the magazine after Em has publicly burned issues of the magazine onstage in the past: he said (and this is not to shit on him), "Scoop you know I don't have any pride in this, this is about money." What could I say after that?

Alain Mariduena:    The nature of this interest is of course to make money and exploit the Internet's ability to reach young consumers. The fact that it is "urban" media is secondary to the fact that it is actually youth driven. If we look at plays like Hookt and UBO and 36O they are going after all youth, not urban youth. Actually, they even say that they are going after more suburban youth as consumers because of all the big pluses in their demo: more money, more spending, more computers, etc.

Also this market is almost a cheap buy because the players who create the media are so hungry. VCs [venture capitalists] or just savvy biz people have come in and taken over because of the lack of knowledge of some of us. Case in point is XXL and Harris Publishing. The founders don't even own the company. They don't have equity in their creation. Crazy, isn't it? Even crazier is that people support that vehicle/publication when they openly exploited the founders. And why not? They were able to hire a staff that didn't have scruples.

For investors, the urban intro to these youth consumers is new and can be seen as a temporary thing. It is not exactly flavor of the month, but not exactly lasting. There are few sites that actually have the capital, strategy, and actual commitment to the urban space for me to believe that this is long term. I see a few players in this space existing for 2 years and the rest being history. It is a shame when I think about it. There needs to be more of an interest on the side of the funders and CEOs if we are to have these types of media outlets for long. The return? Well, these corporations expect to be the owners of these outlets. They want control. The want majority ownership. They also want to ramp the company up and sell it off. Of course, [attract] lots of eyeballs. This is the new media economy — let's not forget it.

Crispus Attucks:    It's not a passing thing to invest in urban media. There is a demand. There is a huge profit to be made by filling this demand. The investments and interest are directly concerned with profiting off of this, as is the nature of business.

It's a new market and a lot of people haven't figured out how to bring out the new ideas in content that stand out on the Web yet. That applies to mainstream media and the large subset that is defined as urban media. Tons of new and exiting ideas have come out of urban media to influence all forms of content. I think everyone recognizes that, even if it takes a while for companies to come around to it. Sometimes it seems like urban content always has to start from scratch and battle uphill in a new medium, the Web being no exception.

Corporations expect a profit. They expect to build lasting brands that they can move vertically through different markets. They want content that they can move as a product, that holds a paying audience's attention.