MediaChannel:    You all make participation in this particular branch of the media game sound — at best — like a compromising ordeal. Aside from amassing some semblance of personal wealth, what good comes from being involved in the urban media business, on the commercial level?

Crispus Attucks:    That's a leading question that can be answered on many levels. To keep it simple, it's still rewarding and challenging to see how far you can go and still get a check without compromising your ideals. Urban media is a reflection of where I am from, so I can only hope to play in that arena, learn and ultimately influence it.

Cristina Verán:    For me, that good is the ability to reach a particular audience — first and foremost for me, the young urban black/brown populace and Native youth on the rez, but also all those middle-class,middle-American kids and those overseas who are looking to urban media for something more than what their own community provides them. It's too easy to dismiss them entirely as simply wannabes or wiggers. They are future [or current] voters, parents, leaders, etc., and if the effects of their initial embracing of Urban or Black or Minority [whatever] culture are at all lasting, for at least SOME of them, that, in and of itself, is revolutionary. Perhaps a rap record is the first time in their lives some of these kids have been confronted with a certain political issue affecting people of color, be it police brutality against minorities, the Amadou Diallo killing or even the Vieques bombing situation in Puerto Rico.

I was recently in Prague, Czech Republic, at a former Soviet-era, Communist-party social club — now a hip hop spot — in the grimy basement of some "projects," filled with hardcore hip-hop kids. I was handed a flyer [written in Czech] for a "free Mumia" rally being held in their community. The hip-hop community there, too, has been quite vocal in the antifascism movements, and I would argue that hip-hop itself has helped empower them and interest them in such actions. That's the kind of stuff that really moves me, and I take pride in my part in disseminating these important political and cultural issues to the world.

These days, I apply my journalistic expertise covering mostly non-hip-hop topics/issues affecting Urban, Latin American and Indigenous communities for non-"urban" media. At this point in time, I find it increasingly difficult to "convince" urban media outlets to cover more of these positive, thought-provoking issues in-depth and nearly impossible to get editors — most of whom are not involved with the culture [beyond the "industry" that controls it] — to increase coverage of anything else besides commercial rap. Just trying to keep hope alive, WITHOUT compromise.

Scoop's Response:    I like what Cristina said, esp. the "keepin' hope alive, w/o compromise." That's real. But for me the situation is a little different. One, "the amassing of personal wealth" is bullshit. Especially if you are an urban journalist. Yes, there is money to be made, but (as in life) the playing field is not level simply because of numbers. Most urban mags top out at $2 per word, whereas GQ, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, etc. average around $3.50 to $3.85 per word. So please don't get it twisted that urban journalism is a safe haven for gettin' paid, even though Keith Clinkscales is on the cover of Black Enterprise this month.

Anyway, the good that comes out of being black and in this area of journalism is that there is a chance for you to right some of the wrongs and rectify some of the omissions that have occurred to us over the years. White people, especially whites in the media, are not going to go out of their way to make black people important or make what we do relative to how mainstream America functions. With us being only 12 to 13% of the population, we ain't never going to be mainstream, therefore our lives — to them — lack impact. Urban journalism can be (and at times is) the balance. We, as journalists, have the opportunity to make what other black people do seem just as important as what the other side does. Min. Farrakhan can become as important as Bill Gates, Ken Chenault (American Express-CEO) can be as important as Allen Greenspan, Bob Johnson (BET) as important as Ted Turner. Case in point, I have yet to see any magazine (or TV news magazine) do a seriously in-depth feature on Tavis Smiley, but Larry King and Ted Koppel are featured somewhere at least once a year.

Alain Mariduena:    The good is that we have a voice. The good is that the voice is not that of the same white American that works at the other media outlets [and is] given assignments to define things we are living and experts of. The good is that we put some fire under the other commercial ventures' ass that forces them to be realer and honest (sometimes). The other good is that we have to build a business foundation. You know have equity and assets in companies (like mine) to be respected and to make a difference in the media landscape. For real, we need to be in it to take it over and be heard and lay it down for our seeds that follow. The only way not to get herbed is to have a stake in it, to own it. I'm out....

Rahsaan Harris:    I think there are concrete benefits for being involved In the urban media business. Every time we get an image of a black entrepreneur, social activist or community concern out in the eye of a larger audience, we have won a small victory. It is important that we push to put positive images of black people out there and that we always fight to make progress.

If we lose our hope, we lose our will and purpose of living. But I believe that we aren't a people of despair. We can make urban media work for us, but it is not going to happen if we don't keep fighting even in the face of the negativity that is out there.