This is definitely personal.

I used to love Vibe magazine, the way that Streetbeat loves Kanye West.

Created in part by Quincy Jones, I always felt that the magazine gave Hip Hop and urban culture a stylised slightly mainstream voice but was still acceptable to me.
Yep – they had waaaay to much advertising.
Yep – the fashion pages would p!ss me off.

But it was in my monthly budget for magazines to pick up (even as it got thinner and thinner and ultimately closed).

About 10mins ago I saw the rumour on Twitter (good look Rapradar!)

Chris Brown for the relaunch cover?

Dumb move on many levels if it is true.

Why? Well we covered it here, here and most graphic of all here!

Since the most well known domestic abuse beating since Ike & Tina Turner, we seem to have been subjected to strategic manipulation by both people to use the episode to sell records and further their careers. It’s fricking tasteless!

Now that it appears that Vibe are using this as a way to;

1- Relaunch the magazine

2 – Sell copies of the magazine

3 – Create some much needed hype

Dumb move…..

R