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| Team UE:small time hustlers. scott mills is bald |
This page is not currently updated. For recent press mentions and clips email: press@urbanexpose.com
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Jun 25, 2001 |
Russell Simmons, Chariman of BET.com, Founder of Def Jam, Owner of Phat Farm, Developer of Film and Television Tells Forbes Urbanexpose.com is his favorite site!
We thank you, Godfather of HipHop and Scott Mills' boss!
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Mar 2,2001 |
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Mar 14, 2001 |
| Urban Exposé launched
quietly in June: a small niche site dedicated to covering the
urban entertainment industry. It covered the exploding urban
media market with incisive articles with a humorous slant. The
site is targeted to the urban intelligentsia. Without any money
spent on marketing or promotions, the site address spread rapidly
through the industry. Executives in the space began to whisper
the name of the site in elevators and employees began to talk
loudly of a hilarious no-holds-barred site over after-work drinks
and industry events.
Urban Exposé also had a built-in
curiosity factor. No one could figure out who ran it. The
site listed the editor-in-chief as Crispus Attucks, a figure
in history from the revolutionary war days. Other staff members
had also taken on the names of prominent black revolutionaries,
such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Even the domain
name seemed to be untraceable. It was registered to 44 Wall
Street, a building known to incubate several urban media companies
during the year, which added further confusion as to who was
behind UE.
People in the industry, trade magazines, and
the national press began to wildly speculate as to who was
behind the web site. Every company in the space was accused
of starting the site to be a promotional vehicle to put down
its competition. The list of suspects was long, however no
one seemed to be able to pinpoint the actual person(s) responsible.
This, of course, made the perfect environment in order to
hide in plain sight.
Urban Exposé began to consistently
break ground over the next few months, scooping most other
outlets attempting to cover the space. The site consistently
delivered stories on mergers, bankruptcies, layoffs, and changes
in management. The site was bold enough to disclose internal
documents obtained through contacts in the industry. The site
provided screen shots of Russell Simmon's over-hyped 360hiphop.com
well before it launched, bankruptcy papers of Urban Box Office,
and business plans of several sites.
The site's message boards have proven to be
fertile ground for industry rumors, deep insights, disinformation,
and salacious comments directed at perceived enemies. It manages
to pull in CEOs, editors, assistants and venture capitalists
to post ideas on the industry and particularly to address
their concerns or defend what they may have perceived as erroneous
facts. The boards also proved to be an irresistible attraction
for disgruntled employees to air their grievances in a place
they knew their employers could not ignore. To combat this,
some companies, namely UBO, began to block users access to
the site, although workers passing by the upper management
offices would often see printouts of the site sprawled across
their desks. In an attempt to get their fix, employees passed
around techniques of getting around the block with anonymous
proxies, which allowed users to still read the website.
There were rumors of private detectives being hired to find
out who was behind Urban Exposé. Consultants
were hired to analyze the few known voice recordings of Crispus
in attempt at a positive identification. I was even approached
myself to attempt to find out who the mysterious editor was.
I felt as though I was suddenly in "The Star Chamber."
It seems as though everyone was looking for Crispus. I had
friends from the offices from the New York Times to theStreet.com
being asked "Who runs Urban Exposé?"
The Real World.
The team behind the site sifted through information
readily available on the Internet, as well as submitted material
via e-mail, voice mail and instant messenger. The best information
however was always found out in the field. Urban Box Office
had a party on Ellis Island to impress future investors with
their vision and to improve employee morale. It was to be
a gala affair, unlike any other. They flaunted big name stars
like Mary J. Blige, N'sync and Britney Spears in front of
the press. I infiltrated the fete rather easily by calling
up and pretending to be a publicist for a B-grade celebrity
that the company had a penchant for signing to lucrative web
site deals. I quickly found myself with a set of iridescent
bracelets that would gain me entry to the event.
I prepared myself by strapping a small camera
to my waist to take pictures for proof of my visit. The challenge
would be multiplied by the fact I would be on an island with
only one obvious escape route: the water. So I also wore a
full-body swimsuit under an easily removable jumper in case
I was discovered and the situation became hostile. Then I
jumped on the ferry to Ellis Island. I found myself seated
next to an employee who happens to live in my building. I
thought for a minute that I should perhaps move away from
his field of vision till I realized he was practicing ignoring
me.
After I disembarked from the ferry, I loitered
at the entrance to the main complex. They had set up a video
camera that was awaiting the cavalcade of top-notch pop stars
that were invited. After an hour, they realized that none
of the celebrity guests were going to show up. The camera
operator slowly turned on the big lights and packed up the
camera. Everyone at the party suspected that Crispus Attucks
was somewhere on the island. I began to walk around the event
schmoozing with executives, gleaning small pieces of what
was happening at the company while taking pictures secretly
of the revelry.
I approached a crowd of executives and writers
from a certain company; I became alarmed as they loudly proclaimed
that I was Crispus Attucks. They began to laugh hysterically
at my stone countenance and succinct denial. Relieved, I changed
the subject with idle chatter. By the time I left Ellis Island,
I realized that they didn't have enough resources to make
it to the next year.
Urban Box Office was going to go under. The
morning before they were going to file for bankruptcy and
lay off a bunch of employees, I decided to do a little guerilla
marketing of my own to synchronize with the story's release.
I executed an early morning mission to promote the site by
writing Urbanexpose.com in chalk in front of UBO's main office.
Armed with high-end walkie-talkies, I rolled out with an assistant
to act as a lookout. I quickly branded the sidewalk with large
calcium deposits that would direct employees coming to work
to go to the site. I rushed home bleary-eyed to throw up the
first story of UBO Week 2: "When Good Sites Go Bad."
- by John Lee |
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Feb 11, 2001 |
Always Two Steps Ahead and For
Us, Better Late Than Never, Crispus Chats With Max Jerome
About His BackGround, Newest Ventures, The Controversy Surrounding
His WebSite, His Extended Family, Politics Of Free Speech, And
His Televised Debut On NBC.
- by MaxJerome |
Interview
in real audio: |
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Feb 6, 2001 |
"We launched and hit our target market so fuckin' fast it was ridiculous. Within days we had a fuckin' audience. Strictly word of mouth. It was hot enough to be one of those things that people talk about, and that spreads virally. People talk about 'doing a viral marketing campaign.' You don't do a viral marketing campaign, a viral marketing campaign happens by its fuckin' self. All you can do is make a site viral-marketing friendly," Crispus continues. He imitates a pencil-necked flack: "'We're gonna do a viral marketing campaign!'" Then, in his merciless Brooklynese, retorts, "What are you gonna do-e-mail all your fuckin' friends? Which is what some of these cats really did! Lots of sites did that."
This isn't one of those dotcom un-success stories. Under the pseudonym "Crispus Attucks," and his trusty sidekick "Harriet Tubman," are the staff of UrbanExposé, a site that boomed but did not bust. Later this month he'll launch a new online property, MediaThreat. UE followed the parabolic path of one subcategory of e-zines-"urban," African-American-aimed and hiphop-based sites-so closely, effectively and mysteriously that even some who logged on and participated every day missed the larger point.
Crispus describes himself as "rough around the edges" and "as urban as you can get." He still listens to hiphop every day. You'd never know, sitting on the subway from Fort Greene next to him, as he wears his tan, suede Enyce best, that he's a tech consultant on his way to a meeting, with a head full of code. In fact, he's cagey enough to suggest a lifelong habit of concealing his intelligence, his rare combination of capabilities and, I'm pretty sure, his gentleness. Yet, when I ask, he tells me about being the only kid in Brownsville and Bed-Stuy who had a subscription to Spy. In school (brainy Stuyvesant, for a while) he ran track, and liked to hang back in second place, getting a bead on the leader, watching "to see if he tripped," before trying to pass.
There were dozens of public wrong-guesses as to Crispus' true identity, and zero correct ones. Turns out he was the first black man on the cover of Wired. He consulted with 60 Minutes on computer security, and even appeared on the show. As urban computer outlaws go, he's not exactly low-profile.
He set up shop in a row house in the shadow of Brooklyn's Metro-Tech tower. According to Crispus's landlord, the old building would have been torn down during downtown Brooklyn's recent renovation if not for its historic significance. It had been a stop on the Underground Railroad.
That a diverse crowd of freethinking, intelligent people logged onto UE every day is not something Crispus has to prove with "hits" statistics, because the readership he drew contributed, candidly and often. This was the audience that the funded, censored sites wanted to say was theirs. "I think people thought the audience was maybe all about hiphop, that maybe they needed their content dumbed down for them," says Crispus. "Actually, the Internet is a research tool-that's the last place you want to dumb down content! You're looking for facts, for information that can help you. The site provided that for people who were already in business, people who were thinking about joining existing media properties and also those who were trying to start their own, fledgling ones. And, of course, we spun it in an entertaining way, and that's where we hit critical mass."
- by Adam Hemilich
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Feb 5, 2001 |
Over the last half year it has vexed enough of the East Coast new-media-world's players, player-haters, and straight-up yentas. The mystery: Who is the wig-wearing muckraker behind the Web's premier black-media-biz gossip site, UrbanExposé? Who is the man signing his revolutionary pseudonym to all those acid-tongued dissections of the Web portals, cable channels, and niche magazines that work the melanin-fortified content space coyly known as "urban"? Who, in short, is Crispus Attucks, and where does he get off?
A lot of wrong answers have accumulated since UrbanExposé debuted last June. An instant hit with both netslaves and honchos at urban-flavored new-media ventures like 360hiphop, Urban Box Office, and hookt.com, the site quickly filled up with smart, smack-talking user commentary, which became as much of a draw as Attucks's scandalously well-informed profiles. Trying to figure out who Attucks was was part of the fun, of course, and pretty soon the game got serious. Detectives were hired. Media reporters beat the bushes. In July, having gotten a glimpse of Attucks when he showed up for an interview disguised in dark glasses and a colonial wig, Inside magazine ran an article fingering thirty-four-year-old cyberkind McLean Greaves, founder of Café Los Negroes, as the man behind the mask. Bzzzzt. Greaves's attorney got the story retracted the following week. But the speculation continued full-tilt everywhere else. At last count, the list of named suspects has at one time or another included the ubiquitous Omar Wasow (MSNBC commentator and blackplanet.com executive director), rap journalist Ronin Ro, and the entire management of Urban Box Office.
Oddly enough, the list has never included twenty-eight-year-old Fort Greene resident. Not that he'd be an obvious suspect. But in other ways, he fits the bill to a T. For one thing, just as you'd expect of Crispus Attucks, he knows new media from the inside out -- understands from long, hard experience the logic of digital networks as well as the alchemy of buzz and clout -- and has a complicated relationship to the entire enterprise. For another thing, just as you'd expect of Crispus Attucks, he happens to be Crispus Attucks.
- by Julian Dibel
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Jan 22, 2001 |
Suddenly, we feel like we're being watched.
We're waiting for Attucks, the double agent of the wired world. The Geek Who Sat by the Door. The man -- well, we think he's a man -- behind the curtain at the exceedingly acerbic Urban Exposé, a snarky little Web site. Its dipped-in-acid, scandalizing reports are overseen by this mystery man who somehow knows -- or purports to know -- the soap-operatic inner workings of America's "urban" media companies, from hip-hop-oriented Web sites and magazines to Black Entertainment Television. All forms of media are fair game to Urban Exposé, but Attucks particularly revels in skewering Web sites. In seven short months, he's developed a rep for revealing it all -- the more embarrassing, the better.
u
Just before 12:30 p.m., he blows into the diner, a tall, broad-shouldered brother decked out in baggy jeans, Polartec shirt with an Urban Exposé emblem, down jacket and knit skull cap pulled down low on his forehead. Large black horn-rimmed specs cover much of his face. In one hand, he clutches the powdered and ponytailed white wig.
The average amount of time visitors spend at the site is 14 minutes, an impressive figure in cyberspace, a realm that raises channel-surfing to new heights of proficiency. The site is bare-bones: no flashy graphics, no streaming videos. Just smart-alecky "content" -- articles that are refreshed every week or so, and often-vituperative message boards.
The site makes money by licensing its information-gathering technology to other sites. Attucks is the editor; he employs an equally anonymous staff of writers who have adopted the names of other African American heroes: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, George Washington Carver.
Like Spy magazine during the 1980s boom, UE uses industry insiders who use the cloak (and dagger) of anonymity to dis their own. It's a weird mix of the inherent elitism of the Internet (after all, it takes cash to buy a computer) and the street. Ideological differences are settled by duels -- bulletin board postings where the only sword being brandished is a rapier wit. Having the nerve to say something truly foul will get you far.
Still, the anonymity is a large part of the allure of Urban Exposé. Indeed, guessing the identity of Crispus Attucks has become something of a parlor game up and down the Eastern Seaboard, where most "urban" Web sites are based. Attucks, a man with a finely honed sense of drama, plays with the mystery, peppering his site with false clues and conducting telephone interviews with voice-altering devices. Last year, instead of showing up for an appearance at an industry panel, Attucks conference-called in his participation.
Is it Internet glamour boy Omar Wasow? "Sometimes I feel like I'm in the know, other times I'm at a complete loss," said Wasow, the founder and executive director of blackplanet.com, after denying that he is Attucks. "There aren't a lot of secrets that get held for that long."
"They've done something which is very difficult," says Inside Editor-in-Chief Michael Hirschorn, "which is build a self-sustaining community. They did it by being very provocative and engaging a small but passionate community. . . . They're the antidote to a huge amount of puffery and hot air. In the new media world, there's the most hype-mongering, over-inflated egos."
Observes Bill Lessard, co-author of "Netslaves: True Tales of Working the Web" (McGraw-Hill), an exposé of the Internet industry, "Crispus has created a cult around himself. He's marketed it to the hilt. He's driven home the point that it doesn't matter who you are; it's the ideas that count."
"There's only one Crispus," he crows, grabbing the wig and shaking it. "The man who holds the wig is Crispus. There can only be one at the top, ba-beeeeeeeee."
- by Teresa Wiltz |
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Dec 26, 2000 |
Excerpt from 21 Good Ideas For 2001:.
"Distrbuted publishing"- combines editing and community at a fraction of the cost of a fully staffed online newsroom. Postinghusually prompt spirited (and sometimes enlightening) debates. Like Slashdot.org, Lucianne.com and UrbanExpose.com;and in Janurary Plastic.com. This may, at last, be a content model that works purely on the Web.
- by Michael Hirschorn |
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Dec 20, 2000 |
Crispus Attucks knows that most media companies-especially those geared toward the hot, ambiguously named "urban" market-would rather not have their dirty laundry aired before the world, but he doesn't care. Since June, Attucks has been running Urban Exposé, a renegade site whose mission is to relentlessly lampoon the marketers and execs callously cashing in on hip-hop's recent explosion into mainstream culture. Now Attucks is negotiating for a partnership that would allow Urban Exposé to expand into print and television.
With all the attention www.urbanexpose.com has received, Attucks-who hides his real identity behind the name of the first man to die in the American Revolution, a slave-maintains that he and Urban Exposé aren't trying to inflict harm. "We don't want to survive these sites," he says. "We want to see these do good."
Victims of Attucks's catty commentary might disagree. "Things over at Honey got a little sticky," he wrote this fall. "Asondra Hunter was brought in to helm the magazine. Her penchant for getting her weave put in during editorial meetings didn't help morale."
This willingness to dish the T-the truth-has won Urban Exposé a loyal audience among professionals who've grown up in the arms of hip-hop culture, especially those black and Latino media types toiling in the "urban space"-that long-underrepresented arena where wannabe playaz are building concepts with virtually no business plans and mountains of blown funds. For the writers, editors, and Web architects who've played Internet shuffleboard in the predominantly white digital world, the site has proven an invaluable place to vent.
But mention the site's name to one of its targets, David Watkins, marketing director of ill-fated and cash-burning Urban Box Office Network, and you'll get a quick statement: "Absolutely no comment."
Throughout the summer that Urban Exposé came into being, Attucks and company made relentless jabs at UBO execs' inability to focus resources. When UBO hosted a massive launch party on Ellis Island, the site posted an article asking its audience, "What is UBO? We still don't know." UBO heads went so far as to have access to the site blocked from their network, after they learned employees were posting complaints about the company's management. After news of the outfit's closing, Urban Exposé posted a 23-page list of people UBO owed money, including names like Serena and Venus Williams.
Although Urban Exposé is operated by a team of writers-all black and young, most from Fort Greene, Brooklyn, none connected to the companies they criticize-the face of the site has remained the faceless Attucks. The self-described "adventurer by trade"-who slyly mentions that he once worked for a cable network and now writes scripts-edits and compiles the site's wrenching commentary. And yes, Attucks's nom de net is a direct reference to black revolution. "It's a way to intrinsically let people know that I'm black and I'm coming from hip-hop," he says. "I'm about the Web revolution. I believe the next generation of conscious sites are coming."
The revolutionary connections don't stop with Attucks; letters to the editor go to harriet.tubman. "I love that he attached his name and Harriet Tubman's name to the Internet," says Miranda Jane, West Coast editor of Stress magazine and former contributor to Trace. "He linked it to a slave revolt. A lot of media professionals joining some companies and corporations have made themselves slaves."
Many African American and Latino creatives took on these shackles when they signed contracts with sites billed as "urban," an amorphous say-all-and-be-all term that's often little more than a euphemism for "black." On the Russell Simmons/BET-produced 360hiphop.com, rap stars like Sisqo and Wyclef Jean flash on the screen, while a tab at the top labeled "buy sh*t" beckons those inclined to flex some plastic. Though it has some strong stories, a site like 360 seems to reflect, and even to feed, the chic for black hip-hop stars who are in essence parodies of street life. "There are mad kids who are not 'urban,' " says Miranda Jane, a frequent poster to Urban Exposé. "Those are the kids buying clothes on 360. They've never been to Queensbridge, and may be remiss to deal with 'urban' in its reality. But they have the credit cards."
What's more, most sites suffer problems both on and behind the screen. While 360hiphop and Hookt host Flash-intensive graphics that would seem to permafreeze the terminals of "urban" youth without a T1 line, content can be relatively sparse and at times in need of an update. 360hiphop's Jonzy's World gossip column leaves off telling viewers, "Til next week!"-but the same column has been online for more than a month.
Urban Exposé's commentary and that of its posters, who ruminate on everything from the state of urban media, to finger-pointing and name calling, to the previous week's Jill Scott show, have caught the attention of outsiders. Whether on the site or at parties, people constantly speculate about the enigma of Attucks-as if he were a real-life Kaiser Soze. After covering the site's progression over the summer, the editors of Inside.com arranged an interview with Attucks, who actually came to their offices disguised in an afro wig. The media magazine then wrote an article naming journalist McLean Greaves as the man behind Attucks, but they guessed wrong.
"We had a series of what appeared to be reputable sources," says Inside editor in chief Michael Hirschorn. "We obviously got suckered. We got clowned." Greaves threatened to sue, and Inside published a lengthy story giving him his say. Still, Hirschorn has good things to say about Urban Exposé, likening the site to a simpler Web version of Spy magazine. "It's a team of very intelligent people taking the piss out of these sites."
The Urban Exposé readers are just as willing to take the piss out of each other, piling up or losing "clout points" based on postings to the site's heated debates and participation in polls such as the No Buzz List, a weekly countdown of media figures that don't rate. Although many of the juicier details on companies have come from these messages, some posters spice their screeds with homophobic and sexist remarks. But Attucks and his team monitor the comments, docking wack listings in clout points.
Some say they've used their clout ratings to network. "I've gotten job offers through posting," says Rebecca Levine, who works for an Internet advertising agency and posts as Miss Bee.
Attucks says high-profile people tend not to take part-or at least admit it-though a few have called to complain about having their unflattering photos displayed on the site. One media figure who's not shy about writing to Urban Exposé is Eddie Brannan, creative director of The Fader. "It's gonzo journalism, but that's kind of the charm as well," says Brannan, who did take issue with an article on Trace magazine, where he used to work. "On that story, there were inaccuracies, as there are in the Drudge Report."
But Brannan is supportive of the site, writing in an e-mail, "I believe this sector of the industry needs some kind of watchdog, to check some of the rampant egos and piss-poor management approaches that so far have contributed to the demise of several large companies and the loss of hundreds of jobs."
Though Attucks's critiques may sting, in the end they're good for the industry. Karen Alston, who works at the Washington, D.C.-based UrbanMarketing.net, notes his influence on Vanguarde Neomedia's recent Impact Urban Internet Forum. "I think Crispus loves the urban industry. He wants them to come out," says Alston. "If it hadn't been for Urban Exposé, they might not have worked as hard to make it as good as it was because they knew people would probably talk about it."
The execs behind the companies indeed must be listening. Attucks claims that Vanguarde Neomedia's Keith Clinkscales checks the site. UBO editor in chief Joel Dreyfuss posted a rebuttal to attacks on urban media, bemoaning the site's increasing tendency to act as "a dotcom doodah in digital blackface."
Attucks, who says he may reveal his true identity after the new year, maintains that Urban Exposé won't stop its spiked commentary as long as there are substandard offerings directed at "urban" audiences. "If you have a strong media product or property, it will fly, regardless. Everything can get better from debate or criticism."
- by José Germosén
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Dec 20, 2000 |
"The time has come for us to shed our anonymity," said Attucks in a phone interview with the Daily. "We've had a tremendous amount of success, but with a move into other media platforms and the growth we want to do, you can't do that with anonymity."
"The urban space is tight now," said Attucks, "But there's a lot of potential, a lot of money out there, and great promise for the space. People think we just cover urban new media, but we've just started."
Kevin Dowdell, CEO of Volume.com, declined to guess Attucks' identity, but he did say that, Urban Expose has provided a much-needed critique of urban sites.
- by Dakota Kelly
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Dec 19, 2000 |
| Company gossip and recriminations were routinely aired on urban community site UrbanExpose.com, where employees conducted debates on the true definition of "urban," and where rumors flourished ranging from who was to be fired next to the latest exploits of an executive known to take junior employees on helicopter rides around Manhattan.
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Dec 18, 2000 |
Company gossip and recriminations were routinely aired on urban community site UrbanExpose.com, where employees conducted debates on the true definition of "urban," and where rumors flourished ranging from who was to be fired next to the latest exploits of an executive known to take junior employees on helicopter rides around Manhattan.
- by Rachel Scheier
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Nov 23, 2000 |
Former Urban Box Office editor in chief Joel Dreyfuss considers Urban Expose's ruthless critiques of urban Web sites yet another example of the "old-fashioned crabs-in-the barrel perspective: tear everyone else down and you'll be left standing." Dreyfuss has a right to be angry; he was regularly mocked as "Stephin Fetchit" , and was accused of trolling UBO's offices for boys. UrbanExpose's anonymous creator Crispus Attucks says the op-ed grew out of an exchange of correspondence between the two. "He was extremely critical of the site," says Attucks, "so I told him he should write a letter. And he said 'I'm going to do just that.' He did write it, and I put it up untouched. It's obviously roasting UE and all of its readers and anyone who comes near it.
- by Greg Lindsay
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Sept 27 - Oct 3, 2000 |
Best Of New York Issue:
We'd been wondering for a long time where the real hiphop writers were hiding. A completely anonymous, wildly disputatious forum for the discussion of "urban" media, the site has been consistently hilarious since its launch in June. "Gee, what would be a good publication about a gritty, technologically savvy, outspoken and meritocratic movement against bullshit, lameness and complacent hypocrisy?" Just goes to show how some people don't know good media when it slaps them in the face.Thanks to Urbanexpose.com
- by Adam Hemlich
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Nov 3, 2000 |
Urban Expose's Crispus Attucks and Fuckedcompany's Phil Kaplan exchanged words today about Kaplan's racially loaded jab at UBO, "Straight Outta Compton: Urban Box Office is out of business. Musta spent too much money on ho's and 40's."
Attucks felt the story's slant crossed an invisible line. "I thought that it was one of those intangible things that you can't put your finger on but you know is wrong. So I felt compelled to call him and discuss it."
Attucks explains, "Our sites are only similar in the fact that we foster a thriving community. FC just gives links to dead web company pages. We do analysis on urban media with in depth stories and humor delivered from a flexible technology engine."
- by Catherine Kelly
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| redux ^ 3 |
Nov 3, 2000 |
| There were crippling ideological debates (many conducted on the urban-entertainment community site UrbanExpose.com) ''But it's not an issue of Flash so much as it was them missing the people who could integrate content with the Internet,'' says ''Cripus Attucks,'' the pseudononymous creator of UrbanExpose.com. ''Flash as a medium won't kill a site, but at the heart of any Web play it's going to take a key understanding of technology. The Net runs off of Cisco routers and not film projectors or printing presses.'' |
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Oct 13, 2000 |
"From the urban sector people expect new and fresh perspectives and instead we've gotten some of the same recycled ideas"--Crispus Attucks. Audio interview by Siliconalley.net
- by Bob Ponce
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| Interview in real audio: |
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Oct 12 |
I feel that anyone in the Web space who doesn`t know technology is not going to get it. The Web was supposed to be a cheap, easy, and effective way to share information. It wasn`t supposed to be like TV or film production. It makes no sense that people are spending a quarter-of-a-million after only a year on static content. That same money would make UE beyond profitable. We have other revenue sources, other than banner ads. The bottom is falling out. We are the second generation in delivering information and it`s working.
At the end of the year, we plan to produce a fully illustrated UE 100 No Buzz list. If you look at the site now, the top 10 are listed on the home page, and when you click on the No Buzz List you can see the top 100. It changes all day everyday. Our members nominate the candidates. We don`t create that list ourselves. Our technology takes care of the calculations for the listing order. We`re planning to reenergize the urban space.
- by Lynne D. Johnson
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Although the crafty individuals behind this soapy site remains unknown, everyone in urban media is glued to their monitors. The site, which outs the various drama surrounding urban new media, critiques the content and business practices of some of the biggest web sites and portals. The writing is sublime. Urbanexpose.com may succeed as the place to get the scoop on today's urban media companies.
- by Aliyah S. King
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Oct 9, 2000 |
"Okayplayer has fostered a site with a strong sense of community," says "Crispus Attucks," the anonymous voice behind urbanexpose.com, an industry site normally devoted to skewering players in the "urban portal" market.
"They also have made some moves to tie in their community with a strong off-line presence that will give them a serious boost in generating real revenues. Okayplayer has a strong brand online and off, a loyal community, an e-commerce component, excellent content and great press. There are a lot of companies that can't pay for this type of success."
- by Teresa Wiltz
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Oct 13, 2000 |
| Crispus says "People don't have to agree with us. We've set up the site so that what the people say is as important as what we say."
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| Probably proof that hip-hop sites are growing exponentially comes with a spoof of them at Urbanexpose.com. The site takes Ubo.com, 360hiphop. com, Blackplanet.com, Hookt.com, Aka.com and Platform.net to task.
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Biting and often borderline libelous, Urban Expose has the satiric sophistication of Spy, the street cred of Slashdot and plenty of X-rated locker-room banter. It consists of editorials, polls and lively message boards on anything Net-related that touches the urban community. Since its debut in late June, Urban Expose has become the de-facto homepage not only for New York's too-cool Net worker bees, but also for a few high-level industry execs who check it many times a day to catch up on gossip.
- by Ken Li
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| Urban Expose, an online website dedicated to urban sites.
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The site has already created a hype that’s hard to ignore. It launched last week with no fan fare and no advertising and has already attracted roughly 1,000-2,000 unique visitors.
“The people who are doing this site are undoubtedly not UBO or Hookt.com because they know a lot about the Internet,” jibed the source.
Their success has apparently piqued the interest of financiers and other Internet companies who may seek to partner with the site, or buy it out.
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UE has been online since June and already has a huge following. Its mixture of Spy magazine-type analysis and straight-up dissing has spilled over into the site's discussion areas, where visitors heatedly debate topics such as the fiery death of Blaze and the racism inherent in Bebe, Urban Cool's crow mascot.
- by team netslaves
(Steve and Bill)
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| It seems the newest style in the urban internet industry is checking for your name at Urbanexpose.com This take no prisoners, mostly anonymous site has dedicated itself to "covering the exploding urban new media market."
A site for the people, by the people; Check out the behind-the-scenes of the people who create urban culture online. Ultimately, all of these people are fighting for your consumer eyes... maybe it's time for your voice to be heard, too.
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A blizzard of hype should have made 360hiphop.com the week's most talked-about Web site. Instead, the buzz belongs to Urbanexpose.com, a thoroughly entertaining site dedicated to the mocking and ridiculing of urban portals.
Executives at sites like 360hiphop.com, Hookt.com and Urban Box Office are frantically logging on to see who gets dissed next.
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With a wireless device of indeterminate make in a pouch strapped to one arm, Crispus is a Revolutionary War vet. On the Net -- specifically, in the hotly contested ''urban'' new-media sphere, home to extravagantly funded urban portals like Platform.net, Urban Box Office and Russell Simmons's 360hiphop.com. -- he's notorious. His Web site, Urbanexpose.com, a crazily infotaining must-read that serves up barbed news items and anonymous, slambook-style gossip to a large and eager audience of players and player-haters, is the talk of the town. The summer's most bizarre Internet mystery: Just who is Crispus Attucks, and why is he saying those terrible things about me? '.
'Attucks would neither confirm nor deny his real identity. There's a lot of interesting things that could be done on the Web,'' Attucks said, ''and most people aren't doing it. It's a new medium that allows for a lot of different kinds of expression and entertainment, but you get a lot of the same thing. You know, 'Let's make a chat room, let people talk. Branded e-mail -- woo, that's great, let's incur some server costs! Let's make some e-cards.' Where are the original ideas?'' Urbanexpose is ''an experiment in low-cost content creation,'' which came into being with almost no overhead (aside from ''a domain name and a wig.'') The site has ''a nice little following of CEOs, COOs and directors who are quite appreciative of the site. Since they know the players, they know it's spot-on.''
- by Alex Pappademas
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| And cult dis-and-dish community site Urban Expose has quickly become a Slashdot for dot-com ballers, a ruthless must-read for players and player-haters alike.
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Oct 13, 2000 |
The deal has been in discussion -- both between the two companies and on the online playa-hater circle Urbanexpose.com's message boards -- since late summer.
- by Alex Pappademas |
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Except from round table discussion [full panel discussion at http://www.mediachannel.org]:
Crispus Attucks says:" 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. It's a new market and a lot of people haven't figured out how to bring out 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 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 exception. |
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Impact247.com talked with Attucks via e-mail last Friday about Urbanexposé.com and his plans to eventually unveil his identity.
Impact247- So, why did you start the site?
Crispus- The site is an experiment in low-cost content creation. It is among several projects aimed at exploiting the fundamentals of successful web content.
Impact247-Are you scared that people will try to attack you if they find out who you are?
Crispus- Why would they attack me? That would be silly. I have been extremely careful in my interviews to avoid the stigma of [creating] violence in “urban entertainment.” If I ran a site about teamsters…there would be some individuals who take things to far.
Often times, the urban sector wonders why the mainstream press ignores them. They complain and cry about the lack of intelligent, savvy reporting about their stuff. At the same time they cry when they are under the microscope of real journalism. Not that we do real journalism mind you, but we do do real media analysis by people from the field--music/TV/film and our start off [point]--new media. If urban sites have truly arrived…accept the criticism that goes with it.
- by Michelle Horn
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Created by unnamed industry insiders, Urban Exposé satirized hip hop sites, poked fun at their employees, and critiqued business and marketing plans. Their egos were deflated when Urban Exposé quietly launched in June.
"It's fucked up to open doors for journalist!" says The Blackspot, editor in chief of Hookt.com. Kris ex, [former] Senior director/editor for music for 360hiphop.com, says "Fun! Ignorance! Hatred! Stupidity! Jealousy!"
Smokey D. Fontaine found the comments humorous, "If anyone thought they were bigger than the Internet, they were just proven wrong."
- by David Crowley
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| The Urban Portal market already has many critics -- many who purport to come from within the very specialized field. Launched the same week as 360HipHop, a supposed "insider" site called Urban Expose (www.urbanexpose.com) allows registered users to post comments anonymously about what's wrong or right with the sites that make up the Urban Portal market. While official statements on the site go to great lengths to say that most of the "news" on the site is "fake and of no consequence," a source close to one of the sites in the market tells CMJ that in the source's opinion, many of the posts do accurately reflect the climate of the industry. "Urban Exposé is an industry pariah," according to the site. "Some new players will be born, a lot more will lose their shirts. We'll be there laughing at the whole thing."
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Nov 16, 2000 |
| CEOs that have been shuffled upstairs and fitted with a chairman's cap and those still tweaking business plans are surfing sites like urbanexpose.com |
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Aug 21, 2000 |
| Urban Expose is on the hot ten list at peeps.com
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Aug 21, 2000 |
| According to Urban Expose, the biggest beneficiary of Vibe spin-off Blaze was The Source. But now that Blaze is dead, what does that mean for the future of hip-hop journalism? As much as The Source may have improved in an effort to maintain its number one status in the face of competition from Blaze, its content, on a purely technical level, is still about on par with, say, MaryBeth's Beanie Baby World. In other words, hip-hop may soon produce a Poet Laureate, but as far as hip-hop journalism goes, a Pulitzer winner seems a ways off still...
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When I first heard about Urban Expose I was having a cocktail on the roof of the Soho Grand. This site points out exactly what is powerful and pitiful about community, and in this case why the rush to market in the digital space can run you straight into a wall. On Urban Expose, companies like 360, UBO, AKA, and DME all get their asses handed to them on a platter. The site gets more traffic than the Grand Central Parkway, showing that the key to compelling content is to make it real, not prepackaged. Score.
- by Farai Chiyidea
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| =============== FIRE AND ICE================ |
| FIRE |
ICE |
| Colt 45 |
Olde English |
| Thongs (Ladies Only) |
Underwear |
| Maxim |
The Source |
| Using Your Fists |
Guns |
| The Notorious B.I.G. |
Shyne |
| Urbanexpose.com
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360hiphop.com |
| soul purpose [james 'andy platnum' is sweating us] |
The beauty of free speech on the Internet has
spawned the hottest topic and website among the
urban digerati-biz--urbanexpose.com. This "straight no
chaser" site takes a look at the underside of the urban
dot-com biz and poses folks with the task to ask
themselves and others important questions about these
well-funded ventures.
In its first week of business, the
site takes stabs at the likes of Hookt.com, Volume.com,
BET.com, UBO.net, Scott Mills (BET.com), Darrien
Dash (DME), Omar Wasow (Blackplanet.com),
360Hiphop.com and even NY-based MITP (an
organization of folks in the Internet business). With
community tools already in place, there is a thriving
message board section that allows users to
anonymously post their views on featured stories. The
posts are rolling in by the minute.
- by James Andrews |
| soul purpose redux is this a threat? |
How come all of my boys from Compton were asking me who Crispus Atacus [sic] was??
- by andy platinum
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| soul purpose john blaze list |
Mediachannel.Org Editor Donnell Alexander Moderates Great Discussion On Urban Media...Donnell brings together Crispus Attucks, Alain Mariduena, Scoop Jackson, Rahsaan Harris, and Cristina Veran
- by andy platinum
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| contact for press information |
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