By Odeisel

Welcome to Planet Ill 2010: a Hip-Hop Odyssey. The canonical birth of Hip-Hop is accepted as August 11, 1973. As such there is a generation that has grown up under its auspices and is no longer counted as youth; they dwell between the Baby Boomers and the Generation Y cats. We are all grown up, and employed (hopefully), and making our way in this world, but we lack a consistent voice in our lives. We don’t have a Dan Rather. A Walter Cronkite. A Ted Coppel. We are caught between paradigm shifts as children of the evening news and progenitors of the net. The print we were raised on is dying before our eyes and now we herd toward other sources. But advertisers and by consequence content providers devote attention to the boomers who have the money and the attention span and established tastes, and the teens who have transient but highly malleable tastes that can be projected.

At Planet Ill we see ourselves as your voice; the microphone and the servant of the 25-50 year olds. That doesn’t mean we don’t give respect to our forebears or disregard those that come afterward, but we know where our bread is. We aren’t a music site, per se, even though that is one of the central sources of content. As much as is humanly possible with the resources we possess, we will continue to attempt to make the world relevant to your experience and allow you to grow with Hip-Hop rather than out grow it. Culture can’t be out grown, and while an inordinate amount of the music that is promoted is geared towards a younger age group, that doesn’t erase its history or its relevance in shaping your outlook on life. There are many out there who try to shovel Hip-Hop down the throats of those who could care less.  We don’t preach to the choir, but what we do is bring things in this world to you in terms that resonate with you.

You are doctors. You are professionals. You have children, and mortgages and taxes. We get that. And in our travels e will be feeding those interests. Why should you care about the health care debate? Why should you care about globalization? Because they are a part of your world, and we will try to connect you to them without insulting your intelligence. Walk with us in 2010.  There is still time to get on board. Try something different.  Try something real. Try something devoted to you and the force that raised you. It ain’t necessarily a revolution, but it is a departure. We have lofty aspirations and some of them we will achieve with distinction; others we will fail but not without an earnest attempt.  

Our inaugural year was an invasion of sorts. Take us to your leaders. Our mission, for the uninitiated, is to bring you the world through the lens of Hip-Hop. Grow with us. Talk to us. Allow us to serve you. This is an enterprise. God willing, we will be selling you shit. But not under the guise of being something else. We got families to feed, but we’ll try not to advertise you to death. That’s very annoying and it detracts from your experience. Our word and our reputation is important to us and it should be important to you. If we say an album is dope/wack and we explain why we feel that way, you should be able to at least trust our line of reasoning. You may not agree, but you can see why we feel how we do. When we attach urgency to something, we’d hope that you recognize it as relevant to your existence. Become a citizen. Gravitate. Planet Ill 2010. Something different.

-OD