So if you don't know, we've been gone for a short while. We say short because it's a gap between how often in your face we are with something entertaining.
First thing's first.
Happy Black History Month!
As the only writer for this blog and creator of this blog while growing from age 16 to 24 (which is the generic demographic for this site currently, usually you can push that up to 30+), there have been some outside things that took my attention away from this blog. Like for example, growing the fuck up, serious relationships, moving, job searching, maintaining my side hustle, and deciding to leave a few side hustles behind to start up a grander scheme of things.
So, today I got time, this week I got time, this month I got time, and this year I got time.
But the question is, is the state of the media even worthy of reporting right now? I mean, seriously. You guys dodged a major bullet by me taking this much needed 1-year-or-so hiatus. Why? Because honestly, while rap and hip hop runs the world as we all know, one of its largest sub genres in the business of entertainment has been rewired for pop-star-status, as we always see. But while the majority of the black community was just warming up to the inner-side of trap, the more soft and sensitive side of what it takes to reveal such secrets and trials on tape/wax, it was blindsided yet again by the probably-billion-dollar industry of the business itself.
So of course we've heard "drug rap" and "party rap" before. It's not as surprising of course as "sex rap" or "real rap", but for some reason it always catches us by surprised because the subject matter, once held in tight grips by the "industry", has no limits. We as a community, as a people have limits, we know what's right and what's wrong. But as a business machine that churn whether people buy or not because they have the money to waste on "mistakes" or egotism, it doesn't matter so much once the images are being produced and broadcast to the world.
So here we are with a well needed fresh start. It's 2020 and music has leveled out a bit more. I for one am tired of the censorship of particularly liberating subject matters, as it hurts the artist alone with their fanbase, but we really do know the difference between an artist following their own spirit and an artist being paid to abandon their spirit altogether. We do know what that looks like and we kid ourselves hard when we pretend not to.
Right now I type this from a library as I revamp the website, multitask in open tabs for inspiration for new blog posts, and contemplate the rest of the week.
A few things come to mind when I think about Wolf At Midnight. The longevity of Wolf At Midnight is determined on the viewership that is consistently growing, and if we can monetize without advertisers blocking space on the site. Should we provide links to official merch? I honestly think it's been far too long since deciding to put it up! We also need a new logo, so that's definitely going to be under way for the next 5 days. It's not a hard task to get creative for this brand, and it helps to get connected within the community to continue to offer blog posts to upcoming creatives who are deserving of the spotlight.
We got more on the way, so if you want to subscribe, do so ASAP! But I know you already bookmarked the page ;)
PS. this blog is black-owned and black-operated ;)
