I am definitely going to miss this crazy fool.
There has been a lot of internets press around the closure of Vibe magazine. It’s as though we are seeing some institution shutter their doors. This was far from Lehman Bros. but people are talking so I thought I should add my thoughts to the discussion. Vibe magazine was pretty though. I remember when this young chick in the neighborhood had Lupus and she punched out. Vibe wasn’t like that. Vibe was more like the pretty chick who gave head to everyone and then got hit by the Q66 on Northern Blvd. chasing down a trick. That is more like Vibe’s epitaph.
I wonder why other publications don’t throw themselves out the window like Vibe did, but then I realize that other mags have a totally different direction. They recognize trands but don’t try to court them irresponsibly. When I look at a magazine like Jet I see that it is 180 degrees from the direction that Vibe was pointing. If there was ever a magazine that could kill themselves because the business model was no longer viable it would be Jet. I used to love the Jet centerfold but those features are corny and dated by today’s standards that describe women with only a string of material running up their behinds.
Jet photoshoots mean that even the sultry celebrity chanteuse will have some underwear on. Jet has never tried to appeal to the popular shock market shlock. And why not? Publisher’s dignity I suppose. I can’t really call it. All I know is that I promised myself to never again pick up a Vibe to read when they published that cover of a naked KEYSHIA COLE. It wasn’t shocking to me. It was wrong and gratuitous. It was like watching B.E.T. in 2009 and all the performers were Black people wearing Blackface. I saw KEYSHIA in a studio surrounded and naked. I could hear the publisher of Vibe laughing at me.
So maybe the Vibe cover doesn’t say those things to you. Maybe I’m a bit sensitive too. A lot of folks have defended the Vibe covers of COLE and CIARA as simply being artistic and provocative. I wonder why Jet didn’t take the provocative artistic role with KEYSHIA COLE when they had their cover story with her. They managed to still find a vintage look for her without disrobing her and frying her hair blonde. Maybe this why Vibe had to die? When you make a mockery of the artists that you are entrusted to be the caretaker for then you aren’t needed in this industry any longer.
Goodbye Vibe, and good riddance.
I’ll miss Vibe cause every issue had a (paid) photo or two of mine. And even though they only hired me ONCE ( to shoot Michael Jordon which I did with a passion) I still had a steady money flow from them.
Trouble with Vibe (other than their ego tripping editor in chieftress) was they never knew who or what they were. They’d have a thug/gangsta/wankster on the cover then an overtly ghey fashion spread on the inside or a ghey ass cover and then 20 pages of thuggery. I think they officially died the day they put Bow Wow and fake hair Queen Ciara (anyone remember her?) on the cover.
I was introduced to the E.I.C. once long ago when she was a writer or some such shit and she looked at me like my fly was open or I had green stuff on my teeth or distracting her from getting her nails done with a real go fuck yourself attitude (WTF was that all about?) and the effete photo editor Pitts only hired photogs that were soft and had come from the fashion world, even though Vibe wanted (at times) to call itself Hip Hop they never fucked with street photographers no matter how dope they were. So it died due to an identity crisis. They never knew if they were white or black, straight or ghey, thug or haute couture, street or boogie rock, pop or ultimately hip or hip hop. Plus their BS gossip and trade party led to the death of BIG.
Let us move on!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joe Budden killed Vibe, everyone knows that.
I agree with Ernie, Vibe had always suffered from identity crisis issues. I think early on, they made it clear the content would be mostly ghey, but they would dupe you with the cover. The last EIC tried to re-create the old Source, with a dash of Essence, Jet & US Weekly. Every 3 pages they were promoting vibe.com…and just like most magazines, Vibe’s internets game was fucked the fuck up.
I think when magazines try to do some shit that they have no business, like creating their own awards show, is the point when they catch an L.
Truth be told Jet still has a chance to get their weight back up simply because its a barber shop staple. They just have to focus on the Jet Beauty. Those chicks are horrible! Remember when Jet had it poppin with LeMonte McLemore’s amazing eye for beautiful sistas? Nowadays the Beauty of the Week’s be on some real subpar, baggage claim broads! Its waaay to may gorgeous women that are getting downright naked and sexin’ on these internets for gratis. No excuse for what they got now. It was never anything to read tho. My girlfriend’s pop gave her a subscription (Ha!). From the mailbox to the elevator ride to the 4th floor, that magazine is read & in the trash in all of 2 mins.
Vibe died when they had plies on the cover saying he was the future of hip hop. And even though DP should have made any best blog list, it was clear they didn’t really know the internets by who they did & did not give props to.
I think I’m the only one that still gets excited about Jet even though the articles suck and it’s outdated. They remind me of family. My dad has some classic issues of Jet from the late 50s and 60s I believe, when we were still called Negros and the mag was printed in smaller sizes. I’m hoping to come up on them some day. Pay a couple of loans. Lol jk
And LOL at how you went from Tahiry & CoCos goods to questioning Vibe for shooting Keyshia naked. What happened between this post & the last one?
Keeks,
There’s a place for ALL of these images in mags and weblogs. But Vibe was insincere about their intentions and finally they have been put out of their misery.
I want to see CoCo’s puffs, not Keyshia’s. Why should Keyshia be in CoCo’s lane? Imagine CoCo trying to sing soul music? We should have a place for all entertainers. It just does not have to be the SAME place.
“If you are a vulture don’t try to dress up like a sparrow.”
At least that’s what old Dallas says in the year 3000.
Touche DP. They’re is a time and a place for everything even if I don’t want to see none of these chicks goodies when I’m at 7-11 looking for something to read.
Oh and I wouldn’t be surprised if Coco was trying to sang at one point. Pimp ass Ice T prali just put a stop to it and told her to get nekked.
CoCo do look like she one of them ‘sanga ternt strippas” LMAO
Vibe failed w/buckitnekkid Keisha Coles? nah, B! The final one with Mayor McCheese cuffing Chistina Millian’s sweet poe-tah-tahs is straight comedy!
@Dirty Jerz….
Regarding the demise of the Jet Beauty of the Week I attribute it to what I will now call “40’s Demise HBCU Athletics Effect”. Basically as black athletes were allowed at white mainstream institutions the overall quality of HBCU athletics declined because the cream of the Negroe athletic crop because they could go elsewhere. The same happened with the Jet Beauty of the Week. As these chicks moved up and out to videos and mags like KANG and The Source and XXL Eye Candy, and Rap Videos, why languish in the pages of Jet for a few bucks when you can get a glossy 8 x 10 pictorial spread in a more “mainstream” magazine. Alas, I conclude the Jet Beauty of the Week is not at a fail at all, just like you can get a Steve McNair from Alcorn State, alas the first rounders are just a little fewer and farther between.
Demise o’ HCBU Athletics Effect ….Ha! I like that! HCBUs are the worst games to watch because the best players are going elsewhere for money and just to get a rep, but damn if HCBU’s homecomings don’t stay winning!!
But c’mon, this is Jet. Johnson Publishing. a weekly publishing. On craigslist alone they should be able to find enough 1st round talent for 52 issues in one week. I think they just stopped searching and just started asking friends and family to pose for chicken & beer…which from what I hear, is more than what King was paying.
Ebony Magazine’s Most Eligible Bachelorettes >>>>>Jet Beauty of the Week.
The mere fact that they do background checks on the honeys makes that issue most official! LOL Maxim can learn something from them.
“all the performers were Black people wearing Blackface” . . .
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I never held Vibe (or Source, XXL, etc.) in such a high regard. There were a number of times when Vibe magazine’s editorial content and art direction went wayward. There was a number of questionable entertainers that made the cover throughout the years . . . but whatever. The Chris Rock issue -as-special-guest-editor was great.
All in all, Ernie’s comments ring true. Vibe just didn’t know what it wanted to be.
Didn’t they have some one else posed half-nude on the cover?
Plies made the cover of Vibe?!?
VEe, Tony Braxton was nude and wore see thru in the layout revealing very sorry, mismatched breast implants. George Pitts (Photo Editor) shot it I believe. And when I told him it was ugly and bleak he had a hissy fit. He asked my opinion so I gave it. Plies on the cover was among the Vibe top ten screw ups and a cover of Mary J. looking like a waterbug was up there too.. I was always wishing it would get it together, King XXL, The Sores (Source) all suck equally and are run by Stans and groupies and wannabees and quite a few wiggers. And I have been known to get quite ill when my checks “were in the mail” too long. RIP VIbe. We need a real street magazine, till then DALLASPENN.com will have to feed our hunger. Ernie
Vibe magazine and it’s still born off shoot Blaze were very ghey. Good riddance to both. From it’s fascination with homo thugs to it’s genre confusion it was 90% wack. Even Russell Simmons’ borderline effeminate ass had enough sense to avoid this magazine.