?uestlove: damn. i dont know how to react to this Vibe thing being over. i purchased every issue since its inception. i was proud of it actually. it wasn't like Rolling Stone was going to put Wesley Snipes or D'Angelo on the cover. and it was miles above the Right On!/Black Beat generation my sister handed me down.

we all have our favorite moments and memorable moments. i wonder how much of a role they played in the ongoing saga tween Pac and B.I.G. and IF their death could have been prevented had we as readers not soaked up every word in those articles and drew their own conclusions?

i remember reading the Prince issue of 1994 (back then that was a BIG DEAL)---and gandering at Danyel Smith's Zingalamaduni era Arrested Development story with my jaw dropped. i read that story 3 times in a row and sat there shook like "did a journalist just come in and sucker punch ANOTHER story out of this group as opposed to the one im sure their label (and leader Speech) wanted you to get? THAT was the moment in which i became obsessed with publications and the people writing them. ask any publicist i ever had....sheeeit ask those SAME journalists that are in my tweet network. i studied the history, the taste, the education, the likes, the dislikes, of EVERY journalist i have ever come across.

seriously:

"ok ahmir dadadadadada is coming to do a story on you guys next wed. cool?"

i be on it.

sometimes it pays off (lol at Dan's husband Elliot tryna sick "former" anti Rootster Amy Linden on us in 2004 only for us to counter attack and convert the shit out of her in one of the hardest weeks of my life....---nice try El....i see you.

sometimes it bites you in the ass (i see you Jenkins and im still here son lol)

as i write this i see my entire tweet network celebrating like the witch is dead. i am not happy with this decision (although i felt a tad indifferent about the mag shortly before Dan "i still fear her" Smith came back to the fold) yes i WOULD have loved a more balanced magazine that coulda schooled me to Jean Grae and Little Brother or maybe even Bilal and dead prez instead of the other way around. Vibe also gave black writers a job.

if there were truly a fair and balanced system in the media then i wouldn't have to worry about whether or not Rolling Stone or Spin might even mention a new Redman/Method Man album.

yes i know most of you snark-a-zoids are like "ahmir, who the @#$# reads magazines?!?!"---the answer is that all of america is not caught up to the world wide web. so whereas a "50 favorite valentine love jams" might seem very 2001 on the net....to a person w/o online access (hello inner city america, yes its me, the guy from The Chapelle Show skit and the Jay Z movie!) Vibe did help hold that bridge up.

the Obama issue alone was powerful enough. aint like Vanity Fair was gonna ask Jim Jones his opinion on the election.---

i never ever want to celebrate the downfall of anyone (yes Kobe included, and i know yall know my anti Laker rants are in fun not seriousnes---unless of course Philly is up for the title.)

but this is a sad day in history.

long live Don Diva....

its all we got.