 
 |
 | | Steven Samuel |
 Steven Samuel
Founder/CTO
SOHH.com
Jersey City NJ
You originally started out as a hip hop artist (The Troubleneck Bros) back in the day (no pun intended). What made you want to jump to the world of running and maintaining SOHH.com?
Well, when I left TNB, I was going through a lot personally. I was in my early twenties still living at home, working as a street messenger and a college drop out. Regardless of how many demos, show flyers, and label contracts I was able to show my parents, they was pretty much like 'thats nice - get a job'. The second part of leaving TNB was growth. We had known each together for like 7 years before getting signed. When you record two albums for a label, and you have people walking up to you on the street like 'Whats up with the album?' it wears on you. They're like, 'Your song is hot, why isn't it getting played on the radio.' So you can either explain that you have to pay to get airplay or you can just be like I don't know. The last reason I left TNB was I had nothing to rhyme about - kinda like these niggas rapping today except they don't know when to stop. They just keep stumbling across deals.
Anyway, I met my partner Felicia Palmer about the time I was leaving TNB. I tried the producer role. More politics. I tried the magazine role. Too much money for print. From the magazine role, we went right into the website. We started 4CONTROL.com in 1995 and that became SOHH.com in 1997.
Not to start any beef, but Adario Strange is always claiming to be the first 'commercial' Hip-Hop site. He called me out on Black Planet and I really didn't appreciate that, especially since he doesn't know me like that. First off, SOHH.com never claimed to be the first. There was people doing this way before us. Davey D, Clayton Winters (IGB.com), Malaney Hill (Lauryn Hill's brother), Fresh Finesse, Jamie's Crackhouse, Honeycomb Hideout. Second, how does he figure he was before us, if his account was opened AFTER ours? Check the records at DTI.net.
SOHH.com started out as hobby and just grew. I went from HTML to being a client-side scripter. I hate graphic design. Right now, I'm looking to partner up with someone who knows Flash MX. Specifically with arrays and variables. If you out there, holla.
Whats the stat's (registered users, pages, uniques, etc...) on SOHH.com right now?
Tim, you don't be into the stats like that. I'm the founder and the a programmer. But I do I know we're in the top 10,000 on Alexa.
With all this activity around the site you announced that you where going to close it down. Why?
Growth. I got married in August. It happened when I went on my honeymoon. No rap. No work. I was swimming everyday. When I was having meals on the ship, people would make conversation with me and ask what line of work was I in. My reply is usually 'multimedia producer' but people would pry so I'd just be like 'I do a rap site.' And they'd be like, 'ok' and slink away... So when I came back, I was like, 'Is this what I wanna do for the rest of my life?' Also at the time I wasn't feeling rap music. When we announced the closing it was real. We had the splash page ready and everything. However, it did go down for about 4 minutes 3 days later because I forgot to tell my server host to keep the server online.
So it was/wasn't a stunt to get people talking?
I can come up with much better ways to get people talking about SOHH.com than retiring. I could have pretended to hack my own site and put up some ill splash screen of Ja and 50 kissing or something. I think people read into situations too deep. I mean, sometimes stuff is what it is. We didn't want to do it, we changed our minds, now we're doing it.
What bugs me out is the amount of mail we got to keep it up. People that been following the site since day one that wrote just to say 'job well done.'
What's your relationships with the labels? Are they respecting what you guys bring to the table?
The labels are cool. I have a problem with some of the lesser known labels. The other day, my writer did an interview with a major underground artist and he said "Why would SOHH.com want to interview me?" I think some of these underground labels and artists assume that we don't want to cover them, but if they don't put themselves out there, I can't cover them. Def Jam and Arista tell me something everyday, therefore we cover them more than the label who contacts us once a year. The publicist for Little Brother will holler at me from time to time as well. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
The people on your site are known for talking alot of shit about you on your messageboards, I know their comments can get quite personal. How do you handle that?
When you get them on the phone or ban them, they are totally different. Some of them are grown people with real 9 to 5's that pretend to be younger than they are. They just want attention. But honestly, it's a compliment to a degree. They know so much about me and my situations. I think of them as fans.
Whats the plus' and minus' of your audience? Do they respond well to targeted campaigns?
I think my audience is on the cutting edge of whats hot. If you have an album about to drop, come to my forums. Have of them already have it and are spreading the news if it's good or not. The minus might be not knowing each one of them on a name basis. In 97 I knew pratically everyone on my board. It's grown a lot. The orignal members have gotten lockdown, married, died (4 members so far) or just not into rap anymore.
Tell me about your split from UBO in the final days.
It was messed up. Everyone looted the offices the day before they announced the bankruptcy. One guy took the RGB Projector. I know people who got laptops, phones, computers, AVID machines, everything. When I came with my bags, all they had left was some Ethernet cables and some hubs. Too slow ya blow.
Um, I wanted you to tell me about your legal split with UBO. Was it easy for you to get away from UBO without losing too much ass?
Oh, my bad. It was easy. As you can see Latin Flava and Othervision are still under that umbrella with a hole in it. We made it out with some scratches. Took us about a year to gather our wits though. We was still in that 2000 money mentality. We had to take it back to the essence
What do you think of the web inititives UBO currently has going on?
Didn't they sign Pudgee The Phat Bastard? Their inititives speak for themselves.
What are your thoughts on all this website business? Are we experiencing an upturn for sites that carry your business model?
I'd say ad sales for us and a few other sites have been better this past year. Mid 2002 sucked. I mean, I learned something the hard way. If you run a publication, who do you hire first. The designer? The writer? The sales rep? If you hire the designer and the writer, expect to go out of business quick. It's about the sales. You have to have money coming in.
Where do you work during the day?
SOHH.com. This ain't no hobby. We live off this. I work SOHH.com 9 to 5. Monday to Friday. We worked hard to get it like that. I consider myself real blessed to be like this too because I know a lot of webmasters who write for print publications to make ends.
Who's doing it right now web-wise?
Overall, All Hip-Hop.com, Davey D won't die. Rapstation.com / Bring Da Noise is tight. I used to love Blackplanet until they got into the dating thing. Then they started flooding my Note Box with all these ugly chicks that like me. They got a good model though. I check OHHLA.com everyday, but I wish he'd step up to a database backend. I'd love to do it with him but my time is mad busy.
Who needs to step their website game up?
Certain Hip-Hop sites in Canada. They should work on doing them and stop doing me. However, they got this one chick, Cherryl Aldave, that can write her ass off. I could see her writing for a bigger publication like VIBE or XXL real soon.
All of the hip-hop publication websites just aren't translating. I'd like to do the backend for XXL or King.
The Crusade could step up too. Ya'll need to syndicate the SOHH RSS 0.91 feed so your front page will be looking fresh everyday. Ya'll thought of a 'INDUSTRY DIMEPIECE OF THE WEEK' showcasing some of the cuties that work in the entertainment industry. Or maybe just some GROUPIE flicks.
If you could get any fantasy album right now what would it be?
The Diplomatic Immunity Instrumental album! When I listen to Julez and Cam for more than 20 minutes I start talking like Peebles Flinstone. I think labels need to holler at me for ideas too. I still wanna hear Welcome To New York City with Cam (Harlem), MOP (Brooklyn), Ghostface (Staten Island), 50 Cent (Queens) and Fat Joe (Bronx). That would have been major.
Now about that truck, what size rims you have on your Yukon?
I'm sitting on some 17" Factory joints. One of these labels should cop me something for my birthday.
I want to get you a set of platinum dipped 28's to go on that truck. Do you want the diamond SOHH logo's or do you want those done up in 24k gold?
Probably the 24k Gold joints. I do want a set of rims but not for my truck but I want them for my house. If I stack them up and put a sheet of glass on top, they could be some really ghetto fabulous coffee tables. Laugh now, but Ikea will do it next year and everyone will cop it.
Seriously, the way I figure, rims are on the OUTSIDE of your car. Why should I buy something for someone walking by to enjoy?
Message Steven and tell him what you think. | Dr Wigglesworth | | | The 2-Way | |
posted by: Frank Toro
@ 07/30/2003 11:12 AM
EST | | Steven, Keep up the great work. In this changing music environment which has labels going out of business, artists being dropped from labels and many losing jobs, it great to hear that you are holding it down ! |
posted by: DEKA
@ 07/30/2003 04:12 PM
EST | | SteveI remember those UBO days. I still bug out that I actually won the bid from them and actually seen money *LOL* I respect you to the fullest. especially how you went from HTML to back end technology. I feel ya on Black Planet. that site used to really be hot when it started. |
posted by: lance
@ 07/30/2003 05:03 PM
EST | | haha, classic interview |
posted by: nappy head standing
@ 07/31/2003 10:58 AM
EST | | respect that man he the errrr last man standing err err is sohh this funny I might have to go there all hip hop killed them with the alerts word i dont even have to login there to find out who in the dipset got shot this week no more |
posted by: tao
@ 07/31/2003 02:45 PM
EST | | I like the comment on the rims. I'll cop the platinum joints for the living room soon as Ikea gets them out... good to hear its still moving Steve. |
posted by: Tony
@ 08/02/2003 01:16 AM
EST | | Sohh.com is one of the best. It's right behind my favorite, Allhipcop.com. Keep up the good work. I visit your site daily, sometimes more than 3 times a day. Tony Samuel
Insomniac Magazine |
posted by: Kelly Jackson-Pitts
@ 08/03/2003 11:36 PM
EST | | What's going on? Good to hear all is well with you....Best wishes |
posted by: Nakia Booth
@ 08/04/2003 11:08 AM
EST | | Hey Steven. Good Interview. Of course, I'm glad to see you still doing it! Keep up the hard work and whatever you are pursuing will come. |
posted by: djBubs
@ 08/05/2003 04:21 PM
EST | | respect! |
posted by: HakeemThaDream
@ 08/11/2003 03:50 PM
EST | | I definitely chec out yo site for the latest info in the biz.. keep doin' yo thang dog |
posted by: From an old friend
@ 11/12/2004 05:41 AM
EST | | Yo, peace to steve. the days at cbs were tight-banging. holler at your ci.borg. one. |
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