Let Danyel know your thoughts on the February issue in the Comments section
Hey folks. Though it’ll be long past by the time you read this, you caught me on a crazy night. There’s rain in the air and stress on my face. My hair needs to be done and the bottle of scotch Def Jam’s Gabe Tesoriero sent me (for some past transgression, probably overblown on both our parts) is starting to appeal. Thanks, G.T., for all the work on this amazing Kanye West cover.
Sometimes we work slow, and sometimes, to paraphrase Greg Nice, we work quick. Sometimes, up here, we overthink. We meet and we meet and we meet again—in the conference room, in my office, in BMI’s office (the shark/supa-think tank) in Mark Shaw’s office (“Mark, can you make this a little bigger? Mark, can you make this a little smaller?”), in Carla Shackleford’s office (“So what’s the difference, again, between the ‘hard close’ and the ‘actual close’?”), in Robyn Forest’s office (“You want me to pull the images up on my computer?”), in the open area near the desks of Shirea L. Carroll (who’s responsible for the well-done “First Class,” featuring Beyoncé, see page 23) and Bradley Wete (who pitched and wrote about Colin Munroe this issue, see page 43).
We pitch ideas to each other, we decide and then we re-decide. We try hard to communicate with each other, but it’s never enough. We haggle over cover-lines. We haggle over headlines. We grumble through Angela Watford’s to-do lists every morning.
We go back and forth with Production and Publishing (that means Jodi Sh. Doff and
Edgar Hernandez) over this ad placement and that ad placement. Then artists come
by—and sometimes, like when Universal Motown recording artist LeMarvin did, they
bring tasty sandwiches—and we listen to cool, new music, and we have good times.
Yes, let me type it out about some of the folks up here, because it makes me feel good. Jozen Cummings (he wrote the Jay Rock story, see page 44) always has jokes, and we snap on him relentlessly for his outfits (Club Monaco, though he swears otherwise). He sits near Miss Linda Hobbs, who reported and wrote December’s amazing Static/Major story. Chris “The Silent One” Yuscavage and Keith “Where’s My Hat?” Murphy hold down their neighborhood of the floor with smirks and ultra-quirky ideas. Rob Kenner keeps a mental scrapbook of all things VIBE—he’s been here 15 years straight (we had a fun- ass party to celebrate). Janelle Grimmond, Celia L. Smith, and Memsor Kamaraké inhabit their own, moat-surrounded fashion castle here at 120 Wall (visa required for entry), and just when I think they’re being a lil’ too extra (it’s how they do), they come up with the phenomenal “Heartbreak Hotel” (see page 82). And Sean Fennessey conducted a historic interview with Kanye West for this issue. This is West’s first VIBE solo cover, and it’s Fenn’s first VIBE cover story. Congratulations to both gentlemen, not just for the amazing story, but for the fact that K.W. and S.F. both worked hard to make this happen while one was on tour and one was on deadline.
We at VIBE are a creative group. We argue. We fall in and out with each other.
We bring it back to the job at hand, though. I respect my staff and the whole VIBE team, because, at the end of the day, just when we get tired and frustrated, like I am today, someone (like Olivia Scott-Perkins, our new marketing maestro), or some department (Hello, Finance! Hi, Digital! What’s up, Research?) does something unexpected or helpful or brilliant and in true service to the readers. It makes my day. And I need, sometimes, when I feel like smiling faces tell lies, for my day to be made.
Maybe I’m feeling so good about the VIBE staff because it’s the holiday season?
Or maybe because (even with Puffy’s paraphrased words on this issue’s spine) the recession is stressing? Not to the degree that it affects what we create up here, but enough that we seem to be more zealous than ever about serving you, about creating beauty, and about—in this, the first Black History Month of the Obama era—recording, thoroughly and with diligence, the musical and cultural history that matters so much to you and to us.
Maybe I’m feeling this way about the staff because most of them are here—working late—right now, doing this thing we do. Staff: It’s appreciated. As you are, VIBE reader. It’s December as I type this, so let me say best wishes to you for an amazing 2009. May your most quiet and most priceless wishes come true, may your biggest goals be closer, may your loves deepen like my own dark Pacific, and may your heartaches fade like skateboard scars. This year is ours to make.
As ever,
Danyel Smith
Editor-in-Chief
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