It should really be no surprise that nahright.com is number one on VIBE’s list of the 50 hottest rap blogs. Read interviews with the other bloggers we featured this week, and the majority have said, Ahsmi “Eskay” Rawlins and his website nahright.com, is listed as one of their main inspirations. Get a chance to ask your favorite rapper what his favorite rap blog is, and they will probably say nahright.com (unless they’re shameless self-promoters and mention their own first. Then, nahright.com is second).
Truth is, most people could guess who our number one blogger was going to be even before the list leaked all over the Internets yesterday. And while we have seen a lot of back and forth about who was left off the list and disputes over the rankings of other blogs, the one placement everyone seems to agree on is the guy who helped give birth to the rap blog conglomerate Internet rap heads know as the New Music Cartel.
With a single post Eskay can boost a career and break it (just ask Asher Roth). It’s through his website hip hop fans can get the latest up-and-coming acts, as well as getting familiar with more-established acts they may not be up on (Camp Lo). To put it bluntly: nahright.com is to the rap blogosphere what MTV is to TV and Hot97 is to radio. There is none higher.
#1 Nahright.com
My Name and Age: Ahsmi “Eskay” Rawlins, 31
My City: Yonkers, NY
My Site: nahright.com
My Launch: May 2005
My Inspiration (Not part of the New Music Cartel): smokingsection.net, therapup.net,ugghnicewatch.com, unkut.com, and ohword.com
My Soundtrack:
Curren$y: I really think he’s got something. He performed at my [SXSW] show in Austin, and I was like, Damn this kid’s a star.
Jadakiss: I gotta rep for the home team.
Wale: I’ve been digging him lately.
Cam’Ron: I’m fucking with him hard.
Blu: The west coast is doing it and he’s at the forefront of that.
My Start: I had started a little personal blog before, like a blogspot. It’s inactive; the public can’t even see it. I also did mixtape reviews for a mixtape site. I was doing those two things.
My Motivation: I blog because I love music. I love hip hop music. I spend countless hours dedicated to posting hip hop in one form or another and it’s something that’s always been with me. That love is part of the main reason why I started my blog and why I do it everyday and I try to keep everything up to date. Now it’s my full time job so obviously it’s putting food on my table so it’s that motivation as well.
My Moment: It’s funny because I was reading the interview with Maurice and he said that Bun B mentioned something about his site and it was the same with me. There was some controversy where Bun B did an interview with another website and whether the writer had spoken to Bun or not. So he reached out to me to clarify the situation, and we did a little interview. When I was talking to him, he said, “You know, your site is really poppin, a lot of the industry read it, people at labels, the artists…” That was kind of like the moment where I had a feeling it was getting popular; to hear it from someone like Bun.
My Hustle: I do well, I used to be an IT analyst in New York City which is a pretty big job and let’s just say I make way more than I did as an IT analyst working in New York City. I make enough where I can support myself and I can employ [two other Nah Right content producers] Dre and Nation.
My Reputation: Nowadays, there’s a million sites that [posts independent music and leaks new music], but it wasn’t like that in 2005. Like I can’t even remember any site that was doing what I’m doing now, back then. We were really one of the first sites to really go hard with that.
My Power: I never envisioned [Nah Right] to be influential, to be that type of site. It’s very humbling and it’s a great responsibility knowing that if I choose to support an artist, they are all of a sudden going to get a lot of attention. Labels might be looking at them. So on one hand, its very humbling, it’s a great responsibility. On the other hand, I might feel strongly about an artist and the majority that read the site might not necessarily fuck with them. For example: Pac Div, I know they’re not going to appeal to the majority of the people that I know. It might only be 50 percent of my audience, but if I feel that the music is good, then I’m going to throw my support behind you all the way.
My craziest comment/commenter: I get this dude who thinks that I’m Jay-Z. He’s like, “Oh what up Jay? Can you lay this verse for me?” He just does it. I don’t know what would make him think that Jay Z runs Nah Right.
My Dilemma: I hate that there’s something new out there that’s not up. If it’s 3 in the morning, before I go to bed, let me go online and let me check real quick if anything leaks. I hate that there’s something out there and we’re not on top of it.
My Crew: I would never say that I’m the leader of the New Music Cartel but I did come up with the name. Why did we come together? I would say strength in numbers. I noticed that all these sites would go hard with exclusives and they were definitely bringing new music on a daily or weekly basis
My Next Move: I honestly don’t have a firm plan. With the NMC thing, we kind of play it by ear and see what happens but we’re open to new chances and to new opportunities. I’m blessed to be able to support myself from the site. I don’t want money to be motivation, I want something that’s going to be there for the long term and something that’s respected and appreciated.
My Advice: Make sure it’s something that you want to do. I want to be a professional blogger. It sounds good, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s definitely a lot of work. It’s more than a computer and talking shit. Go hard. You gotta go harder than anybody else. There’s a million people out there that got the same ideas, that want to do the same thing, that want to make the same transition. Do something that’s going to set you apart from the packs.
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