Home » Music » Hip-Hop Music & Culture » Record labels online?: Hip-hop's going interactive

Record labels online?: Hip-hop's going interactive

© Steve Juon

A lot of the major labels in the record music industry have been on the information superhighway for a while now, labels such as Geffen and MCA. It's only recently that the hip-hop oriented labels have started to make an explosion in the online scene, and a few of them can boast an excellent layout and excellent multimedia options.

By far the best is the Loud/RCA site. Loud is perhaps the cutting edge of hip-hop multimedia, having already released two "enhanced" CD's when most of the hip-hop industry hasn't even considered the idea yet. These artists, Mobb Deep and Xzibit, have impressive homepages which can link you to videoclips and RealAudio; other Loud artists like Sadat X and Wu-Tang Clan have them as well.

Newer on the block but coming up strong is Def Jam's homepage. Def Jam is a label rich in hip-hop tradition for a genre that's been on the scene only a short time; and this is the place where you'll find official homepages for artists like LL Cool J, Onyx, Public Enemy, and Redman. The background graphics are a really nice touch and the layout is superb.

Other smaller labels deserve a lot of credit for pushing the envelope and bringing their music to a large audience through the internet. In particular I recommend you check out London's Fused and Bruised Recordings and New York's Soul Kid Records as example of two up and coming labels in the music industry who aren't afraid to get wired. They deserve credit for being in on hip-hop online from the start, instead of jumping on the bandwagon after everybody else.

If you'd like more linx to hip-hop and other record labels, you can check out my page of record label linx.

Hope to see you've dropped by!

Peace, Flash

The copyright of the article Record labels online?: Hip-hop's going interactive in Hip-Hop Music & Culture is owned by . Permission to republish Record labels online?: Hip-hop's going interactive in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.