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In today's climate i believe a magazine has to be something special. Something that you can pickup at anytime and still appreciate the content.
Starting the magazine, I was egar to have content that I was interested in. I always leaned on the opinions of others so that swayed what I put in it to a degree. Not that the input was bad, heck a lot of it was awesome. I was entering a atmosphere that I was unfamiliar with.
I needed all the help I could get. The magazine was/is super DIY. Pulling content from writers that would lend me their time to interview people, photographers that don't mind me using their photos & the people that are being featured who didn't mind us getting in their business
I did this all because I was turned down from working at any local radio station at the time. Being on the radio was my childhood dream.
There era I came up in was when the stations here played local music. They helped put so many on. That's the energy I wanted to manifest. Being the connection from the artist to the masses.
So when the mainstream radio thing for me didn't work here in the city I wanted to do it in I figured to take another approach and I must say, thank God for TAB TUESDAYS! That introduced me to a slew of fresh artist that have incredible talent.
The more I kept coming around Candy Lounge on Tuesdays the more I started to see a whole new push in Houston music. My eyes where wide open with enthusiasm!
Not to mention what Molo did with the Urban Woodstock was also incredibly dope.
Mind you, I was doing all of this while working my 9-5 which was actually 1-9, 2-10 or some variation of an evening shift schedule with some terrible days off.
I was in the field that I loved and I was hungry for it.
If you ever heard me talk about the first big artist I got to interview you would know @TRAEABN is the first one to ever let @HoustonTREND interview him.
Let me say this, I AM NOT A WRITER. I think I am terrible at it. Especially when you seen what people like @SimplyCecilia, @_brandoc, @SheaSerrano, @HesAlwaysWrite and a slew of others who are actual journalist are able to do.
I say that because when I interviewed Trae, I had no idea what to do afterwards so I posted the entire audio clip on the website. Just as is. The summary was probably terrible too. However, you couldn't tell me shit. I just interviewed Trae in his Challenger outside of Frenchy's
In Third Ward! My neighborhood! The same neighborhood I grew up in, I fought in (I was a skinny kid with Big ass glasses so you know how that went) I first met @JayAustin_ in who let's be honest, made me cool. In that neighborhood I did something that I was told I couldn't.
After that interview I got eyes on the brand. "Oh shit! People dig it!"
But it was the website, I wanted what I had been collecting for years prior to starting @HoustonTREND. I want the magazine in my hands.
"Wait, how much is it to print a magazine?! $5,000 for 500 copies?! Hell nah!" Is what I can remember saying after I heard what another magazine was paying to have theirs done. This should have been a lesson. Just because you can't see it now doesn't mean you can't make it happen
As I watched others go to people to invest, advertise or even lend I wouldn't, because to me I had to prove is some weird way that I was capable of doing it myself.
Thus emerged the "Stubborn era"
What an ass I was. I can say that confidently now because I know you can't succeed at anything alone besides nothingness.
"it's my magazine!" I can hear me saying it as if I had just said it now. "I need it to be this way!"
The stubborn era beget the crumble era right before we went print. Yikes...
Eventually I stared to give in because bat my core I can't be an asshole. I'm glad I did. @CoreighTerry helped me break that wall. He always had (still does) great ideas.
After listening to @CoreighTerry he introduced me to a site that I could print a magazine by order. It would be a little expensive to purchase but it was a start.
@MagCloud allowed us to finally print the magazine!
I was excited to sit up hours into the night and go to work tired the next day because I was desging @HoustonTREND's first issue!
Furthermore, at a peak point in her career we had @QUEENJUSTBRITT on the inaugural issue! The shoot didn't go as originally planned but @CoreighTerry made it work.
I knew following the @QUEENJUSTBRITT cover we had to go big! So we reached out to @slimthugga! Niki (neverbenic_ on IG) did an incredible job on this massive 7 page spread detailing where Slim was with the music and business at that time.
The work load of making a magazine is indeed tiresome especially if nothing but recognition is coming in. While I have a great deal of sales experience I had no idea on how to sale my brain child. I was legit a magazine for me. Something that I was interested in.
So the following year @TPiperMedia helped me out but time and outside of saying thank you, I don't believe I got to thank him properly. Watching him work definitely improved the way I went about structuring the magazine.
@TPiperMedia is incredible. It's like he sees things in the future and lives it in the present. He definitely tried to give me game and how to move forward and I truly appreciate that.
Seeing a person with a good vision that can't allow themselves to let go of things that may not be condusive to that vision is difficult to watch.
Honestly, because I haven't seen any major revenue come in from the magazine it has me to this day hesitant on jumping that proverbial cliff in to legit entrepreneurship.
In spite of, I continued on. Salute @HesAlwaysWrite for landing the @Sauce_Walka102 & Big Sanchy cover story. That day was wild lol also salute to @bobbyj713 for letting us use his studio on numerous occasions
That issue was a real turning point. It finally looked like a real magazine. Not to knock on the two prior to it but you can definitely tell there was some desgin assistance.
The following issues would be my favorites. @djmrrogers and @BEATKINGKONG was a double cover both interviews were incredible. Met up with Rogers and we drove around for an hour listening to what he listens to on his SoundCloud, met up with @SteakxShrimp in the middle of the shoot
To get Rogers and LE$ in a shoot together was epic for me. Then the @BEATKINGKONG photoshoot was hilarious, I knew he would be with the shits so I bought a crown, a robe and a septer. Two Justins, one issue and we got @SimplyCecilia back for the Rogers story!
