Planet Black Magazine

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Planet Black Magazine was the world's first national weekly hip hop culture publication. Its first issue debuted in May 1995, in Cleveland, Ohio. Launched by the Ashanti Publishing Company, Planet Black started as an entertainment insert in Ohio's largest African-American newspaper the "Call and Post" (founded in 1908 by Garret Morgan).

Planet Black featured hip-hop news and information as well as a wide range of social and political articles. Its niche was the attention it gave to artists who were either local, underground, up and coming, or often overlooked by larger media. Many larger mags borrowed concepts first used in Planet Black. Planet Black is credited with being the first mag to give covers to superstars Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, RBX, and Mystikal, among others.

Its slogan "empowering the world of hip-hop" was the vision of Planet Black's creator Rashad Jabri. Jabri, an activist, came up with the idea for Planet Black initially as a business project for a class of at-risk youth he was mentoring at Harry E. Davis Middle School.

Jabri sketched out the prototype on some loose sheets of paper and took it to the Call and Post to get 25 copies printed. Call and Post editor-in-chief Andre Bustamante saw the project's potential and made a deal with Jabri to include new issues in the weekly newspaper.

Planet Black benefited greatly from the huge circulation of the Call and Post, which was audited at over 100,000. Jabri took issues of Planet Black with him on out-of-town trips and found it to be a hit everywhere he went. By its fifth issue Planet Black was being distributed throughout the United States and parts of Canada.

Because of its newspaper style and a grassroots approach to marketing, Planet Black became popular inside the record industry, especially with big labels who were looking for a place to break their lesser known artist.

In 1997 Planet Black began to struggle when its partner the Call and Post began having major troubles. Planet Black survived for two more years before printing its final issue in 1999 and closing down.

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