| URL | http://allhiphop.com |
|---|---|
| Slogan | The world's most dangerous site |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Music website |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | AHH Holdings LLC |
| Created by | Greg Watkins, Chuck Creekmur |
| Launched | 1998 |
| Revenue | US$4 million (as of 2007) |
| Current status | Active |
AllHipHop.com is a hip hop news website. It was founded in 1998. At five million visitors a month, it is the world's most popular hip hop website.[1][2] Essence magazine has dubbed it "the CNN of hip-hop".[3] In 2006, AllHipHop won the Rising Stars Award from Black Enterprise magazine. In 2007, PC Magazine listed it as one of the "Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites".[4] As of May 2008, it attracts over thirty-seven million page views a month.[5]
Greg Watkins and Chuck Creekmur founded the website in 1998.[6] High school friends Watkins and Creekmur grew up in Newark, Delaware.[3] In 1997, Watkins registered the allhiphop.com domain to promote the artists on Oblique Recordings, a small record label he operated. The website provided music downloads to promote the label's artists. After reaching 30,000 downloads a month, Watkins struck deals with eMusic and other retailers to sell downloads. His friend Creekmur, a freelance journalist, had launched a website, tantrum-online.com, in New York. After merging the companies, they adapted Trantrum's exclamation point logo for AllHipHop.[7] By 2003, the business generated enough revenue for Watkins to quit his job and work on the website full time. Creekmur did the same next year. In 2007, the revenue exceeded US$4 million.[3]