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 Meet native New Yorker,
Larry “The Blackspot” Hester, the accredited music writer
whose humble beginnings as an assistant in the mailroom at
Vibe Magazine in 1994 led to a prosperous career in
journalism. Having had dreams of being a hip-hop artist in
his youth and interning at a local radio station (Kevin
Keith & The Dirty Dozen Show) prior to his employment at
Vibe, BlackSpot was no stranger to the music
industry.
In fact, by 1995 a determined
Blackspot secured a position as Staff Writer for VIBEonline
where he wrote the acclaimed comedic online column "The
Blackspotlight." A well deserved promotion and a short year
later found him holding the position of Editor-In-Chief
where he launched one of the first urban entertainment news
sources online. That same year he penned the historical and
controversial “East Coast vs. West Coast” cover of Vibe
Magazine. “To go from the kid in the mailroom to the writer
of VIBE's most exposed issue is amazing to me," Hester says.
"I could finally prove to my parents that I wasn't a bum."
Blackspot went on to deliver
to Vibe columns like “Ten Years Later” that featured
celebrities like Philip Michael Thomas, The Fat Boys and
Papa Smurf and “Notes From the Underground/Subterranean
Sounds” that highlighted now famous artists like Talib Kweli
and Three Six Mafia.
With both new media and print
conquered, Blackspot moved into broadcast journalism
becoming the American rap correspondent for a number of
British hip-hop radio stations including the
Tim Westwood Show on
Radio One, Friday Night Flavas on Choice FM and subsequently
the Blackout Radio Show in Croatia.
"I've always loved the
concept of screaming random facts at people over radio
waves," he explains. "It's an audio form of sadomasochism
and the overseas hip hop crowd are the best masochists."
It was in 1998 that Blackspot made the move
from the well-established Vibe imprint to the upstart
XXL Magazine. There, he served as Music Editor.
During his tenure he wrote the cover story on Wu-Tang’s
Raekwon the Chef that not only was the highest selling issue
of that time, it was recently used in the movie “Brown
Sugar.” He also tackled writing a full-length feature on
another Wu-Tang Clan Member: Ol’ Dirty Bastard. As well,
Blackspot is responsible for taking the “Eye Candy “section
to the next level.
In
1999, BlackSpot became Editor-In-Chief of start-up hip-hop
website Hookt.com where he created the graffiti iMac
campaign for Hookt's launch. He was also in charge of
producing, developing and implementing content for Eminem’s
official Slim Shady World website.
In 2001, Blackspot becomes Senior Music Content Producer for
BET.com. Never leaving behind his skills for print media, he
continues to be a contributing writer to The Source,
King, Napster and XXL Magazine.
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