The Jawn: Philly's Unsigned Talent, 2001-2007

For seven years, as a reporter with the Philadelphia Daily News, I have interviewed and published articles on more than 100 unsigned, underground artists from the Philadelphia area. Most were purely local hip-hop artists from ‘around the way,’ the ones who were just as good as the mainstream artists, but lacked the big-label financial backing and just needed an outlet to inform the world of their skills and motivation. There’s also write-ups on other local urban culture contributors, from producers to comedians, instructors to concert promoters. It’s a collection of what moved Philly during much of the past decade. A few of the artists, the hip-hop ones at least, have gone on to achieve a moderate level of success, thanks in some way to the coverage I provided. Many, however, either are still toiling the underground circuit or have given up the game entirely and moved on with the rest of their lives. Still a few more are artists no one has ever heard of, and likely, won’t hear of again. Some of the write-ups were blurbs, just a few sentences long; most were full-length interviews while a handful more were feature cover story articles. Still, it was a glorious era of covering local hip-hop, one in which almost nightly, there would be yet another artist coming through the paper for an interview and photo shoot. I was and am proud of the ink that I provided for hometown, homegrown artists. These are their stories.