Sad day in hip-hop here. After sixteen years of bringing the heat on urban culture and music, VIBE Magazine and the entire VIBE Media Group is shutting its doors for good. Rumors were running around like wild-fire the last two days but we wanted to make sure it was legit before posting something this big. Here is the official statement from the VIBE CEO and Editor in Chief. Via: Rap Radar
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Dear VIBE Team:

It is with a heavy heart that I share some tough news, VMG is closing down effective today, June 30th.

It’s been an 16 incredible years since VIBE’s inception. There are very few magazines with the richness of history and breadth of talented visionaries who created the powerful lens in which VIBE viewed and shaped urban music and culture.

Ever since I first set foot in this courageous company, I’ve regarded myself as incredibly fortunate to be be involved with this remarkable brand and group of individuals whose performance has never been nothing short of outstanding. We finished 2008 in an improved position versus the prior year, and accomplished so much, including:

    * Editorial Awards
    * Editorial transformation into content dept
    * New Ad accounts being broken
    * The Most Mag Launch
    * Award winning re-design
    * Profitable digital operation
    * VIBE.com growth and improvements and programs such as  Best Rapper Ever,  #1 Stan, etc
    * Mobile VIBE  launch
    * Micro-site development Mostmag.com to start off.       
    * V Sessions
    * Improved PR coverage

Unfortunately, over the last several months, a confluence of events has obviously posed VMG to exceedingly serious challenges.

    * The collapse of the capital markets has impacted us greatly.  Over the past several months, we have actively pursued investment resources while working intensively with our bank to find a solution. But the deal market right now remains very poor and at the end of the day, the lack of investment resources to restructure the huge debt on our small company has made this outcome become a reality.

    * The print advertising collapse hit VIBE hard, especially as key ad categories like automotive and fashion, which represented the bulk of our top 10 advertisers, have stopped advertising or gone out of business. It’s also unfortunate that in a recession many companies reduce the multi-cultural campaigns. These facts, coupled with the continuing decline of the music industry not to mention the newsstand wholesaler consolidation in early 2009 all negatively impacted our business in a significant way.

 * The relentless economic situation has depressed our growth initiatives on the digital front. To be clear, VMG has made significant improvement in this part of our business, but not at the accelerated pace required to offset the devastating effects of the most severe recession in our lifetime and the accompanying print losses.

I want to thank you all for your hard work and commitment, and for all of the adventures along the way. I’ll miss this place a lot, but I’ll miss you all and the magic you create.

Vibe will be remembered as a shockingly brilliant content company that everyone can be proud of and I look forward with great excitement to all of future endeavors you all pursue.

With great affection and respect –

Steve Aaron

former CEO of VIBE Media Group
On behalf the VIBE CONTENT staff (the best in this business), it is with great sadness, and with heads held high, that we leave the building today. We were assigning and editing a Michael Jackson tribute issue when we got the news. It’s a tragic week in overall, but as the doors of VIBE Media Group close, on the eve of the magazine’s sixteenth anniversary, it’s a sad day for music, for hip hop in particular, and for the millions of readers and users who have loved and who continue to love the VIBE brand. We thank you, we have served you with joy, pride and excellence, and we will miss you. —Danyel Smith

Soulja Boy graces the cover of Urban Ink’s latest issue. Yea I see the resemblance of him and Wolverine. Don’t you? Via: ProHipHop

Queen Latifah x Queen Fragrance. Queen Latifah is joining in on the latest urban music artist revenue stream trend with the release of a new scent by Parlux Fragrances. Queen by Queen Latifah — featuring hints of mandarin, jasmine, cognac, Moroccan coriander, and Egyptian — will hit stores in August and runs at $49. No word yet on distribution or marketing but I’m pretty sure Macy’s will come into play.

“Beauty really does start on the inside. It’s like a state of mind, a state of love, if you will. So I see a fragrance as just a natural expression of this state of love: Scent expresses a woman’s confidence and sensuality, it’s how she embraces her body, her mind and her strength,” the Queen said in a statement.

Here is a shot of the perfume compliments of the Crunch.

It’s always good news when you hear about artists and directors planning “out-of-the-box” creative ideas for their music videos. 50 Cent’s newest video to his single “OK You’re Right” is actually inspired of all things by a Phillips Electronics commercial that was used in a little-known marketing campaign. The commercial is called “Carousel” and was used to hype up their new line of LCD TVs.

Chris “Broadway” Romero actually reveals they got Phillips’ permission to use the video for their own. “We actually have a partnership with Phillips where they gave us the rights to take this commercial,” he added. “It was kinda underexposed. They made a great piece but maybe didn’t know how to use it that well so we took it and we just taking it way over the hill with a smash record at the same time and the biggest hip-hop artist on the planet.”

Check out the Panasonic commercial first (which is pretty dang nice) followed by behind-the-scenes of 50’s video. Via: Nah Right

Kanye West for once will be BEHIND the camera as he will be directing Drake’s video to “Best I Ever Had.” Drake talks about the experience here to MTV including saying that Kanye “oozes creativity.”

The Game x NBA 2K10. The Game has a nice little deal here with 2K as he will be featured as the main artist for the upcoming NBA 2K10. Like all NBA 2K games, the soundtrack will feature a bunch of artists but they usually pick a handful to focus on. Getting someone like The Game to do a custom song is pretty big. Check the song over at 2DopeBoyz. Of course Kobe is reppin’ the West out here and will be gracing the cover.

Ashanti x The Wiz. So Ashanti’s gig as the next Diana Ross in “The Wiz” has officially started but is on Broadway. Take a look at her performance as Dorothy in this vid. Good to know she still has work after getting dropped by Murder, Inc.

It was only a matter of time before we saw something like this. Apparently the site DeathofAuto-Tune.com just launched and it’s all about reasons why Auto-Tune should be killed from hip-hop. I love it. Time to get back to some original beats, sounds and real music if you ask me. Check out the site…it’s pretty funny. For example:

Reason #3 - So Rappers Can Stop Singing

Except Drake. That guy’s Falsetto makes them ladies’ cakes swoon. But seriously folks. Kanye is good at two things. Let’s take a look:

Things Kanye West is good at:
1. Making shoes
2. Dating bald headed girls

I do not see “Singing” on the list above. Therefore he should not sing. Yet Auto-Tune suddenly gives every rapper the chance to live out their dreams as the next incarnation of Shai and Jodeci. And Diddy? No we don’t want to take the last train to Paris if that means the last train has Diddy on it singing on Auto-Tune. Unless that train has Cassie naked on it. Then maybe it will be worth listening to Diddy.

Check the site out at DeathOfAuto-Tune.com