Top 10 KevinNottingham.com Moments

So here it is, our Second Anniversary. Over millions of hits later, hundreds of thousands of members later, and a whole bunch of reviews, articles, song postings, spotlights, interviews, site designs,controversies, and staff members later… we still freaking rock. Generally, we wouldn’t have done this, but the fact that SO much has happened in the last year made this necessary to do. Just to lay it all out there, we care about every single one of our viewers, even if you send us hate mail, we appreciate your time. Hopefully, as you read through this list, you get to relive, rethink, and rehash the memory of the particular post or moment. Picking 10 from the bunch was slightly difficult, so we had to cheat a bit and really generalize things at times. But ya’ll will get the point, we DO have the smartest blog audience… this I believe is certain. Enjoy the list ladies and gents. Let’s reminisce…

10. Artist Appreciation and Recognition/ Artist Shoutouts

• From Phonte, to Talib, to Statik, to Asher Roth (in his album linear notes), to the various cats that I meet in Toronto and other cats meet around the world, people know our site. Everything is made worth while when we get those daps. Kev also loves those video shoutouts.

9. Genesis of Beef Topic / Top 10 Beef Diss Tracks

• Genesis of Beef: This was unreal. What a piece by Thomas. It made its way around the net and really acted as a piece of education and entertainment. It was awesome.
• Top 10 Beef Diss Tracks was kind of my first taste of a large audience. But, with that said, I felt like it acted as a large piece of material that while controversial, was more than respectable. It addresses a few tracks that most might’ve not heard and probably opened up some eyes as to why one particular track was a stinger that it was. Proud moment for myself because it led the “research projects” for myself… led to the Phonte Top 15 piece.

8.  HiPNOTT Records Opening/ Illtravis

• This is history, ain’t it? If not, it should be. A blogger starting his own record label? That’s so fucking dope. It’s only natural that such a WORLD WIDE respected dude gets world wide talent and bumps everyone else’s stuff gets his own stuff bumped from time to time. All he needs to do now is get on the microphone.
• Illtravis was big because it was original (even though we didn’t know about the Elzhi project) and it was something new for a blog to do this. It got loads of attention and made its way around the internet, which is always a great thing.

7.  Winning the SOHH Award

• Having Donnell Rawlings and Angela Yee offer us a pretty dope award and beating out some really big cats made us feel really special. This not only increased our credibility because it was from a heavily respected website, but it gave us something to brag about; something we never do, did, or probably ever will.

6. Westcoast Week/ Specific Artists dedicated weeks

• This has become a trademark of our site. With West Coast Week we were able to devote a whole week to a region. Filled with top 25 beat lists, top 10 mc lists, sample sets galore, movie and album reviews for classic favourites, it was jam packed with goodies. With Artists specific weeks, we just consistently raise the bar and provide so much original content and put it in a nice little neat package

5. Artist Interviews/ Spotlights

• We give some of the best interviews on the net because we generally ask some cut throat, tough questions and get some great responses. Moreover, we interview some dope ass cats. Domingo, Mickey Free, Statik, they all gave feedback back to the fans who commented and that’s always a huge bonus that not every site can say they get. Also, getting Ariel B to do what he does is a huge look and gives insightful looks into the studio, and really and truly is something unique
• The spotlights are great because they allow us to really showcase a particular artist. The fun ones are the producer spotlights where we get to compile the best of the best from Kanye (Like Kanye Week), Dr. Dre, Timbaland (coming soon), etc. Moreover, we get to shine the light on new artists who may not of been in the limelight like that before. It helps them out as much as it helps us out.

4.  American Gangster Remixes

• This is how I met Kevin, because you’d be hard pressed to type in American Gangster remixes and not have this site come up. It was the starlight of the site for quite some time, but it was extra dope stuff and really got people on board with the site more so than ever.

3. Sample Sets Galore

• Our bread and butter. Whenever the site is reeling for material, Thomas and Kev reach into their bag of tricks and pull one out… then boom. Automatic love, automatic appreciation (for old music most people have never heard or made the connection to), and automatic hits to get people on board for new material. It’s the spark to our stick of TNT.

2.  Remix Contests/ Concert Contests/ Merch Contests

• How many blogs can say that they do multiple contests consecutive weeks, potentially change lives by giving producers a chance to add to their resume and get seen, give away tickets to concerts (including the very strict and expensive Drake concert in Toronto), give you guys wicked cool products from Def Jam, clothing, and multiple remix contests to keep everyone having fun AND provide good music in the process? No other. And we love it like that.

1. Birth of www.KevinNottingham.com

• A no brainer. None of this would be possible if Kev didn’t decide to do this in the first place.

Honourable Mentions:

Introduction of a Full Staff

• Getting some writers on board was key to getting out necessary reviews to keep up with the Joneses. More than that, but the writers have contributed in just about every way from going to shows, meeting with other artists, and just promoting the KevinNottingham.com brand all around the globe. The interns were the icing on the cake, only helping us post more and more stuff and keeping things up to date and quicker moving. Each staff member is key to our victory…

Akon Interview

• No one saw this coming, not even us. But as we got it, we felt ultra dope and we felt like we were something of significance to not only “underground” heads, but mainstream. Original Content…Unlimited Potential

Madlib Dealio

• Still remains one of the most popular topics that this site has been affiliated with. Even got Kev a quotable in XXL haha. It really opened up a can of worms about the topic, and now, this acts as a trademark question when we talk to artists and inform them about the site. KevinNottingham.com is killing hip hop? Yeah right.

Top 10′s (and stuff) of 2008

• We hit some major hits with this. As I posted this around, a lot of cats were hooked onto the site like fish looking at the worms as bait. It was awesome.

Album Reviews

• No other website does them this in depth; no other website has such a thorough and ready team to produce them either. We take pride on getting people to stay away or get closer to an album. It is great reflecting on older albums to and providing a type of retrospective look on albums. Regardless, we put 150% hard work into our reviews and it’s something we pride ourselves on and we are blessed to have such great readers.

April Fools Day

• You guys are still falling for it, and it’s tremendous. I’ve spread out this article a few times and people are still giving into it and it still gets mad hits and commentary. Give up the dream!