''RWD Magazine'' (also known as ''RWD'' or ''RWDmag'') is a British-based magazine which features

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playin ...

, film,

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. N ...

, interviews and charts on hip hop,

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

, R&B,

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop, R&B, and jungle. It ...

, drum and bass and

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

house music. Running from 2001–2014 It was released monthly, distributing 98,300 copies each time and was ABC certified. It was considered the largest magazine on

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

music and

lifestyle Lifestyle often refers to: * Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives * ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle * Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality Lifestyle may also refer to: Bu ...

in the United Kingdom. As well as the magazine, ''RWDmag'' has a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

which features music videos, tracks and artist profiles. RWDmag.com was the first major website to champion grime music.

History

''RWD Magazine'' became a well known name in UK underground urban music circles in mid to late 2003. This coincided with the rise of a new urban music genre, which later became popularly referred to as

. Founding editor-in-chief was Matt Mason, who later wrote ''The Pirate's Dilemma'' (2008). ''RWD Magazine'' provided a platform for emerging unsigned artists to get their names and their faces into every popular underground music outlet. This worked by aspiring artists paying to feature within the magazine. This may not have seemed very desirable at first, but the magazine's healthy distribution and circulation made this more attractive. The magazine enjoyed a relatively healthy distribution and circulation as readers could pick up the magazine for free. This new platform (along with music channel Channel U) appealed to many aspiring artists from the grime scene and allowed them to do independently what they could have previously only done with the backing of a major

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

. Part of the success of the magazine was driven by its official website, which was buoyed by its popular forum named 'RWD forum' both launched by Lex Johnson, the most central point being the "Grime Music" forum. This forum allowed for the discussion of everything to do with the grime scene and regularly enjoyed visits from big names in the grime scene who occasionally also posted.

2000–2004

During this time, the magazine focused on the intersection between UK garage and the birth of grime music. The founding editor at this time was Matt Mason who went on to write a bestselling book, ''The Pirates Dilemma'' and work at BitTorrent. The website was built, launched and promoted by teenage online director

Alex Donne Johnson Lex Johnson is a British designer, director and creative executive. He is the founder of creative agency DAZZLE SHIP, a former lecturer at Swedish design institute Hyper Island, and the founding online director of RWD Magazine, RWD magazine and ...

who later went on to form his own creative agency, Dazzle Ship. During this period, the website won a number of awards including London Business of the Year, UK Garage Awards: Best Website 2002 and Sidewinder Peoples Choice Awards: Best Magazine 2013. As part of the marketing campaign for the website, '' The Booo Krooo'' were born. They were soon co-signed by Missy Elliott asking to be featured in the cartoon for her hit single "Work It". '' The Booo Krooo'' went on to secure a 6 episode broadcast series on British TV channel Channel U and produced a music video with UK garage producer

Sticky Sticky may refer to: People *Sticky (musician), alias of UK garage producer Richard Forbes * Sticky Fingaz or Sticky (born 1973), nickname of the US rapper and actor Kirk Jones Adhesion *Adhesion Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar ...

, famous for hits such as the track (also named) "

Booo! "Booo!" is a song by UK garage DJ/producer Sticky featuring Ms. Dynamite. It was the first single Ms. Dynamite appeared on before the release of her debut solo single the following year. The song was a top 20 hit, peaking at No. 12 on the UK Si ...

2007–2008

In mid-2007, ''RWD Magazine'' underwent a number of management changes, one of the most important being a change of editor. The new management wanted to expand the magazine's audience in order to feature all types of music that might appeal to a younger generation. In order to achieve this, the content and appearance of the magazine and website changed, much to the disappointment of the users. This resulted in an exodus of users, establishing their own forums; namely ViP2 Forum which evolved from the Flashback993 forums that were established in 2005. Grime Forum was also created where grime music fans who used to post in the ''RWDmag'' forum created their own forum website named Grime Forum with its own connected "Grimepedia" encyclopedia of the genre as well as a music store. During this time both SBTV and GRM Daily managed to adapt to the new video based YouTube generation and took the top spot as the source for grime content on the internet.

2009

On 1 April 2009, ''RWD'' launched a new and redesigned website with extended content under the different genres and enhanced social networking features which give users the ability to manage their own profiles, keep in touch with friends, as well as track forum activity.

2014

''RWD Magazine'' launched a football show known as ''FilthyFellas'' on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

on 12 September ahead of the

2014–15 Premier League The 2014–15 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the ...

season. The show released a new episode every Monday at 7pm following the matches of the weekend, and is known for its amusing and mocking element of "

banter Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focu ...

" that it contains.{{Cite web, date=2014-10-19, title=Meet The #FilthyFellas {{! RWD, url=http://rwdmag.com/meet-the-filthyfellas/, access-date=2021-03-26, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019163125/http://rwdmag.com/meet-the-filthyfellas/, archive-date=19 October 2014

References

External links

''RWDmag'' official site

''RWDmag'' designerThe Booo KroooDazzle Ship

"Booo Krooo", first in the grime comedy genre
Music magazines published in the United Kingdom Online magazines published in the United Kingdom Lifestyle magazines published in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom 2001 establishments in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 2001