Elliott Wilson (born January 14, 1971) is an American journalist, television producer, and magazine editor. He is the founder and CEO of ''

Rap Radar Elliott Wilson (born January 14, 1971) is an American journalist, television producer, and magazine editor. He is the founder and CEO of ''Rap Radar''. In the past, he has worked as editor-in-chief of '' XXL Magazine''. While there, he became know ...

''. In the past, he has worked as editor-in-chief of ''

XXL Magazine ''XXL'' is an American hip hop magazine, published by Townsquare Media, founded in 1997. History In August 1997, Harris Publications released the first issue of ''XXL''. It featured rappers Jay-Z and Master P on a double cover. In December 20 ...

''. While there, he became known for his editorials under the nickname "YN". Over the course of his career, Elliott has interviewed and profiled a number of artists, including Jay-Z,

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

, and

Mary J. Blige Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the " Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and " Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Award ...

Early life

Elliott Wilson was born January 14, 1971, in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York. His father is

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and his mother is of

Ecuadorian Ecuadorians ( es, ecuatorianos) are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are colle ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

descent. He attended

William Cullen Bryant High School William Cullen Bryant High School, or William C. Bryant High School, and W.C. Bryant High School, or Bryant High School for short, is a secondary school in Queens, New York City, United States serving grades 9 through 12. Name It is named in hon ...

, went on to attend

LaGuardia Community College LaGuardia Community College is a public community college in New York City. It is in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in and part of the City University of New York. LaGuardia is named after former congressman and New York City mayo ...

, and received an associate degree in

Liberal Arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

in 1992. He has two younger brothers, Kenneth and Steven.

Writing career

Wilson has been writing and talking about hip hop and rap music since 1992, when he became music editor for Beat-Down Newspaper. He is the co-author of two critically acclaimed books, "Book of Rap Lists" and "Big Book of Racism!". Both books were created in the spirit of the short-lived magazine Ego trip. In 2004 Entertainment Weekly named the ego trip collective one of the "25 Funniest People in America". Wilson has written for a number of publications, including GQ,

VIBE ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down producti ...

, and

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

. In spring of 1996 Wilson went to

College Music Journal CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

as a beat-box editor. At the end of that year he was promoted as music editor of

The Source ''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...

magazine. In September, 1999, Wilson went to work at

Harris Publications Harris Publications Inc. was an American special interest media company, operating over 75 brands with print, digital, mobile and live event platforms prior to its sale to Athlon Media in 2016. It produced magazines that educate, entertain, inf ...

as editor-in-chief of

, and in 2005 he launched their website, XXLmag.com. He also co-created

Hip-Hop Soul Hip hop soul is a subgenre of contemporary R&B music, most popular during the early and mid 1990s, which fuses R&B or soul singing with hip hop musical production. The subgenre had evolved from a previous R&B subgenre, new jack swing, which ha ...

. In 2004, Wilson co-executive produced VH1’s TV’s Illest Minority Moments: Presented by ego trip. In 2005 Wilson co-executive produced three specials for VH1, under the Ego trip’s "Race-O-Rama: Blackaphobia, In Race We Lust, and Dude Where’s My Ghetto Pass?". In January 2007, VH1 debuted the eight-episode series

Ego trip's The (White) Rapper Show ''Ego Trip's The (White) Rapper Show'' is an American reality television series created by '' Ego Trip'' magazine that first aired on VH1. In the show, ten white rappers compete with each other for the chance at a $100,000 grand prize. The show ...

, where Wilson served as co-executive producer. In April 2008, VH1 debuted

Ego trip's Miss Rap Supreme ''Ego Trip's Miss Rap Supreme'' is an American reality television series that airs on the VH1 cable network. It is a follow up to 2007's ''Ego Trip's The (White) Rapper Show''. In ''Ego Trip's Miss Rap Supreme'', contestants compete to win the t ...

, where Wilson also served as co-executive producer. In 2010 Wilson became RESPECT.'s editor-in-chief.

Breakup with XXL

Wilson's tenure at XXL ended in January 2008 under controversial circumstances. On March 9, 2009, in partnership with Paul Rosenberg, he launched RapRadar.com, a webpage that documents mainstream hip-hop and rap culture in real time. Rap Radar has been nominated for best hip-hop web site for the

BET Hip Hop Awards The BET Hip Hop Awards are an annual awards show, airing on BET, showcasing hip hop performers, producers and music video directors. The awards ceremony began in 2006; it was held on November 12, 2006 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and w ...

in 2010, 2011, and 2012. In 2010, Wilson became editor of RESPECT. magazine. In 2012, Wilson launched "Keep It Thoro", a two-hour weekly show on

East Village Radio East Village Radio (EVR), begun in August 2003, was an Internet radio station which broadcast from a storefront studio in the East Village of Manhattan, in New York City. Originally a pirate radio station broadcasting at 88.1 MHz, the st ...

. The show, hosted by Wilson, features new music, and interviews with today's most popular and relevant artists. Since the summer of 2012, Keep It Thoro has been EVR's No. 1 overall show. In 2011,

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

named Wilson to its list of "Top 20 Music Industry Innovators". Billboard named Elliott to its "Twitter 140" in 2011 and 2012, a list of the most influential people in the music business. In 2011, MTV listed Wilson as one of six "Hip-hop Culture MVPs". He has appeared as an expert on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, MTV, MTV2, VH1,

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

, among others.

Personal life

Wilson lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, with his wife,

Danyel Smith Danyel Smith Wilson (born Danyel Smith; 1965) is an American magazine editor, journalist, and novelist . Smith is the former and first African-American editor of ''Billboard'' and ''Vibe'' magazine'','' respectively. She is author of two novels a ...

. They were married in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in June 2005.

Cultural Work

* HRDCVR a hardcover cultural magazine in partnership with wife

. * Founder of RapRadar.com: Premiere Rap Blog for the latest news, music and video in Hip Hop Culture * Host of Rap Radar Podcast "Hip hop's premier website connects with our culture's most important voices" in collaboration with Brian "BDot" Miller * WatchLOUD.com presents CRWN with Elliott Wilson where the world's greatest hip-hop journalist interviews today's hottest rap stars * Editorial Director, Culture & Content, TIDAL

References

External links

Rap Radar official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Elliott American music journalists Living people 1971 births