HIP-HOP'S SOCIAL MEDIA AUTHORITY, ELLIOTT WILSON

Shout to the #godfather #elliotwilson #og 

"Being on Twitter all day is my job because the lifeline of the culture runs through [it]."

By Janday Wilson - May 15, 2014
If you are a fan of hip-hop, chances are you can't escape Elliott Wilson, the self-dubbed "GOAT of Hip-Hop Journalism." Even if you don't get his constant barrage of tweets, retweets, posts and re-posts directly on your Twitter and Instagram feeds, they likely find their way there if you are a consumer of hip-hop content. "People used to be like 'How do you do your job if you're on Twitter all day?' Being on Twitter all day is my job because the lifeline of the culture runs through Twitter; it runs through social media," Wilson said.

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The 43-year-old has worked in the field of hip-hop journalism for 20 years and his storied career includes time spent at The Source and a prominent role as XXL's editor-in-chief, among other magazine positions. He also has television and radio experience and has co-authored a couple of books. Now social media has kicked Wilson's career and overall presence into overdrive. Tireless self-branding has raised his profile and the profiles of the brands he built, including Rap Radar, a hip-hop website, and CRWN, a live interview series with hip-hop's latest and greatest. Wilson juggles these responsibilities with hosting duties for his show "The Truth" on Jay Z's Life+Time's YouTube Channel and his work on a forthcoming print project called HRDCVR, a collaboration with his wife Danyel Smith (2013-14 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, former editor of Billboard and former editor-in-chief of VIBE) -- all while tweeting and posting, of course.

"Now the pace is even more strenuous than it probably ever was. I like the challenge of proving that I can still adapt to that and still be at the forefront," he said about covering hip-hop in the social media age.

Here, Wilson discusses how he leads the conversation about hip-hop on social media.

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