BIG SMOKE MAGAZINE

Big Smoke hit the magazine racks in 2000, although the way it was presented, you might have thought you'd find it in the record racks!
It was designed the same dimensions as a vinyl album and even came inside an album-styled sleeve.
The mag covered the underground hip hop scene so material included artist profiles & interviews, record label appraisals, gig reports, records reviews, some behind the scenes news and a splash of graffiti.
They also made their own volumes of mixtapes that they made available on CD.
Although Big Smoke is still on the go, it has now become an online publication.
The images above are as follows...
Top 2 are an example of what the front & back of the outer sleeve looked like, from an issue dating from 2001.
Under it is the cover of Big Smoke magazine itself from the same issue.
Next up is an ad for Big Smoke that appeared in fellow hip hop magazine, Undercover, in 2002.
Following on from that is a full page ad for Wordplay product that was published in Big Smoke in 2001.
Finally, I have plucked one of the albums that's mentioned in the Wordplay ad out from my own collection - namely, a compilation album called "Word Lab 2".

CHECK DIS MUSIC PAPER

As I mentioned in yesterday's post about Check Dis magazine, in July 1992 the mag changed from its regular published format and turned into a tabloid sized music paper.
The contents were more or less the same as the magazine, the features and the music genres remaining as they were. They also continued their London nightclub updates, but out went the cartoon strips and in came occasional reports from the underground dance scene in the States.
At the top of the post here I have put up the first 3 Check Dis covers from when they changed to a music paper. All dated 1992.
Under the covers there is an example of one of their album reviews from 1992.
So taking my cue from the review, I have put up that very album out of my own collection to go with the item.
The LP being a compilation called "Mo' Jazz" released on the Acid Jazz record label the same year.

CHECK DIS MAGAZINE

Check Dis magazine appeared in 1991 and covered London's underground dance scene in the main.
There were lots of artist profiles, record label overviews, charts, record reviews, clubbing updates as well as a few cartoons strips.
Music styles referred to were - house, soul, acid jazz, hip hop, rave, funk and reggae.
Check Dis started off in magazine format but later changed to a tabloid sized music paper.
The top item displays some examples of their magazine covers dated 1991 & 92.
Under it is a feature from one of the mags about Soul Jazz Records - the shop and the record label.
At the time the article was written, they were trying to negotiate a deal to have a 1974 album by Eddie Russ released on Soul Jazz Records.
And as you can see by my copy of the LP, they did indeed successfully manage to release the "Fresh Out" album on their own label in 1992.

UNDERCOVER MAGAZINE

Undercover was on the go from 2002 to 2006 and was a magazine that dealt mostly with hip hop but also included other underground sounds in the mix.
Quite a large chunk of its content was given over to artist profiles and interviews, but there were plenty of pages remaining that showcased stuff like record reviews, label histories, live event reports, as well as related features such as graffiti, xtreme sports, fashion, website overviews, things like that.
Music covered consisted of hip hop, soul, reggae, funk, breakbeat, drum & bass, garage and leftfield.
Undercover also came with its own CD's which often had exclusive tracks.
The top image is an example of their early arty covers, the one on the left being the debut mag in 2002 and the one on the right dating from 2003.
Underneath the covers I've put 3 of their CD's on display to give you an idea as to who crops up on them.

MIXMAG MAGAZINE

Mixmag appeared on the magazine shelves sometime around 1990 (give or take a year) and covered a variety of areas associated with underground clubbing - topical news stories from behind the scenes cropped up quite a lot for example - but of course it's main content was the music itself, so material such as artist profiles, DJ interviews, record reviews, clubbing reports, playlists and gig updates were it's main territory.
Music styles included, house, techno, hip hop, garage, ambient, soul, leftfield, drum & bass and a drop of reggae.
Clubbers would often appear in articles as much as the acts, especially when they were touching on certain subjects such as clubs, locations and things like fashion shoots.
In the early 90's they gave away free cassette mixes with certain issues then further into the 90's the mag came with free CD's.
Mixmag is still going strong today too.
Going back to the early 90's however, the image at the top is an example of one of their covers dating from March 1992 where can get an idea of the content from the names listed.
Under it is an ad from a 1995 issue for an album called "Jazz In The House Vol.2".
Next is Mixmag's review of that very compilation, released on the Slip 'N' Slide label.
And accompanying it is my vinyl copy of the LP.

DJ WORLD MAGAZINE

DJ World was a magazine that started up in the 1980's and was only available for members of the Disco Mix Club and record industry types.
Needless to say, the mag contained a lot of DMC related articles from around the world, such as DJ Championship events and conventions.
The music covered was a mixture of house, soul, hip hop and dance based pop, so there were lots of items on new artists, DJ's, record labels, charts & playlists, clubbing reports, record reviews as well as a few write-ups on the latest DJ equipment.
The team involved in this Disco Mix Club mag also produced Mixmag, a publication made available to the general public.
The top image shows a couple of DJ World covers from 1991.
Underneath it is an example of it's content, an article about Blast Records, a dance label from Canada.
To accompany the Blast item, I have included my CD of a compilation Blast Records released in 1991 - called "Blast The House".

RAVE MAGAZINE

London based magazine, Rave, started up in 1989 and covered the main music styles that were sizzling in the underground dance music scene at the time. So lots of house, hip hop, soul, reggae as well as a touch of the more abstract stuff.
Material included artist profiles, record label features, clubbing updates, record reviews and charts.
They also had a couple of pages devoted to the latest dance promo videos.
The image at the top is one of the magazine's covers dating from 1990.
Underneath it is and ad from the same issue for a compilation album called "Shake, Jump, Shout!" released on Low Spirit Recordings.
I have also included my CD copy of the album to accompany the ad.