Internet

Hip-Hop Meets Web 2.0

Artists and entrepreneurs from Def Jam's Russell Simmons to Roc-A-Fella Records' Damon Dash are founding new social networks

By Catherine Holahan

The latest hip-hop releases are debuting online. Artists and entrepreneurs from Def Jam's Russell Simmons to Roc-A-Fella Records' Damon Dash are founding new social networks that target fans of the culture, which first emerged from urban African American and Latino American communities in the 1970s.

Fueling demand for interactive hip-hop sites is the steady growth of broadband access within those minority communities. Soon-to-be released figures from the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that the gap in broadband use between different ethnic groups is rapidly closing. The so-called "digital divide" that many said would keep some ethnic minorities and low-income Americans from taking part in the Web's multimedia and social revolution has not remained severe for as long as some feared it might.

Silicon Valley has taken notice. Venture capital firm Accel Ventures (which backs Facebook) teamed up with Simmons and Navarrow Wright, the former chief technology officer of Black Entertainment Television Interactive, to launch Global Grind in September. And Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington is an investor in DanceJam, a YouTube-like site devoted to dance videos and co-founded by hip-hop artist MC Hammer.

To see which hip-hoppers are mixing their craft with which social networks, take a spin through our slide show.