Whoa! Guess you don't really appreciate something until you learn you can't take it for granted.

> If I can't make people laugh (or cry) then it would be nice to think I gave someone a piece of writing that was actually helpful, and not just entertaining. And political news doesn't cut it. I'm talking revelations, breakthroughs, gestalts, zeitgeists, or any other manner of revolutionary, semiotics-based Germanic mental processes.

Whoa,that's a lot to ask of yourself and a blog site. I would argue that there's no shame in being solely entertaining with your site, but I agree with you that the hip hop blog thing is getting stale in a lot of respects. How many sites do I have skim through daily reading the same ish about Kanye, MF Doom, The Game, Mike Jones, Hollertronix and Amerie?

It seems one cat brings up something interesting and everyone else gravitates towards it like lemmings. The latest obsessions-in-the-making: Bay Area hip hop/the Hyphy movement. Also predicted to happen in hip hop blogville in 2005: endless evaluation of Common's Be album, speculation about the upcoming Clipse album and whether the Class Registration, 10 The Hard Way and Game Theory albums will be any good. And don't get it twisted, I am no doubt part of the problem and guilty of the same pathologies as others. For me personally though I really don't have time or energy to create on the level you are demanding of yourlself. Putting up a bunch of links to music,news and other ish I think are cool or that I feel others should be put up on is as much as I can manage to do on a daily basis.

Overall though, I second jonmary's emotion. Eric, you're a good man and one of the more thoughtful, yet still readable bloggers out there. I'd be sorry to see you bail out of this medium now when you could be one of the cats who help define it in the future for the better (like relaunching The Blogship which I stopped posting to during the Summer after my posts didn't seem to get put up). Here's hoping you'll reconsider your decision.

Thanks Ian. The feeling is mutual. Probably the only reason I don't check your blog more often is the temptation of all those links. Your site is one of the ultimate time killers.

I guess there was a little too much ambiguity in my entry above. I will keep on writing at the Stink Zone. The site lives on. I simply want to abandon the time-sensitive blog format. And I feel the need to extricate myself from any temptation to get involved in cross-blog discussions, etc. I just want to keep my focus on original writing.

To deal with the "conversion" of my blog from a time-sensitive format, I'm thinking maybe I will focus on a category-based page. I will move the date and name around so that it looks like a regular magazine article. Thus, category listings will change, but people won't necessarily look in the same spot for something new.

It's true that I put a lot of pressure on myself and my writing. For me, what makes writing enjoyable is the evolution, the growth... taking risks, accepting challenges. The words don't really matter. It is the spirit behind the writing. People seem focused on the end results. I want to get as close to the original spirit as I can. And part of that is breaking any confines -- such as the blog format -- that inhibit that process for me. Although I do try to keep in mind that innovations are generally defined by limitations.

I agree, The Blogship should be resurrected. It stopped working for some unknown technical reason (after I upgraded) and I didn't have time to fix it back then (a year ago, I guess). I could probably fix it without much trouble. A new look and layout would certainly be in order.

Anyway, thanks for the comments and feedback, Ian. I definitely won't be dropping out of site. I just need to roll up my sleeves, and expose some new schemes.

I use to feel the same way Eric. But now, I just blog whenever I have the time. I have lost alot of my core readers with my sporadic blogging . . . but I gotta do me.

I can't center my entire life around my blog. My life is mad hectic right now.

So my advice to you Eric:
Blog whenever you can and make it hot!

You are a dope hip-hop writer/thinker and we need your voice in the hip-hop blogsphere.

Keep it poppin'.

Oh, your 2004 year-end wrap-up was off the chain. I consider myself a deep, deep underground rap head. But I have to say, 75 per cent of the albums/songs listed in your wrap-up I have never heard of them.

I gotta step my game up, yo.

Take it easy.

Keep on blogging dude. But do it at your pace.

Hip-Hop Blogging is not dead!

Thanks Trent!

I am going to subsume my blog entries into the rest of my site. Gradually, I will have more categories on the main page (e.g. audio, issues, politics, etc.) There will still be comments. And things will get rotated based on chronology. But the blog will disappear. Besides, I never really thought of my blog as a personal diary. It was really just an efficient way to publish. But a weblog can easily be adapted to simply publish, minus the daily journal format.

Besides, I run a LARGE website and I have been neglecting the rest of it to work on the blog (over half of my traffic is outside the blog!). I have many regional sites to keep building.

Aside from getting a job, right now my plan is to work on screenplays and print publishing. It won't happen overnight. Many years will go by. I need to stay focused.

It's good to hear back on the annual hip hop charts. That right there is the product of many many days worth of scouring the web and countless broadcasts of Friday Night Flavas. I will definitely keep doing charts like that.

Thanks again...

this is a killer post - i remember when i used to blog to write and everyone did and we all had time to really read one another's blogs and give insightful comments and connect - and then something happened - getting a website or blog became a fad - everyone wanted a soap box or a magazine of their own - i think you're on to something - i just don't know what yet

Thanks for stopping by Lynne. It's like rush hour traffic out there. And there's more of us than ever, yet it seems harder to make a connection.

I'm definitely on to something new. I'm doing some design work for a club in San Francisco. And with regard to writing, I'm gonna focus on print/movie stuff. There's no substitute for the reidiculous conversations around here, but I gotta make a living too.

Anyway, good to "see" you again. Hope all is well.