DX: What’s the difference between being the underdog and then standing on the top of the mountain?
EW: It was just the excitement of the process [of getting to the top] that kept me going. I became really arrogant and said to myself early that in a year or two I would have them. I really thought it. I was really naïve and underestimating how big that magazine was. After I put it out there all crazy, I had to live up to it. Me and my staff just felt like we put out a better magazine. Then after that you start to feel the climate change. It turns from the, “If I don’t get the cover of theirs then I’ll do that” magazine to “I gotta be on the cover of this” magazine. You feel that energy and it came with the 50 Cent’s emergence and Eminem’s problems with The Source. Everything aligned itself like the moment we did the Shyne feature and we gave him his moment at a time when nobody would have given him that moment. There were a couple of benchmarks and people started to respect the product. We were really delivering a quality product each month. That was very exciting.

DX: But how did you stay motivated after the rat finally got the cheese?
EW: It’s easier motivation to say that we have to beat this thing and point to the sky. It’s harder when you get on top to stay on top and accept that challenge. It isn’t as sexy but I was very proud of the people that I worked with at XXL as we maintained that level of performance. They will still have that without me. They aren’t slouches and they will give it 100%. People will say that they won’t be as good because I’m not there but they’re going to put in the long hours and the book is still going to be hot. You’ll never hear me say anything about XXL. I never could really do that because it was such a great opportunity for me. I made the most of it. There’s not really many opportunities like that for brothers of color. There aren’t many things where you really have creative control.

DX: You’ve seem to take a liking to blogs lately, any particular reason?
EW: Once I first learned about blogs I was mostly just under the guise that it was people who were not that experienced in journalism taking potshots at me. But then I really had to think about it; If I was a kid like I was back in ’92, I wouldn’t be publishing a magazine, I’d probably have a blog. [Blogs] allow you to be more impactful right away. I would probably be the little internet kingpin. So I had to learn to respect the blog. The thing that most attracted it to me was the independent spirit. To see sites like Eskay’s NahRight.com allow people to eat off of this culture and I like to see brothers come up like that. I respect that. In the world we live in now people want their information faster. Obviously, they go to the Internet. And they don’t just want to know what’s going on. They want to know what you think about what’s going on. I’m up on the blogs everyday now.

DX: I know you said that you won’t say magazines are “dead” but what can they do to keep up with the Internet? Why are magazines folding?
EW: I think one of the big weaknesses is that we need more talented young brothers and sisters to really get into the business side of the game. Everyone now feels like they are a writer and creative but we also can’t look past the business side of the game. We need more brothers and sisters that understand the culture and can speak to corporate America to explain why this magazine is good and get the advertising dollars. It’s really the advertising that’s causing magazines to suffer. The reason magazines are having to fold is not just because of the readership has gone down but because they aren’t making enough money advertising.

Who’s the Elliott Wilson of the advertising side? Where’s the young brother out there who can dynamically translate the culture to mainstream? Who’s giving Steve Stoute a run for his money? We don’t look at that side of the game and there’s value to that too. Let’s not forget that urban culture is still a hard sell because of the negative stereotypes associated with it.

DX: In another interview I read, you expressed disappointment when the XXL cover featuring Dave Chappelle didn’t sell very well as opposed to a 50 Cent cover. That was the issue that saw Chappelle as the guest editor and featured a roundtable with Kanye West, dead prez, Talib Kweli and Common discussing the culture. How does that affect you?
EW: People always say that you should have a wider range of cover choices – less gangster rap, less commercial – while showing love to the Mos Defs and the Talib Kwelis [click to read]. I took heed to that and found a way to package it with Dave Chappelle and I did get disappointed when it didn’t do well. It shows that I am kind of limited when it comes to the cover of the magazine. Jay-Z [click to read] is more of a sure thing – whether I like his new album or not. You just start to think that people can be really hypocritical.

We get that criticism now with the Miss Rap Supreme show. People say that we’re exploiting Hip Hop, it’s negative to black women and it’s just like the Flavor Of Love show. But a lot of black people watch these shows! They watch it enough that it’s up to a season three! So we – as black people – talk a lot of shit about what we want to do and what we should do, but we are very hypocritical.