AllHipHop.com is a hip hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

 news website. It was founded in 1998. At five million visitors a month, it is the world's most popular hip hop website. Essence

Essence (magazine)

Essence is a monthly magazine for African-American women between the ages of 18 and 49. The magazine covers fashion, lifestyle and beauty with an intimate girlfriend-to-girlfriend tone.-History:...

magazine has dubbed it "the CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 of hip-hop". In 2006, AllHipHop won the Rising Stars Award from Black Enterprise

Black Enterprise

Black Enterprise is a monthly U.S. magazine which describes itself as "the premier business news and investment resource for African Americans" and claims a readership of 3.7 million. It was founded in 1970 by Earl G. Graves, Sr.. The publication is known for its annual listing of the largest...

magazine. In 2007, PC Magazine

PC Magazine

PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...

listed it as one of the "Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites". As of May 2008, it attracts over thirty-seven million page views a month.

History

Greg Watkins and Chuck Creekmur founded the website in 1998. High school friends Watkins and Creekmur grew up in Newark, Delaware

Newark, Delaware

Newark is an American city in New Castle County, Delaware, west-southwest of Wilmington. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 31,454. Newark is the home of the University of Delaware.- History :...

. In 1997, Watkins registered the allhiphop.com domain to promote the artists on Oblique Recordings, a small record label he operated. The website provided music downloads to promote the label's artists. After reaching 30,000 downloads a month, Watkins struck deals with eMusic

EMusic

eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City with an office in London and owned by Dimensional Associates. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers....

 and other retailers to sell downloads. His friend Creekmur, a freelance journalist, had launched a website, tantrum-online.com, in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. After merging the companies, they adapted Trantrum's exclamation point logo for AllHipHop. By 2003, the business generated enough revenue for Watkins to quit his job and work on the website full time. Creekmur did the same next year. In 2007, the revenue exceeded US$4 million.