so uh what? is there some sort of quota for the race of people that end up on the cover? its not like the Stranger is fucking National Geographic or something

BTW - neither of the members of Blue Scholars is black

Jesus Christ!

I don't think the issue for the Weekly is that the members of Blue Scholars aren't white. The issue is that they don't see that sort of group/music appealing to their readership, so they stuck them on the inside. It is still a messed up decision, though.

well obviously those 2 colored people covers had to be offest by returning to whitey covers.

i can imagine the conversation..

"so blue scholars won the vote, so we'll put em on the cover obviously."

"woah, hold up there, we just had 2 recent covers with colored folk, shouldn't we try something different?"

"I see your point..."

Please everyone avoid the phrase "--wait for it--" It is becoming a cliche or a crutch and it's getting frustrating because it's in almost every other post. Why do I need to wait for it? I don't understand.

Okay, now back to racism and stuff.

What the Weekly should have said was "We think the Divorce is hot so we put them on our cover." and left it at that. Then the discussion would have been "who is hotter the Divorce or the Blue Scholars?" rather than "Let's count the ways the Seattle Weekly is lame." Dumb move.

However, now that the SW Editor has opened the floodgates by going on the defensive, let's talk about the dearth of women on the cover!

Sabzi is far, far hotter than any of the combover urban outfitter hipsters on the cover of the weekly. If they are trying to appeal to female readers, Sabzi would have done that, at least to me....and everyone else I know or have ever met.

I don't think this is about counting the number of black or white or female folks on the cover. We don't run covers that tie to our content usually, so if it's al about the colors of faces, well, we're going to look lame too. (The last African American woman on our cover? Er, Nell Carter? The last African American male? Our Valentine's Day cover this year.) It is odd, though, that the SW avoided putting the winners of their own music poll on the cover. It begs the question, and Chuck answered it—kinda, sorta.

I think not running the overall vote winner should be the only issue. I'm stumped as to why anyone would want to play the race card here. If we're going to discuss these papers and race the covers are the last thing that we should focus on. There are questions we could ask (How many people of color work for each of these papers? What kind of coverage do communities of color get? Etc.), but "Is the Weekly racist because they didn't put Blue Scholars on the cover?" is NOT one of them.

sure, the Stranger is no bastion of multi-culturism, but at least you have a hip-hop column and the writer is no longer that gay ass jewish fuck you used to have.

the problem with the weekly cover isn't just that blue scholars weren't on it, it's that they could have put a far more relevant band than the rock-pop middle of the road wanna be hipsters they chose. Minus the Bear, These Arms Are Snakes, Dead Science,Common Market. Any of them would have been a more interesting choice, both based on style and music. Or maybe the guy who deserves it the most - Jack Endino. A true legend of Seattle music. The problem is that the staff of the weekly thinks the best cover image was the divorce. the image is silly and shows the level of 'hipness' the weekly has. it's great they cover local music. it's sad they are so out of touch.

But if the cover was about "relevance" there wouldn't be ANY band's picture on the cover.

Any calculus of cover race should include a multiplier (positive and negative) for the "credit to one's race" a cover star brings; so, for instance, Kyle Huff and Gary Ridgeway alone probably offset several years' worth of The Divorce.

So the Seattle Weekly, which is like what, distributed thoughout the Northwest (maybe?, I guess, sounds good, so why not say it?) feels that Hip Hop won't appeal to its wide demographic of readers as much as Rock? Huh? figure that?

BTW, while the Weekly is really good for my bird's cage, let's just examine that huh? It is fun to argue, but it is more fun if your arguement had a leg to stand on. Ask yourself this... How many hip hop clubs are there (combined) in say, Everett, Bremerton, Tacoma, Bellevue, Redmond (to name only a few of the cities surronding Seattle, not to mention the 'burbs or the rural towns that are in the rest of the Northwest). That is, where are the Hip Hop Clubs, and hence Hip Hop Fans, naturally, LOCATED?

I will bet you there are more HIP HOP clubs located in the Seattle City Limits then every other city in the Northwest combined. Hence, the readship of the weekly overall, aren't Hip Hop Fans.

Let's take Chuck Taylor at his word on this, since logic holds that those who LOVE the weekly vs. the stranger are not the same people.

then why did their readers lodge more votes for a hip hop group than any other type of music. and why did a hip hop mc also win best vocalist, and another hip hop group win best new artist?

Phenics, you're logic is not based on the facts. hip hop happens to be the most popular music in the world, the country, the state and the city. far more so than pop rock. and the hip hop scene in seattle finally seems to be exploding with good local groups. which the weekly editors don't seem to understand, even though their readers do.

also Phenics the "weekly" is the "seattle weekly" not the "NW weekly".

So he defended his slight of a band of color who won the mag's prize... by openly declaring they discriminated by race?!

Great job, Conglomerate Weekly. Closet Racists Unite!, or something.

Nope, not convinced. Up above it was said: hip hop scene in Seattle

The Citizens of the Northwest come to Seattle for the urbane experience. This is exactly why every other tourist comes to Seattle. To see and do something that you can’t do at back home.

People in Forks, Spokane, Knooksack, etc read The Stranger and The Seattle Weekly for the exact same reason people in Seattle do… to know what is going on in Seattle. Seattle hip hop doesn’t have the same following in Spokane, Bellingham, Tri-Cities etc. etc. that the Seattle rock scene has. There are more clubs in those cities willing to book Seattle Rock shows more often then they book Seattle Hip Hop acts.

Remember everyone, the Marketing Department is not a democracy. Both of these rags are free, but someone has to pay the bills: advertisers. Wonder what the circulation numbers out in butt fuck egypt would be with a hip hop act on the cover?

Dollars to donuts is what Chuck Taylor wanted to say in his post, but can’t. The music editor did not go with the most vote winners, because a contest is not a democratic system, even if you “vote� in both. The Weekly needs to be seen as relevant somewhere, because, lord knows, Seattle doesn’t look at them as relevant.

The Weekly’s corporate overlords would demand no less then stellar circulation numbers from the contest issue.

Can we use this point about putting the wrong band on the cover to segue into a discussion of how irrelevant and wrong the bands listed to select from their poll are for the most part?

Blue Scholars and Common Market are clearly the most accomplished and notable in hip hop, but did you see some of the choices for Best Hip Hop Act? There were artists on there who haven't been seen or heard from all year, much less in the last couple.

I recall looking at this poll year after year and asking myself why they continually pick the least relevant or current acts for that year. So out of touch over there.

Oh yeah, the race thing. I agree that it's a bad move putting the top vote getters on the cover if they were just covered a few months back, luckily there were white people available. Whew!

Just out of curiosity: Is there any chance they didn't shoot Blue Scholars for the cover because they're touring and unavailable?

Either way congrats to everyone who garnered the honor of receiving The Seattle Music Community's most coveted award. .

Phenics, Let's call a promoter in Spokane, Olympia, Bellingham or Bellevue and see who they'd book - The Divorce or Blue Scholars. Guaranteed it's Blue Scholars.

And the Weekly isn't read widely outside of King County. Really. You're point is not even a point. Plus it's wrong.

WHATEVER.

the real issue is that mos def, mixmaster mike, and the blue scholars are all playing at the uw tomorrow.

http://www.washington.edu/alumni/membership/2006uw_concert.html

Mandy knows exactly what everyone in Spokane and Olympia is thinking and can guarantee an answer.

?!

When I worked at the Weekly, the staff would have an obligatory discussion/debate every time we put a non-white person on the cover, because the editors believed that doing so depressed circulation. (Translation: Fewer people in Seattle pick up newspapers with black people on the cover.) From what I remember of the circulation numbers, that theory was true.

i'm pretty sure in bellingham both BS and the divorce would be booked and probablly on the same night at separate venues and both would be packed. that's bellingham.

However, I can't speak for spokane.

'wait for it' is the new 'you do the math.'

some of my best covers are black.

Also, my sincere apologies for my lazy use of "wait for it." I hate it too. "Wait for it" = the new "I don't want to be THAT guy."

hey I think The Divorce are a great band and deserve to be on the cover. I also think The Blue Scholars are great and deserve to be on the cover (apparently they HAVE been on the cover, right?)...might not be your opinion, and i can guarantee that any band that ends up on the cover of the weekly or the stranger will have plenty of people who dont think they should be there. what do you kids call them? Haters?

and i personally would be stoked to book either of those bands at the venue i work at...hey a Blue Scholars/Divorce bill might be just the thing! ill get right on that.

Hey Nigger Scholar,

Where did you go, this was your thread!

Will you please teach these white folks about oppression?

Seattle Weekly is trying to oppress black performers. They've never put Puff Daddy on the cover, or JZ or any of the black millionaire performers.

But white rich people like Bill Gates make the cover of the Weekly all the time.

White oppression is everywhere. The Weekly has put Japanese bands, Mexican Bands, Korean Bands, Chinese Bands, everything but Black Bands on their cover.

Should we boycott the Weekly or what?

Well, I've lived in Spokane and I currently live in Bellingham so I'll speak for both.
Who do we see the most in Bellingham? The Divorce? Hell no, the Blue Scholars have played here many, many times (that may also have to do with Sabzi going to Western and all, but that's besides the point). In Spokane I can guarantee that anyone would rather go see a Blue Scholars show.

The big, glaring point here isn't whether other, smaller communities appreciate the SW and pay attention to it (ahem, because we don't and nobody outside of Seattle even READS the Weekly - I don't even know of one single place in Bham that carries it), it's that Blue Scholars clearly won the prize and they weren't put on the cover. That's wrong, illogical and deserves to be questioned.

Publications should never put up and coming groups on their cover. It should only be groups that are already established and everyone already knows about.

So it's racist to put white people on the cover if it's an up and coming band. Obviously the black band should have been featured. They won the contest fair and square.

But of course when you are a black artist, nothing is ever fair. We should all boycott the Weekly.

Can people who know the details please comment? "racial watch" its not a "black band"

You all sound like a bunch of tards. Nothing better to do?

If only all of your lazy asses got half as mad about the Bush regime as some fabricated rivalry between two free weekly papers. There's plenty out of blatant racism in this world. Why do you feel the need to make some up?

I spit on you all.

You can't spit on me. Your trajectory is too arched with them narrow ass white lips.

Anyhoo...everybody knows Reggie Watts is the only black man from that poll who The Weekly would coverize and he was too busy shooting "Seattle's Next Big Star" to trifle with The Weekly's antics.

P.S. The Stranger. More black people on the cover. For real. You're no better than the weekly. Cock shots can only get you so much circulation. Put Mudede up on that piece when he wins the 26" Rimz D'Or Award at Cannes. That shit would be "Geico Gecko doing the robot" hot.

Does anyone remember who they had on the cover for prior year's Music Awards issue? Is it usually the top vote getter, or just the prettiest?

Does anyone remember who they had on the cover for prior year's Music Awards issue? Is it usually the top vote getter, or just the prettiest?

http://www.seattleweekly.com/diversions/0519/050511_cover.php

Last years cover is there. Blue scholars won best album last year but the article dosent say "most votes" it just seems Blue Scholars was the highest honor, being album of the year

put dancing fred from disbanded hazel on the next cover. these new ones just remind me of marketing and tv types...what many parents have rendered upon mankind in the recent past are...god, why bother. looking forward in a way to asian/indian takeovers,