Crew
Tommy Abu – Editor In Chief
Tommy is a Politics major at Oberlin College. At Oberlin, Tommy is the treasurer of Hip Hop 101 (a student group responsible for the majority of hip-hop events/ concerts on campus) and a DJ on WOBC. Tommy spent 4 years managing the singles review team at UndergroundHipHop.Com, and currently works for Audible Treats as a Marketing Associate. In the Fall of 2007, Tommy was featured on the State of Hip-Hop Address panel alongside KRS-One and Immortal Technique during the CMJ Music Marathon at New York University on behalf of Flight808.Com
Chloe Canon – Writer
“I’m a student at NYU studying Music Business, an intern at Superfly Productions and a box office assistant at Nokia Theatre in Times Square.”
Nicholas Conway – Writer
Nicholas Conway was born and raised in Albany, NY. He has been teaching Hip Hop Music and Culture, a course he and a colleague devised, since the fall of 2003 at Trinity College, Yale University and the University at Albany. He currently DJs in Albany, while writing Hip Hop reviews and editorials for undergroundhiphop.com, flight808.com, and the Capital Region’s Times Union newspaper.
Patrick Gamez – Writer
“I was born on a U.S. military installation in the Philippines and spent half my life there and the other half in Okinawa, Japan. I currently reside in Hampton, VA, but I am planning on making a return back to Japan in the not-so distant future. I grew up listening to a wide range of music, thanks to the varied tastes of my parents and siblings. Hip hop is the type of music that just stuck with me. I was fortunate enough to start collecting music in the early 90′s and haven’t stopped since. Listening to music is no longer a hobby. It is a passion. The key to enjoying hip hop is to avoid putting labels on artists and appreciate good music when you hear it. Outside of listening to music, I enjoy spending time with my lovely wife and beautiful daughter.” Patrick’s MySpace.
Alex Mihalich – Writer
Like other young men of his generation, Alex (The Professor/A-Minus) likes music, drinking, and girls with short hair. He started working with Tommy and Flight808 while interning with the fine folks at Audible Treats. As an NYU alum, and a publicist, musician, and entrepreneur, he currently spends his spare time scheming in his lab in NYC.
Greg Schick aka Old School G – Writer
“Involvement in hip hop started in 1983 with b-boying and MCing. Started
DJing in the late 80s into the early 90s culminating with radio show, The
Hip Hop Spot, in 1995-1996. Moved to Chicago in 1996 after graduating
Journalism school, worked briefly as A&R, then writer, researcher, web
designer. Started buying and selling vinyl online in 2003 and was introduced
to global hip hop through international customers. Founded World Hip Hop
Market (www.worldhiphopmarket.com) to bring international hip hop to an
American audience.”
Slav Kandyba
Slav Kandyba hails from Ukraine but has made L.A. home since 1992. After the school of hard knocks courtesy of the LAUSD and four years of college in Hell (a.k.a. San Fernando Valley), he’s been a journalistic vagabond who has covered police and fire news for a wire service, porn and tech industries for a business journal and construction of a megachurch for a Libertarian rag of a newspaper in Orange County that doesn’t “register” in his memory. He’s also interviewed rappers and other riff-raff for The Source, Vapors, AllHipHop.com and HipHopDX.com.
Gavin Rhodes – Founder
Gavin is the Director of Marketing at Audible Treats, a full service marketing & publicity company based in Brooklyn. A guitarist for 20 years, Gavin has been in various bands, including the one-man band Honeypower. His love for melody first, lyrics second drew him to his first international hip-hop love: the work of French rapper MC Solaar. He conceived of Flight808 while observing the local music scene in Brazil and realizing there was a tremendous hip-hop scene with little representation in the US.