Throughout this week, we have been honoring the current landscape of hip-hop media. We presented our Hip-Hop Media Power Ranking, which included 25 personalities ranging from podcasters to Twitch streamers, showing how much the rap media industry has boomed since the era when commentary was dominated by magazine writers and radio hosts.

We’ve honed in on some of today’s most relevant figures of new age rap media like Joe Budden, Caresha, and Taxstone, who is in jail but still key to the conversation.

But it’s always important to remember who paved the way and set the standard. Along with celebrating new hip-hop media, we wanted to make sure that we gave flowers to the numerous individuals who have been covering hip-hop and moving the conversation forward since the genre’s inception 50 years ago.

CHECK OUT THE LIST OF HIP-HOP MEDIA PIONEERS AT COMPLEX