• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, March 1, 2005

Given the speed with which hip-hop culture jumps from one craze to the next - today's "106 & Park" fave becomes tomorrow's "Ice Ice Baby" - publishers of hip-hop mags have often found themselves behind the curve once their titles finally make it to newsstands. So either the folks behind XXL are quite good at their jobs, or they've got an in-house Nostradamus hidden away somewhere scouting out up-and-coming artists and spotting cultural/fashion trends.

Or maybe they're just listening to the right publicists - who knows? In any event, the mag's just-released April issue feels considerably more fresh (in the non-spoiled sense, not in the street-vernacular sense) than most music titles out there. XXL may be burdened with the same long lead times as its peers, but it pulls off the nifty trick of reading like a just-updated Web site.

The April issue is the publishing equivalent of a concept album (shuddering at inadvertent allusion to Emerson, Lake & Palmer). The mag ties together a series of features under the banner of "West Coast resurrection," which surveys the genre's past and its future. XXL's sly way of linking the two? A story on West Coast careerist Snoop Dogg.

Elsewhere, XXL lives up to its self-appointed "hip-hop on a higher level" rep by surveying a range of below-the-radar topics. In a five-page stretch, the magazine offers neat, concise bits on the decidedly non-street husband-and-wife team that runs e-commerce operations for most of hip-hop's top clothing lines; the emerging South Asian rap scene; and a legal tiff about the complimentary/defamatory nature of the term "pimp" involving Evel Knievel (!).

Will items like these sell magazines? Of course not. But their presence helps elevate XXL from rah-rah fan mag to well-rounded entity.

The truth is, XXL doesn't really need the lift. While its tone may be steeped in street slang (sample sentence from Elliott Wilson's free-association editorial: "My wedding cost scrilla so I need to keep takin' this mag to the next level"), it's not dumbed down in the slightest. That's a fine line to walk. Notable exceptions remain - the glib table-of-contents gibe of "fuck you, Ice Cube!" seems a little childish, especially in an issue saluting West Coast rap pioneers - but all in all, XXLsucceeds by being higher-minded than comparable pubs.

Where the April issue stumbles are the one or two places in which it attempts to be a hip-hop Maxim. The brazenly soft-core "eye candy" photo spread feels forced and the effect is compounded by its "she reps the big state with her big cake" blurb. I don't know what that means, but I'm guessing it has little to do with traditional notions of dessert.

A massive fashion spread comes up short, but for a different reason: the photos are almost indistinguishable from the sneaker and apparel ads that dot the publication's pages. Overall, in fact, XXL's design lags behind its editorial, especially in the pictures that accompany the features. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to pose Snoop Dogg with a fistful of $100 bills, especially now that he's pitching big-brand mobile devices with the same aplomb he used to hype his line of smutty videos.

At this point in its evolution, XXL has a ways to go before it approaches Vibe or The Source in terms of influence and reach. But to its credit, the publication doesn't seem content to play follow-the-leaders. If you're looking for a sign that bodes well for the future, there you go.