ego trip is a creative collective specializing in multi-media projects that deal largely with satire, race, and hip-hop.
It all started in 1994 in New York City. An irreverent and respected self-published ’zine with a cult following, ego trip toiled in the last days of independent print media before the Internet broke it down to its very last compound. Not only did the magazine cover hip-hop with a punk rock attitude, it often took great pleasure in juxtaposing artists from disparate musical genres in humorous settings. Critics and readers alike were drawn to the publication’s integrity, brutal honesty, humor, and obsession with hip-hop minutiae. For this, ego trip became known as “The Arrogant Voice Of Musical Truth.”
In 1998, ego trip magazine voluntarily folded so that its editors could focus on projects of greater reach and scope. Two forays into book publishing resulted in the Ralph J. Gleason Award finalist, ego trip’s Book of Rap Lists (St. Martin’s Press, 1999), and its acclaimed follow-up, ego trip’s Big Book of Racism! (ReganBooks, 2002). The latter sparked the interest of basic cable juggernaut VH1, and the two entities embarked on a relationship that spawned several successful programs in subsequent years. Among them, ego trip’s The (White) Rapper Show (2007).
In addition to authoring books and producing television programming, the individual members of the ego trip collective have extensive experience working in the fields of art and design, music supervision, and screenwriting with such partners as Nike, MTV Networks, Rawkus Records, and the FX Channel.
Today, ego trip continues to develop entertaining, thought-provoking projects across all facets of media. Its cyberspace HQ, egotripland.com, features an archive of classic material from past projects, as well as original content generated, in the words of Kenny Powers, on the reg.
