VIBE Magazine

Quincy Jones founded. Premier hip-hop magazine.

Founded by Quincy Jones in 1993, VIBE emerged as the definitive voice documenting hip-hop's golden age when the culture desperately needed a publication that treated rap with the same gravitas as jazz and soul. The magazine's most legendary moments came through its relationships with the East Coast's biggest stars—Tupac graced VIBE's covers with an intensity that captured his contradictions, while The Notorious B.I.G.'s covers became the visual shorthand for hip-hop's mainstream ascendance. More than just a glossy periodical, VIBE functioned as hip-hop's institutional memory, legitimizing the culture through long-form journalism and photography that proved rap deserved the cultural real estate it was claiming.