Feb 11, 2013 8 Questions With: Benjamin Meadows-Ingram
I’m reasonably sure that anyone who keeps up with Benjamin Meadows-Ingram feels like an underachiever almost all of the time. We happened to attend a few classes together in college, and even at that time, he was holding down cover stories for nationwide music publications. Which helps explain how he became a Contributing Editor at Mass Appeal, and then Executive Editor of VIBE Magazine, no less. This was followed by an Editor-at-Large position with XXL Magazine, and then RESPECT. magazine, and last but not least, Music Editor at Billboard. You might have heard of them. Last year, Ben rounded up a decade’s worth of top-notch magazine industry contacts, and produced a brand new publication with some of the best names in the game, Brooklyn Bound, dedicated to the County of Kings. And if you are somehow not convinced that the man’s output is spectacular, just consider that we spoke to him as he gets warmed up to take on a new role, as the Director of Content, at Myspace.
Photo: Rachel Been
What are you currently working on?
We’re in the process of wrapping up the second issue of Brooklyn Bound now. We launched last summer and have been busy all fall getting the issue together. Taken a bit longer than we would have hoped – if I’ve learned anything, it’s that these things always do – but we’re really excited about the issue that we’ve built and can’t wait to get it to the printer and out into the world. I’m also working on a couple of book projects, working to build a new blog – KillerTape.com – into something that’s a bit more like a business, and settling into a new role at the new Myspace, which I just started at the top of the year.
How would you describe your job?
If you pinned me down on this – and I was trying to get everything in one shot – I’d say… creative entrepreneur? But that’s obviously pretty vague. My background and how I spend most of my time is as a writer and editor. With Brooklyn Bound, I’m the Founding Editor so in the context of that project, I think that pretty much sums it up. I’m on the ground floor with everything there – content, business, philosophy, all of it. But in addition to Brooklyn Bound, I spent the last year plus working on two other magazines: Billboard, which has been my day job for the past 18 months (I joined the staff as Music Editor in June 2011) and RESPECT., the quarterly rap magazine, where I’ve served as Executive Editor since May of 2011.
And then I just joined the new Myspace, which is an opportunity I’m really excited about. Of course, we all know Myspace’s storied legacy. The new platform is really fantastic and I think we have a great sandbox to play with there and an excellent team. My title is Director of Content, so I’ll be heading up the bulk of our content platform (which lives on top of the site’s social network foundation) and really focusing on defining the voice and shape of our content and coverage. We’re still in public beta so we’re doing a lot of behind the scenes work now re process and structure, but as we ramp up, I expect my role to be a bit more expansive than just writing and editing, which might bring me back to my first pass at this question. Everyone involved in the new Myspace kind of sees it as a startup all over again, and that fits right in with what I like to do, which perhaps most succinctly put is: make things.
What does your average work day look like?
I try to get up as early as possible, but tend to average out to about a 7:30a start. There’s coffee and then more coffee and then the rest of the day is a combination of trying to stay on top of as many emails as possible and pushing as much copy through to the copy desk and the art department as possible. And that holds across all three of the magazines I worked on in 2012. It’s a bit of a juggling act – Billboard is a weekly, so the time pressure was always there with that book, which coupled with it being the actual JOB job tended to push it to the top of the priority list – but you do what you can, push as much through as possible and then just try to hack away at everything else the next day. In between the demands of the raw copy, there’s always lunches and meetings and dinners and other events (concerts and shows mainly), but those shift on the day to day and on average, you just try to work at least one or two of those – a lunch and a show, or a dinner and a show, or whatever – into the day. Myspace has been a bit more focused on broader thinking so far as we begin to map our larger content strategy and nail down all of the nuts and bolts re how we’re going to execute everything on a daily basis, but the fundamentals – tackle existing goals, create and establish new ones, execute, repeat and don’t forget to get out and see the world – remain the same. At the risk of sounding glib, the only thing consistent about my average work day is that there’s always more work to be done.
What is the goal for Brooklyn Bound?
One of our taglines is “the new voice for the new American city” and I think that holds true. We’re hoping to bring a new perspective to light re the city around us, one that’s maybe a bit different and, we hope, a bit more accessible than some of the conversations about New York, and about cities in general, can tend to be. The project was born out of the belief, which I obviously think is true, that there is a new generation of city dwellers that share a whole set of cultural touchstones, experiences and beliefs that are largely ignored by mainstream outlets but are just as important, if not even more so, than those that dominate the mainstream discussions. We’re working to surface those voices and that generation and provide a forum and a platform for everyone, the new, the old, the powerful and the disempowered, the avant-garde and the establishment, to come together and hopefully have a constructive conversation about the city they live in and the city they want to live in as we move into the new era of city life, one shaped by shifting economies, demographics, technologies, climate change and more (the post post-industrial city, if you will).
Where do you find inspiration?
Honestly? Everywhere. For one – my team(s) inspire me all of the time. The way the Brooklyn Bound team works in particular, is just phenomenal. Everyone who works on the project has a different, primary gig and they all put in extra time and overtime to get it done, and that commitment is just amazing. The Billboard team is just full of crack professionals who don’t play at all when it comes to getting the best book out on a weekly basis that is humanely possible. And the RESPECT. team is also working so hard to get a great book out on the side of everyone’s regular gigs, and that kind of hustle and again, commitment, is just awesome. And then there’s the new Myspace team, which is full of heavy-hitters, bold thinkers and big dreamers who know how to take a great idea in one room and turn it into a big impact program in the real world, which is just awesome.
And then there are the individuals. We’re incredibly lucky to have an all star team working on Brooklyn Bound, including our Creative Director Jeff Staple whose whole movement inspires me daily and our Photo Editor, John Francis Peters, who’s got an eye for talent and such an incredible aesthetic and commitment to the shot, I mean, what can you say? Not to mention all of our amazing contributors, many of whom are nationally recognized writers, editors, designers and editors in their own right. Billboard‘s Bill Werde and Joe Levy are just industry leaders, hands down, as are so many of that book’s longtime contributors. RESPECT’s Editor-in-Chief, Elliott Wilson, truly is a living legend in the hip hop world, and his tireless dedication to maintaining his position as the go-to authority for all things in that space is a thing to behold, not to mention my great friend, the phenomenal (and storied) writer and editor Danyel Smith, who happens to be married to Elliott Wilson, and who I worked with for years at VIBE (where she was Editor-in-Chief) and who brought me on at Billboard when she was that magazine’s editor. Danyel’s just a force, just check her Twitter or her Tumblrs (The Smithian, She is every woman), and you’ll get an idea of how much she has to offer and how inspiring she is on the regular. And Myspace has finally given me the opportunity to work with my good friend, Joseph Patel, who’s always so chill even as he makes incredible things happen, which is really such a gift, I just hope I can pick up at least some of that approach!
And then, of course, there’s the city itself and all of the fantastic scenes here in New York, or in any city really. The people who are on the ground making things and scenes, building businesses and collectives, carving their name and their influence on the landscape, whether culturally or commercially or via policy or whatever, it’s just a fantastic environment to be in, to be around, and to seek to document. And then there’s general survival instincts – we’ve all got to eat! – so you know, the inspiration is really everywhere.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up?
There are two things I remember wanting to do as a kid – I wanted to play college basketball (not as a career, it was just a thing I wanted to do), and I wanted to be an environmental scientist. In the end, neither one worked out, and I’m not completely sure how I ended up here – being a writer was never really a part of the plan, though at a certain point owning a business became something of interest – but, you know, here we are. I’m still really concerned about the environment and sometimes wish I was a bit more on the ground floor working on that cause because it’s clearly such an urgent pain point for all of us, but I’ve always got my eyes and ears open re how I might be able to help. And it’s been a good path.
What are you reading at the moment?
Man, like 15 books? I’ve got a stack next to my bed that’s almost embarrassing to admit to, but some recent ones that I’ve cracked into include Donald Barthelme’s Sixty Stories, The Best of Roald Dahl, and Hilary Spurling’s The Unknown Matisse. I’ve spent a lot of time this week trying to figure out when I might be able to make more of a dent in my in-progress reading list. Wish me luck.
What’s your favorite post-work destination?
My apartment, dinner or the pool.