Fellow TRUbians, it’s with great honor and gratitude that I bring you this great news. The Rap Up has been nominated by Billboard.com and Nielsen.com as one of the Top Music Blogs in the U.S. The five blogs with the highest number of votes will emerge as finalists. Voting kicks off on Monday (November 12), but you can head on to the site and write an opinion about The Rap Up now. Yeah, all those nice things you’ve been telling me via email, here’s an opportunity to show the world why you truly dig The Rap Up. Mark your calendars and let’s make The Rap Up a winner.

Thanks for your continued support.

• Write an opinion about The Rap Up

Over the years, many of you ride-or-die T.R.U. loyalists have expressed great admiration for the site. It’s been a truly tremendous response and I can’t say I’m not flattered. Fortunately, I have some exciting news to share with you. The Rap Up is eligible for this year’s Black Weblog Awards. Let’s use this opportunity to announce to the whole world that TheRapUp.net is our daily cup of coffee.

Something powerful inspired you to join the T.R.U. movement. Maybe it’s your appreciation for fresh-off-the-oven audios and and mud-wrestling videos. Maybe it’s your desire to see which B-list rapper will be rocking bullet dentures on their cover this week. Whatever your reasons, now’s the perfect time to stand behind your favorite blog.

I don’t have federal lobbyists. I can’t promise cyber-handshakes. But I can hook you up with some tricks on how to surf TheRapUp.net and still make your boss think you’re working on a Microsoft Word document. Now through August 15th, you can vote for TheRapUp.net (please use the url www.therapup.net) in any/all of the following categories:

• Best Hip-Hop Blog
• Best Music Blog
• Best Writing in a Blog
• Blog of the Year
• Best Blog Post Series (Consider the “What’s Beef” series: 3 | 2 | 1)

We’ve built something together that’s bigger than me. So, I’m turning this drive over to you. Tell all your friends and family to go buy a computer so they can vote for The Rap Up.

One last thing, do honor the voting rules. Use a different email if you’re planning on voting more than 200 times.

VOTE AWAY!

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Enjoy!

Rizoh returns in 3 days…

P.S. Spurs…in 4…told y’all… ;-D

Anybody else disappointed by The Sopranos’ last episode?

Anyways, I’ll be holding down T.R.U. ’til big homie Rizoh comes back from his well-earned vaca’. Stay tuned…

- Ivan

Rizoh returns in 7 days…

it is with great sappiness that i announce the interim departure of your beloved blogger riz matic from the blogosphere. the time-off, needed to pacify some personal proceedings, is expected to commence on the 10th day of june, in the year of our Lord 2007. i shall return 7 days thereafter (which translates to eternity in blogger terms).

meanwhile, resident TRUbian ivan rott will be on hand to provide you with ample arrest stories and vanity fair cover updates to keep you satiated until i come back like kris styles wearing the 45.

one love,
riz “i need some damn piña colada in my life” matic

Phew! I can’t believe it’s been two years since I launched The Rap Up. What started as one man’s rant-land has now turned into a hip-hop hive.

I remember back when I would spend hours updating the blog only to end the day with a total of, say, 50 unique visitors. 850,000 visits and 1.6 million pageviews later, I can’t thank those 50 readers enough.

Shout out to everyone who has ever stopped by or bookmarked T.R.U. Whether you found us through a friend’s blogroll or via a Google search for ‘Stacy Dash Playboy pics’, your visit is appreciated. I’m also enormously grateful to all the bloggers who inspired me to add my voice to the discussion back when hip-hop blogging was the new new–O-Dub, Hashim, Clyde, Ian, Jay Smooth, etc–and all the ones who still inspire me to step my game up everyday (read: almost everyone on my blogroll).

Now, tell me, how did you first find out about The Rap Up?

Thanks for stopping by The Rap Up. I’m Rizoh, and I’ll be your host for today.