The 1st Hip Hop Fashion Focused Magazine

Urb1 Magazine has announced that Bump J, formerly known as Bumpy Johnson on the mixtape circuit, will be gracing the cover of their #1 issue. Scheduled to go on sale March 10th (March issue) there will a transcript of the phone interview in the magazine which will allow readers to view Chicago's Hip Hop Fashion scene and also visualize what Hip Hop culture in Chicago, Illinois is like, through the eyes of the industry projected, #1 Hip Hop artist of 2005.

Rod Rainey, co-owner of Urb1 Magazine said "Well, to me it's great to have an already nationally known artist on the cover of the magazine as we did for our free, preview issue with Fab (referring to Fabolous) on the cover. But, when you have an artist you know is going to blow up, and you respect that artist's craft and love for street fashion, you have to put them on the cover. Bump J has the 2 hottest singles I've heard thus far in 2005. 'Move Around', which will catch on, and 'Bump Bump J', which is going to make his name an anthem around the globe, is crazy hot. The 5 million sales he projects to do will happen easily and in listening to people from Chicago, you know his music is real! Just getting out, Kanye West and Rick James worked with Bump J! Marc Ecko has even courted him about doing a clothing line. Working with that kind of great talent, you know that means you have to have style and great music!"

Bump J, if not familiar with the Chicago native, is estimated to have moved more than 50,000 copies of his independent mixtapes through the Goons of Chicago. The mixtapes ended up on a bootleg circuit that ran all over the Midwest, East, and Middle East Coasts.

After catching the ear of many record labels, he signed his Grimeyville label to Atlantic Records. Bump J and his label since shot a video in Chicago that is supposed to go through every street famed location in Chicago and its' metro.

Urb1 Magazine, who took on the challenge of featuring a new artist on the cover of their magazine for the sake of good music and not fame, distributed 4,000 copies of their preview issue. The preview issue featured Hip Hop Fashion trend setter Fabolous on the cover. On the inside of the magazine it featured a review of 2004's Hip Hop Fashion news, custom sneakers, time lines on Rocawear & Rocafella, Baby Phat & Phat Farm, and Sean John. New fashion designers in the magazine have been buzzing through the streets of the east coast and oddly enough, Stuttgart, Germany as well. A few stores in the international city took copies of the magazine to distribute, and lost their supply within a week.

The magazine, which features everything from New Era and Nike's store selective releases over to Hip Hop fashion news and new Hip Hop Fashion designers clothing reviews, has exploded onto the market independently with the support of the visitors from Urb1.com, which is the Original Hip Hop Fashion Focused website.

Major nods and appraisal for the magazine and articles featured inside it have been given by subscribers who were amazed at the actual design and content of the magazine.

Kimora Lee Simmons, founder of Baby Phat, and Yomi Martin, co-owner of Vokal and Apple Bottoms, both gave positive comments about the magazine's content and design as well. Kimora Lee even asked Urb1 Magazine representative and reporter Krista Travis to bring a few copies of Urb1 Magazine to the Baby Phat flag ship store in NYC.

Urb1 Magazine's subscription rate, which is higher than some issues as it's an independent magazine, has been reviewed as well worth the spending for Urban and Hip Hop fashion fans.

"Shopping codes that give free shipping, no tax charges, percentages off totals at different online retailers such as Dr Jays, Baby Phat, Apple Bottoms, Phat Farm, Jersey Domain, and other sites time to time, will save anyone who does online shopping a lot more money than this actual magazine costs." says Rod confidently on the subject matter of retail costs for the magazine. "Even if you don't want to read 100% of the magazine, these incentives alone will make Urb1 Magazine worth every penny you spend on it, because everyone has to buy clothing and if you're a Hip Hop head you're trying to stay ahead of everyone else. Our magazine gets readers more for their dollar than the average person on the street will get for theirs. More for your dollars means your style will be braille (a slang the co-founder uses to describe fashion the street hip hop culture will feel)."

Urb1 Magazine is currently being sold at Urb1Mag.com with plans to affiliate with exclusive release stores across the United States as time goes. The company wants not to be affiliated with main stream stores as it has constructed a US street team that boasts high school and college students in over 10 large metropolitan areas.

Another fascinating headline that is to be found in the March issue of Urb1 Magazine includes a full story on the possibility of Jay-Z finally taking Rocawear clothing into his own hands, gaining full ownership of the line.

Custom sneakers and Urban demanded shoe release dates, articles on upcoming clothing designers such as Streetwyze Clothing and Rodrigo NY, photos from the Spring Magic Fashion Convention in Las Vegas, and various unreleased product shots will grace the magazine on top of it's already well known for, gathering of Urban and Hip Hop Fashion news.