Empty Lighthouse Catches Up With Moe Rock of NowHipHop.com

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The founder and CEO of NowHipHop.com is one ambitious guy.

Not only does he run the NowHipHop.com, but the brand also bolsters a 24/7 radio station, a record label and even a physical publication. Moe Rock gave us a chance to catch up and ask him a few questions:

Give us some history of NowHipHop.com

NowHipHop.com was originally started as an online radio network, what made use unique was the fact we would not only play aspiring artists music, but interview them on a personal level.

We had artists share stories about their struggle not only to make it in music, but life in general - some of our shows made you laugh some made you cry, however you always felt inspired.

Our unique style gave us a loyal base of listeners, they loved how we cared about the aspiring artists in a way that few others ever bothered to. We built a community and around that eventually expanded into print media with a monthly based subscription magazine delivered to homes across the U.S and Canada.

We spoke with lots of publishing companies, ultimately decided to work with one that formerly worked with Damon Dash of Roc-A-Fella records.

From that point on we decided to start an independent record label because of the many in house services that make us a unique organization - most independent record labels for example do not have their own magazine or radio or popular blog they can streamline artists to.

When did you know that the site was starting to take off?

When we were recognized as a media outlet at the 2014 BET Awards comes to mind as does the moment our Alexa ranking cracked the top ten thousand spot for the first time in the U.S because we knew then that we have a special community involved with our movement. Furthermore, getting companies like Microsoft and Celebrities communicating and acknowledging our brand publicly on social media we felt our community was getting respected.

We also enjoy a great relationship with ReverbNation (Over 2.5 Million users) they help us streamline artists with exclusive opportunity programs.

These along with being featured on the front page of The Source magazine website and being one of the few Hip Hop platforms to get recognized by companies like Facebook and Lockerdome as being officially notable enough to be verified.

Collectively all these things help inspire us to keep our community growing and taking off.

How does NHH fill a 24/7 radio network?

We are always creating unique content and have DJS and Show Hosts that are working on a daily basis to add content.

Some of our popular shows are OpenTalk2 with Cindy Prater (Who was representing us at the BET Awards this year) and a show that has become something of a cult hit featuring a University Professor (Professor Voss) that talks about intelligent ways for our audience to grow not only with their careers, but with their lives in general.

Do you have other ventures besides the NHH brand?

I am on the board of directors for a non-for profit organization (a history museum) and I still continue to produce for select artists internationally.

But my main love in life is the Hip Hop culture I am dedicated to the community.

What's your advice for rappers starting out?

Read. Read. Read. Being a rap artist is no different then being an entrepreneur and a leader, and leaders are readers and readers become leaders.

Who do you think is the best emerging artist this year?

In Hip Hop I like what artists like Rich Homie Quan and Yung Thug have been able to do, come in and build a loyal fan-base in a competitive time in hip hop that always deserves respect.

What's the next steps for you?

Continue to work with our community and bring more like minded people aboard what we do whether they are artists,writers or entrepreneurs NowHipHop is as all about a collective group working for the culture.

Follow Moe Rock on Twitter