RWD Magazine
RWD Magazine is a British-based magazine which features music, style, sport, gaming, film, technology, news, interviews, and charts on hip hop, grime, dubstep, R&B, UK garage, drum and bass, and U.S. house music. Running from 2001–2014, it was released monthly, distributing 98,300 copies each time and was ABC certified. It was considered the largest magazine on youth music and lifestyle in the United Kingdom.
The magazine, RWDmag, also has a website, which features music videos, tracks, and artist profiles. RWDmag.com was the first major website to champion grime music.
History
RWD Magazine was established in 2001, having received a £2,000 grant from the Prince's Trust. It became a well-known name in UK underground urban music circles in mid- to late 2003. This coincided with the rise of a new urban music genre, which later became popularly referred to as grime.RWD Magazine provided a platform for emerging, unsigned artists to get their names and faces into every popular underground music outlet. This worked by aspiring artists paying to feature within the magazine. This may not have seemed very desirable at first, but the magazine's healthy distribution and circulation made this more attractive. The magazine enjoyed a relatively healthy distribution and circulation, as readers could pick up the magazine for free.
This new platform appealed to many aspiring artists from the grime scene, and allowed them to do independently what they could have previously only done with the backing of a major record label.
Part of the success of the magazine was driven by its official website, which was buoyed by its popular forum, named RWD forum, both launched by Lex Johnson, the most central point being the "Grime Music" forum. This forum allowed for the discussion of everything to do with the grime music scene and regularly enjoyed visits from big names who occasionally also posted.
2000–2004
During 2002-04, the magazine focused on the intersection between UK garage and the birth of grime music. The website was built, launched, and promoted by teenaged online director Alex Donne Johnson, who later went on to form his own creative agency, Dazzle Ship. During this period, the website won a number of awards, including London Business of the Year, UK Garage Awards: Best Website 2002, and Sidewinder Peoples Choice Awards: Best Magazine 2013.As part of the marketing campaign for the website, The Booo Krooo were born. They were soon co-signed by Missy Elliott asking to be featured in the cartoon for her hit single "Work It". The Booo Krooo went on to secure a 6 episode broadcast series on British TV channel Channel U and produced a music video with UK garage producer Sticky, famous for hits such as the track "Booo!".