User:Darius Sinclair/The Smoking Section

The Smoking Section (pronounced thuh smohk-ing sek-shuhn) (also known as TheSmokingSection.net and TSS) is an American urban culture website, originating in 2005 as a personal blog, evolving into a full-fledged website, operating under the name The Smoking Section, LLC. The name came from the creator's emphasis on reserving the site for “authentic” Hip-Hop. Today, it operates as an entertainment culture site, with a broad spectrum of topics written by several professional journalists and creative writers.

Like many media outlets, The Smoking Section covers, promotes, and participates in countless cultural events. These events include festivals, conferences, concerts, expos, album release gatherings, press releases, and especially one-on-one interviews. The Smoking Section also reviews music albums, movies, music videos and video games, but is known to have visitors provide downloadable links to the music, and sometimes movies. This has caused both negative and positive attention from the record companies.

History
In 2005, The Smoking Section started out as a personal blog for John Gotty. He later allowed two of his friends to join with the writing of his blog, including the interviewing of Hip-Hop artists. The first published interview was with the 9th Wonder.

In early 2006, TSS needed more server space and higher bandwidth, due to heavy traffic and downloading, and moved their home to Rawkus.com, following the trend of many popular blogs. However, as The Smoking Section's demographic grew, so did their legal woes.

Soon after, in 2007, TSS welcomed it's 5 millionth visitor, as well as a new moniker: The Smoking Section, LLC. TSS had changed from a strickly Hip-Hop site, to a more broad and informative brand. Around this time, TSS joined with Uproxx.com, which is where they are today.

Recognition
The staff of the Smoking Section attend many different venues. Since they are located nationwide, they are able to garner media coverage all across the country.