Sacha Jenkins-much like rap great KRS One-is hip hip. Sachy-Sach, his sister Dominiqe, and
their artistically inclined, Haitian-born mom-dukes, Monart, moved to Astoria, Queens, NY from
Silver Springs, MD in the summer of 1977. Their Philadelphia, PA-reared, filmmaking/Emmy
Award-winning pop-dukes, Horace was already living in NYC at the time (100th Street & Central
Park West, to be exact...blocks away from the infamous Rock Steady Park). During the school
week, young Sacha spent his post three o'clock days playing stickball and skelly. Then...
1980: Sacha was blessed by an elder with an instrument of destruction that would forever change
his life. "PK," a local subway scrawler with some inter-borough celebrity, handed the young boy
a very juiced-up Pilot magic marker.
1988: Inspired by a the International Graffiti Times (a rag published by aerosol legend Phase 2
and David Schmidlap), Sacha would put together Graphic Scenes & X-plicit Language-a zine
dedicated to, yep, graf. And poetry. And anti-Gulf War rants. And humor. And towards the end,
in 1991, music.
1992: Beat Down, America's first hip hop newspaper, is launched by Sacha and a childhood
friend have a falling out. Bye bye, Black bird.
June, 1994: Ego Trip magazine is born.
1996: Sacha writes for Vibe, Rolling Stone, and Spin. He gets a Writer-At-Large then Music
Editor gig at Vibe.
Present: In his spare time, Sacha likes to play guitar, collect Planet of the Apes action figures and
listen to rap that isn't wack. He's a Leo.
In the summer of 1992, armed with his worthless LaGuardia Community College Associate Arts
degree, mulatto-born Elliot Wilson attempted to connect with The Source to no avail. Frustrated
20and full of half-black rage, Wilson vowed to one day show his smarmy colleagues in the world
of hip hop journalism what a tragic mistake they had made.
Befriending fellow W.C. Bryant High School alum Sacha Jenkins and L.C.C. student Haji
Akhigbade, Wilson became the Music Editor of the duo's burgeoning rap newspaper, Beat
Down. After the trio disbanded in the fall of '93, Wilson encouraged Jenkins to give the
publishing game another shot and the seasoned salt-and-pepper duo began to conceptualize
Ego Trip.
Wilson soon realized, however, that one cannot eat off props alone. When not contributing
toward ground-breaking. When not contributing toward ground-breaking Ego Trip scriptures,
he actively freelanced for Vibe, Rap Pages, Rap Sheet, Time Out New York and Paper. In 1995,
he endured a brief-but-successful stint as an Associate Editor at CMJ New Music Report where
he solidified the indie rock trade rag's hip hop coverage.
But it was in 1996 that he would enjoy a particularly sweet payback when he was wooed from
CMJ to become The Source's Music Editor. During his two-year tenure, he helped propel the
already established publication to the country's top-selling music title.
From Q-borough underachiever to Big Willie publishing mogul and now author, Elliot Jesse
Wilson Jr. is a living testament that dreams can and do come true.
Toiling for years as a truck-driving production assistant on the New York commercial filmmaking
scene, New York University graduate Chairman Mao needed direction. An aspiring DJ, his
addiction to acquiring wax had depleted his bank account. But in 1992, his chance meeting with an
ambitious young publishing entrepreneur/film intern named Sacha Jenkins introduced an
absurd solution to these fiscal woes-entering the world of music journalism! Mao began
contributing to Jenkins' Beat Down magazine in exchange for complimentary promotional
copies of hip hop records. He couldn't believe his luck.
Mao eventuall
