Hip Hop Home Page

Sept. 26, 2007 — -- Global Grind goes live this morning. If you can imagine a next-generation, multimedia, Web 2.0 version of My Yahoo but geared broadly toward fans of hip-hop...you'd get the idea of Global Grind. And it comes with a pedigree. One of the backers is rap impresario Russell Simmons. Another, the A-list venture capital firm Accel Partners.

The CEO and founder is the former CTO of Black Entertainment Television, Navarrow Wright.

Hip-hop sites -- such as Chuck D's Rapstation.com -- have never found a major audience, Wright tells me. But Global Grind "is not just about music -- it permeates all aspects of life," he says. He calls the site "an aggregator with attitude." Wright and Simmons are long-time friends. Wright says he had no intention of getting VC money, but when word leaked of Global Grind the VC community came calling. Jim Breyer at Accel won him over.