Fake News in the Age of Internet Reporting (Hip-Hop Edition)
Yesterday, a user by the name of RockoTreez posted a thread on the hip-hop heads subreddit, claiming that he had interviewed Chief Keef for his website, The Local Savage. In the interview, Sosa, or the individual claiming to be Sosa, discussed working with Mike Will, future projects with Gucci Mane, and the final death note of a few of his rumored projects.
Hilariously, Sosa exposed the interview on IG as a fake, saying: “Fake interview Niggas went from Hitting bitches acting like me to doing interviews....”
Sosa continues to humorously flame the guy on IG, saying “If u gonna try to be me in a interview cut the dick riding and sound like a Chiraqean.”
However, prior to exposing the interview in question as a fake, many popular and prominent hip-hop publications rolled with the story, just hours after it had been posted. I got notifications from Complex, XXL, and HNHH, all quoting and distributing the lies of the Local Savage writer.
I think this story does wonders in highlighting how the ravenous pace of internet journalism, hip-hop included, leads to bad press. Because they wanted to break the story before anyone else and because the power of internet publishing allowed them to delete and edit the story, some of the biggest publishers in hip-hop go unscathed for failing to fact check the story.
Publishers like XXL and Complex most certainly have the relationships with Sosa’s PR to fact check stories like this, yet they failed to do so in order to get that “hot scoop.” I’m honestly not sure who’s more at fault here: the goofy journalist or the cursory writers at the big publishers.
It’s honestly a damn shame too, because Chief Keef seldom does any interviews who so ever, and perhaps that’s the reason why places like Complex picked it up. In hindsight, it seemed to good to be true, and that’s why it certainly was.
Lastly, I would like to speak directly to the writer for Local Savage who frauded this story. As a low key hip-hop writer myself, I know how difficult and frustrating it can be to start from nothing, and I completely get how difficult it is to make connections with just a Twitter and a Tumblr.
But, bro, you literally just squashed any potential connections you could have made with these big sites. You also made yourself look like a fool to Chief Keef, a rapper who I’m sure you idolize, given your website and the way you falsely conversed with Chief Keef (yourself).
If you actually had the nuts for this job, you’d start local, you’d start small, you’d start with the acts that aren’t getting the exposure that you could provide as a service. Joe Shmoe doesn’t get an interview with Chief Keef having never interviewed anyone prior, don’t get it twisted. Work hard and the success will come, because you simply can’t cheat your way to success.
