Jackson Free Press

If you make something, Malcolm Morrow, creator of Jackson entertainment blog The Hood Hippie, wants to help you. No, really.

"If you're a painter, or maybe if you do a comic strip, have a clothing line or make short films, I just want to promote the artistry going on in Mississippi. I feel like a lot of times people overlook the stuff that's going on in the city, especially the smaller things," he says.

One of Morrow's main interests—and his biggest project at The Hood Hippie—is promoting Jackson's hip-hop music scene. Growing up, Morrow was a regular at local venues, including Swell-O-Phonic, where he would go see acts such as 7evenThirty and DJ Young Venom perform. After graduating from Provine High School in 2009, he attended Holmes Community College before transferring to the University of Southern Mississippi in 2011. When Morrow moved back to Jackson with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 2014, he found the entire arts scene had grown since he left.

"I felt like there was an artistic Renaissance going on because everywhere I looked, there was just something happening," he says.

Morrow had always been interested in writing and developed the skill further while at USM, interning for the national news organization Your Black World. He knew that he wanted to build something of his own using what he learned from his internship, and after seeing Jackson hip-hop ignored despite its quality and variety, Morrow set his sights on fixing that problem.

"It was important for me to focus on music here because Jackson is one of the places where hip-hop isn't really supported too much. People will support other artists from outside of Jackson before they'll support somebody from here," he says. "Being from Mississippi, even if you get famous, you might still not get the support you deserve. I want to make it to the point where people see local artists the same way they see celebrities."

Morrow began The Hood Hippie in March 2014. Now, with the help of his business partner Will Robinson, who organizes the site's weekly hip-hop playlists and videos, the blog has garnered more than 15,000 views.

"When I first started, it was just me. I used to have to hit the artists up," Morrow says. "I'd sit there and send emails to probably 15 artists a day, saying, 'Hey, would you like to be featured on my blog?' Now, people are hitting me up constantly. ... I went from being some music-geek guy, just sitting there writing about artists, to kind of being like a tastemaker in the music scene here."

As a result, the site's content offerings have also grown. In April, The Hood Hippie released its first mixtape, "Sativa Symphonic," presenting the latest tracks from Jackson rappers, such as T Lo da Champ, Jhamasa Corinthian and GSpitta. The team released its second mixtape, "Summer Wave Vol. 1," June 22, featuring artists including Sika J, TDot VDot and Ray Kincaid.

Through the blog, Morrow also organized live showcases at Fondren's First Thursday in April and May. They're currently taking a break so as not to wear out their welcome, but he says that's only a portion of what he sees for The Hood Hippie's future.

"Ultimately, I want us to become more than just a blog. I want us to be kind of like an entertainment company and a nexus for hip-hop, for art, for film and for anything that you want to do artistically in the city," he says. "I want us to be in the middle of that where people come to us to find the hottest things going on in Jackson."

For more information, visit thehoodhippie.com. "Sativa Symphonic" and "Summer Wave Vol. 1" are available at soundcloud.com/thehoodhippiems.