Atomic Reaction Presents: Freestyle Music Magazine premiered in February 1994. It was the first all-Freestyle music magazine.  Read: the first!  It was bimonthly for the first three issues, and then went monthly with the fourth issue in August.

When it started out, Freestyle Music Magazine only published 250 copies and only had a circulation of Philly and South Jersey. Distribution included a couple clubs, a handful of DJs, and three record stores (Record Bar on Passyunk Ave in Philly, Tower Records on South Street in Philly, and The Music Factory in Sewell NJ.)

When the last issue was published, there were 5000 copies, and a circulation that included 85 subscribers, a flow list to over 150 industry types, (Record label people, artists, producers, club and radio DJs, other music writers, promoters, etc.)  It was also available free in over 30 record stores and clubs across the USA, and in Canada.

Lack of money was the first and main reason for the stoppage of the magazine. There were only a handful of advertisers, and only a few were on a steady basis. The magazine was expensive to publish, and my partner Ernie Jackson, and myself, were paying for all the operational costs - the printing, postage, film developing, etc. - out of our own pockets, to the tune of almost $800 a month! And that doesn’t even cover the long distance phone bills!

Lack of support was the second reason for the stoppage of the magazine. It worked like this.  Someone sends me new music. I would write about it. Someone mails me information about a new release or new artist - I would write about it. Someone phones or faxes me information- I would write about it. Good or bad, I would write about it.  And I wouldn’t even say it was bad. I would just mention it was out now.  But there I was every month calling the same record companies asking what is new, and when so-and so has a new song coming out.  It was like pulling teeth!  So there I was begging them for the information to help tell 5000 people about their new albums!  They call that promotion!

Lack of respect was the third reason for the stoppage of the magazine. I never figured out how a record company would send 12 copies of their latest Freestyle single to a record pool in hopes that the DJs would play the record in front of maybe a 200 people each. Lets see, if all 12 Hip-Hop DJs played the new Freestyle song in front of about 200, lets even say 250 people… Cause that could happen! That would equal a maximum of 3000 half-drunk Hip-Hop heads that might hear the song in the middle of a mix, with no introduction of the artist or song title. Or send one copy to me and I write about it and the 5000 people who should know about it…do!

I did have a nice bunch of supporters though:

Publisher: Ernie Jackson, who helped cover the production cost of the magazine.

Team Atomic: who helped contribute in countless ways: David LoMastro, Pat Nardizzi, Robert J. Pino, Stephen Lanciano, and Steve Sibbitt.

Fellow Freestyle scribes: Steve “Mr. Miami” O’Neill and Bernie Rosenberg for their shared information.

Advertisers: Record Bar, Timber!/Tommy Boy Records, After Dark Records, the Winter Music Conference, Metropolitan Records, Strong Island Records, and especially Tazmania Records, and the Music Factory in New Jersey.

I do not have any Volume 1 back issues available! 

But you are able to look at the Volume 1 Back Issues in PDF format!