Like yourself and many other charters, I've been hanging in and around these parts for 15+ years.

And there's definitely been a shift.

This site used to be an open vessel for fans to musicians and vice versa.

Remember that list of Okay artists on the old front page?

gone.

the okay artists that helped contribute to keeping the lights on in this place...

Erykah
Me'shell
BT
Common
Van Hunt
?uestlove

and so many more ...all used to post and converse with "us".

I remember when okp used to post lotteries to invite a select few to sit at listening parties of okp artists.

I remember being that lucky guy who was invited and went to The Roots listening party with my cousin at electric lady for The Tipping Point. I still have the pics from that night.

the banters between EB and posters.

the random wild stories ?uestlove shared openly

the meet and greets okps collectively had with one another in person.

the beat battles between okp producers where they posted their tracks and we would judge them.

bblock, tREBLEFREE, Obsidian Blue, etc.

yeah, there's the make the music page. but it aint the same.

Aquaman's conspiracy posts

and so many others.

the feeling of a progressive black community and cultures where you learned about new music, politics, food, and art from different parts of the planet that helped made you a better person for it.

because you either made new friends from it, or shared that enlightenment with your current friends with excitement.

because that shit was FELT.

But its changed. after speaking to some okp expats, i thought it was just myself and others who grew out of the whole scene.

but no. not entirely.

it's been noticeable for sometime now. a change of the guard during the dead of night? All i know is it doesn't take much intuition to know and feel that the love that was put into this site is gone.