Startup targets music genre void

A local startup is hoping to break into the lucrative world of hip-hop with its new online portal, KillerBoomBox.com.

The site is run by KillerBoomBox Media Group, a plucky new company that recently won a coveted spot in the Smarter in the City startup accelerator in Dudley Square.

The brainchild of local digital product manager Darius McCroey and veteran music journalist Gregory Valentino Ball, the company now faces the hurdle of convincing investors that enough advertising dollars will come from their business model, which involves producing articles and video documentaries on their website. They also organize and film concerts that highlight urban music. That content — a sampling of which is available on the company's sleekly designed website — is to be repackaged and resold in a variety of different ways, including a forthcoming mobile app, another potential revenue generator.

"The whole idea is to cover urban music, hip-hop and R&B from an intelligent perspective," said Ball, who lives in Dorchester. "We have a passion and that puts us in a better place than some of the competition."

The company already has been selected as runner-up in the Roxbury Innovation Challenge Business Pitch Contest and was a member of the Future Boston Alliance's 
Accelerate Boston Class of 2013, a six-month educational program for entrepreneurs.

Their competition includes Revolt TV, an online magazine and network owned by hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, who just last week predicted that his network would become the ESPN of hip-hop music. These new platforms recognize the vacuum left by MTV and VH1's near-total abandonment of music news coverage — and an estimated 45 million hip-hop consumers nationwide who are waiting for another music media renaissance. There's plenty of room for competition within the $10 billion-a-year hip-hop industry.

Yet corporate America largely has ignored the purchasing power of the hip-hop culture that business empires have sprung from. Moguls such as Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Diddy are potentially on their way to becoming billionaires in the next decade.

Ball and McCroey say Boston's role in urban music often lives in the shadow of New York City, but there are many up-and-coming artists who originated here and have a fan base ready and waiting. In fact, McCroey envisions being able to use Boston as a test market for new artists.

"Boston is a world-class college town," he said. "So when we take new music to that market, we're testing it for people all over the world."

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