I’m not really sure when I exactly started Above&Beyond, but if I look at the first post I ever did on here in the archives, Above&Beyond Magazine has officially hit the one year mark as of last week (September 18th). I know that posting this thing would have been better on the actual date, but my home computer broke last week, and I don’t feel comfortable with blogging on my roommates laptop etc..

Here’s a little history … technically, the blog was not even named Above&Beyond at the beginning. It was named ohlek.tumblr.com, which you can still access using that adress (Oh Lek being my native asian first name). It was then renamed to Press.Play around January, until I realized that it was sharing name with P. Diddy’s latest album … who knew that bloke was still releasing album right? The name Above&Beyond came two weeks later, straight out of a movie quote that I heard at the movie theater and it just stayed with me.

One year passed, crazy right? there’s probably not alot of you who’s been around since the beginning, but I find it crazy how things have changed in a just a little year, it’s just unbelievable. I never really intended to turn this blog into what it is today, it just … happened you know? It all started when a guy I know showed me his blog and I went « hey, this look pretty cool, what’s the platform you’re using? », and he said Tumblr … (yeah this is running on Tumblr, if I really knew how big this would get, I would have defintely used WordPress. Tumblr is still good, but WordPress is where it’s at). So just like that, I created a blog in less two minutes just for the kick of it and to kill time … The origins are not as prestigious as I would like it to be, but it is what it is, my unconditional love for music wrapped in thousands of posts, trying to keep myself and everyone else updated with what’s going on in the musical world.

So with this little history lesson under your belt, here comes the moment where I say my thank you’s and extend my gratitude.

First of all, thanks to the ever-growing number of persons who takes a little time of their day to visit the site. I mean, a website without visitors is a little bit like that tree in the philosophical riddle If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Big shouts to everyone who’s been around since the beginning, the ten of you or something ahah, and everyone who will be coming in the future.

And while Above&Beyond is mainly an one-man operation, I do get help from guest writers and collaborators from time to time. Shout out to Anthony & Illy for posting some stuff from time to time. Also thanks to everyone who helped me along the way. WDiRmag, hypebeast, indecentxposure, 25stanley, bombe.tv, ihearditon, thank you all and it’d be a shame to not thank everyone who’s sending music (Novel, U-N-I, Rowe Stussy, Sheldon Scott, Mad Kids etc…etc…), I can’t name you all, but thanks to everyone I’m forgetting, also thanks to the labels also for holding me down.

As of the what there is to come, you can expect alot of new things in the near future. Things have been shaping up, and while it might not be quite ready as of now, it will be soon enough. I can’t promise anything, but expansion is definitely on the way. Projects’ been boiling in my head and my thirst for that ‘new world’ has yet to be satisfied, while the way to there might be harsh and tedious, especially for an one-man army, I will eventually make it, so stick around fella’s.

So I guess that this is it … and to end it it all on a good note, like Mr. West once said, « so I say my way to thank you to the ghetto, and everybody else, thank you very little ».