Hard to believe but it’s been a bit more than a month since dopealot.com officially went on-line. Before this, flickr was serving my photography needs, but I needed something to separate the concert photography from my other work, and this was the best way to do it. I just wanted to thank everyone for visiting the site and I hope you’re enjoying the articles as well as the pictures.

Speaking of articles, you may have noticed that the reviews have gotten considerably better than my short blurbs in the last little while. This is due to the fact that Noah Goodbaum, whom some of you HHK diehards may know as Rhinoceros, has joined Dope-A-Lot as a contributing writer. His reviews are honest, skillfully penned and are a genuine joy to read. He will try and make it to as many events as possible, and provide you with insightful commentary on the world of Toronto hip-hop. Some recent events that were covered by Noah include Pete Rock, Prince Paul, Rhythmicru / Down With Webster and Hip-Hop Karaoke. Check them out, they are a great read! Noah will be also be penning album reviews – very exciting! Mr. Goodbaum can be reached directly via noah@dopealot.com.

As well, I’m currently working with the wonderful Marta van Eerdewijk of datemodified and MAS TEES fame on the site layout and we will be trying various things until we settle on something, ahem – Dope! She is also credited with designing the awesome logo that can be seen adorning my recent photos as a watermark.

Be sure to let us know how we are doing! We welcome and strongly encourage feedback or criticism either through article commentary, or directly to either Noah or I. Even if you just want to say hello, don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

Finally, if you haven’t done so yet, join the Dope-A-Lot group on Facebook and for those using RSS, the full site feed is here.

That’s all for now and thanks for everyone’s support!

-phil