Can Russell Simmons Unite the Hip-Hop Community on The Web?

The publicity and connections have certainly bolstered Wright's faith in Global Grind. "It validates the importance of our demographic, and it shows that we're taking the right approach," he says. Since the site's launch, he has been in talks with Facebook, Web-based messaging service meebo, and social media network imeem to form partnerships so that Global Grind users can more easily link to content and services from those sites. Global Grind already includes a locked grind featuring a meebo chatroom. Wright is striving to have advertising on the site by the beginning of next year.

If Global Grind proves successful, it may offer a model for other Web 2.0 niche sites. As sites like Facebook and MySpace have cultivated a large, general audience, Smith says, smaller sites have adopted their technologies in order to appeal to groups not fully served by the larger sites. Thus, other niche aggregators could follow, just as other developers have created social networks for select communities.

In the meantime, Global Grind must prove itself a useful filter for the urban Web while contending with the many other sites available to the increasingly Internet-savvy hip-hop community. Although Global Grind promises to "bring the Web" to its visitors, its target users may have already decided that the Web is theirs for the taking.