Defector Is Preserving Recipes

Today Defector published a feature by Abe Beame about the legal and logistical barriers arrayed against people trying to archive rap media. The blog is great and worth reading on its own terms. But as I read it, I couldn’t help but see Defector’s own story.

Defector shares an ethos with these publications: offering an alternative to out-of-touch, incumbent culture coverage. The previous iteration of our site, owned by a private equity firm, also shared many of the problems they face: owners on a spectrum between negligent and malicious, and critical texts disappearing from the archives after corporate machinations. We even do our own archival work: helping to get stuff like Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants and “Buddy’s Watchin’ You” digitized, and covering lost classics like Don DeLillo’s hockey sex romp and Gendertrash From Hell.

It feels good that Defector is home to writing like this Abe Beame blog, and it feels better that the site is an heir to the style of coverage pioneered by the magazines he wrote about. But the best part is that, thanks to our worker-owned structure, no corporate goon can tamper with our archives or sell us to a Maltese gambling outfit. The support of our subscribers guarantees that you won’t read this sort of feature about Defector’s lost archives in 2046. We sincerely appreciate it.