Danyel Smith on Quincy Jones, VIBE and the state of cultural journalism

Last week, we had the honor of publishing Danyel Smith’s TRiiBE debut: “Quincy Jones Built More Than Hits — He Built the Culture.”

Smith is a culture connoisseur who still documents the legacies and impact of our greatest artists and trends today. Though she made history as the first woman and the first Black person to serve as editor-in-chief of VIBE, she later served as the editor of Billboard. Today, she’s a New York Times contributor, a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame selection committee, the author of Shine Bright: A Very Personal HIstory of Black Women in Pop, and consulting producer on HBO’s Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary.

The John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University brought our worlds together. She was a fellow in 2014; 10 years before me. We did a Zoom call on Tuesday, unpacking the genius of Quincy Jones and the state of cultural journalism today.