John Threat: Urban Web Pioneer

It’s been nearly eight years since Urban Exposé put urban websites and the minds behind them on blast. In the time since, John Threat (aka John Lee), the former anonymous blogger behind the site, has not been resting on his laurels. But before we go into his newest ventures, let’s take a trip back to the early 90′s and see how John Threat rose to prominence.

The World Wide Web was just becoming a reality, and blogs, websites, and most of the technology we take for granted now was barely a twinkle in an inventor’s eye. John Threat was a member of the famed Masters of Deception, a New York-based hacker group who at the time waged war against rival hacker group Legion of Doom. The Great Hacker War only lasted a few days, and John Threat was indicted on federal wiretapping charges for his part in the caper in 1992. Threat served his time — just one year at a federal detention center — and went on afterwards to graduate with a degree in Film Studies and Physics from Brooklyn College in 1996. Four years later, Threat started Urban Exposé.

Urban Exposé was definitely before it’s time; think of it as the slicker, brasher predecessor to Gawker Media’s Valleywag, but with a lens turned towards the then exploding urban media market of new media, film, TV, music, fashion, and magazines. Writing under the sobriquet Crispus Attucks, Threat spared no one on his site, cutting down current urban media mainstays Vibe Magazine and BlackPlanet, and chronicling the collapse of UBO blow by blow (also covered here on Black Web 2.0). Urban Exposé was one of the first Black blogs that received major mainstream press recognition, including mentions from the Washington Post, WIRED, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and Forbes Magazine. Threat eventually revealed himself as Attucks in February 2001.

Now, John Threat is still turning heads and making moves in online media with his production company MediaThreat. Several of Threat’s projects, including Hackateer, are available for viewing in the MediaThreat lab. Threat is also the director behind the 2006 hip-hop documentary “Dead Prez – It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop” (trailer). John Threat is located in Brooklyn, and you can find him on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

About the Author
Maurice Cherry is a web, graphic and print designer in Atlanta, GA. A graduate of Morehouse College, Maurice also works as a freelance web designer and electronic media consultant, working with entrepreneurs and small businesses on leveraging blogs, podcasts and other online technologies for their marketing and public relations needs. Maurice Cherry is also the creator behind the Black Weblog Awards.
See all posts by Maurice Cherry.