No two artists better symbolize success and downfall than Kid Cudi and Charles Hamilton. Massive talents, major deals, mental issues. But their paths after getting on could not be more different. As the culture became less about artist discovery and celebration, blogs, in order to get engagement, became dependent on chasing page views at any expense.

If the 2009 XXL Freshman cover was a celebration of the blogs, the 2010 edition was a significant crack in the blogs' foundation. Space had never been a problem on the internet. But now, artists were no longer focused on being one in a million on NahRight.com; they wanted to be one of ten on the cover of a magazine.

For years, absent options, artists and bloggers focused on independence. But fuck it! Money! In 2009, it was time to cash in. When Complex started their vertical ad network, NahRight was the first website they even approached. XXL, long in the business of promoting larger-than-life stars from the majors, went left and selected ten blog-friendly rappers to put on their cover. Thanks to this, names like B.o.B., Asher Roth and Kid Cudi got a ton of attention and major label offers.

Blogs evolved from a gathering place for people looking to waste time into a prime platform for content creators: from early podcasts to sketch comedy to low-budget/high quality music videos. And thanks to those very same blogs, artists figured out just how far the internet reached. Curren$y, Nicki Minaj and Dom Kennedy, once seen as niche, regional acts, found fans from coast to coast and then some. For the first time, artists could get free distribution, create a very loyal fanbase and pull in millions of dollars, without the weight of a label behind them.