Rob Kenner Email & Phone Number

New York, United States

Rob Kenner is the author of the New York Times bestseller 'The Marathon Don't Stop,' the first in-depth biography of Nipsey Hussle. Hussle was a hip hop artist, entrepreneur, and activist whose transformative legacy inspired a generation with his motivational lyrics and visionary business savvy—before he was tragically shot down in the very neighborhood he was dedicated to building up.“The last time I spoke with Nipsey Hussle, he told me ‘I ain’t outside giving out jewelry or dropping off bags of money on people, but I’m giving out game,’” Kenner says. “This book is my attempt to help fulfill that intention. 'The Marathon Don’t Stop' will also place his accomplishments in proper historical context, giving Nipsey Hussle his rightful place in the history of hip-hop, Los Angeles, and America. It will include interviews with people who haven’t spoken before, as well as insights into the forces that shaped Hussle into the man he became.'The Marathon Don't Stop' was published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in March 2021.

New York, Ny

Write, edit, and produce content for Mass Appeal digital and print editions from cover stories to video and multimedia.

New York City Metropolitan Area

New York

Responsible for producing, editing and sometimes writing magazine cover stories as well as digital cover stories and longform feature stories across all 10 channels of complex.com, a young men's lifestyle website with more than 10 million unique visitors.

New York City

Managed the music channel on Complex.com. Grew traffic by more than 100% over a nine-month period.

My mom loves it whenever I publish something in the Times. I've written several features for the Arts & Leisure section, mostly about reggae and hip hop artists. I've also written a number of obituaries on a wide range of people who matter to me. The responsibility of summing up somebody's life and work in a few well-chosen words is one that I take very seriously.

Responsible for the OnTV division of BET Digital, including ideation and execution of all digital content relating to BET programming such as 106 & Park, The Game, and the BET Awards. Supervised a team of first-class interactive producers at BET Digital. Responsible for all content on the 2011 BET Awards microsite, which set new traffic records and reached new creative heights under my direction.

I was a founding editor of VIBE, and have edited pretty much every part of the magazine over the past 15 years. My first story for the magazine was a profile of Super Cat that appeared in VIBE's 1992 test issue (the one with Treach on the cover). Ever since then I've written a reggae column called Boomshots that remains the only consistent reggae coverage in any major music mag. I've also written cover stories on Nas and Sean Paul, as well as too many articles to count ranging from celebrity profiles to investigative journalism and cultural criticism. Some of my best music stories were written while Sacha Jenkins of Ego Trip fame was VIBE's Music Editor, especially a piece on Eminem called "13 Ways of Looking at a White Boy" and "That Old Black Magic" which looked at the behind-the-scenes influence of black producers, songwriters, managers, and choreographers on white pop acts like Britney Spears and N'Sync. I may be an even better editor than I am a writer, though I love both.

New York City

Commission and edit or top edit cover stories and feature articles for a national travel magazine with a focus on family vacations to destinations like the Grand Canyon or Disney World. Worked with seasoned travel journalists as well as a few "celebrity" authors to ghost write their contributions.

This was my first job out of college. I was hired as an Editorial Assistant, and became Editor In Chief within six years. At A+A I commissioned and edited articles by writers like John Updike and Pete Hamill, interviewed Ralph Lauren and Horst P. Horst. I also wrote two books about art. Meanwhile I was working weekends at a reggae record shop called Irie Ites and DJing at various clubs around NYC. I eventually quit to join the start-up team at VIBE.