SWAGerlicious

Black Pearl Entertainment had the awesome privilege of being interview by SWAG Magazine for their premiere issue. Here we flip the script and ask Larry Smith, founder, how he and his lovely wife, Shervil, were inspired to create the magazine.

INSPIRATION: I was inspired to create SWAG MAGAZINE by the music industry and the rap artists that I grew up around. As a teenager, I wanted to be a part of the microphone, the stage, the lyrics, the studios and everything else that came along with being an artist. Unfortunately, I did not have the right team around me, [ones] that wanted the same things I wanted, so the support was not there. I knew that I wanted to be a part of the entertainment scene in one fashion or another; I just had to figure out in which way. While I was trying to put things in order, my wife and I went back to school. We took classes at ITT Tech and I sharpened my skills in Adobe - Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Indesign, Premier, Social Media and Illustrator. My wife took up computerized accounting.

I really became serious about SWAG MAGAZINE once I finished school and started doing graphic designs and websites full time. I found myself working more and more with artists of all nationalities on project after project. From hard work and long hours, I started working my way into the conversations of artists from the Bay Area [all the way] out to Fresno CA. Throughout my travels, I realized that the majority of these artists out here hustling day in and day out to create that platinum sound and lyrics, did not have the exposure they needed. There are many magazines in rotation but they focus on everything but the artist. Here at SWAG MAGAZINE I put artists first. I put them out front so their talents can be recognized by a market they have no associations with. It was from that experience that we decided to put our team together and create SWAG MAGAZINE.

RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 7TH 2011

REGION: Bay Area - San Joaquin Valley - Sacramento - Los Angeles, and beyond.

AGES: 18- 35-Mature viewers only

MUSIC: All genres of music

PLANS FOR FUTURE ISSUES: Pilot events will launch soon for the Swimsuit Edition in February.

CIRCULATION: A new edition of SWAG MAGAZINE comes out every 2 months. The next edition comes out March 2011. Look for a physical print in 2013.

STAFF WRITERS: Jacqui Smith - Lashonda Smith - Jennifer Rougeaux

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Larry Smith

ALL PHOTOS COMPLIMENTS OF: Featured artists and SWAG GRAPHICS/PHOTOGRAPHY