Eric Arnold is best known as a pioneering Bay Area hip-hop journalist. The former Editorial Director of 4080 Magazine, he has been documenting hip-hop’s cultural evolution since the early 90s. He has written for numerous national and local outlets over the years, including The Source, Vibe, Wax Poetics, Billboard, Okay Player, SF Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, Colorlines, East Bay Express, Oakland Local, The Oaklandside, Berkeleyside, SF Chronicle, and KQED Arts. In 2018, he co-curated the Oakland Museum of California’s “Respect: Style and Wisdom of Hip Hop” exhibit and is a two-time “Excellence In Journalism” award winner for arts and culture reporting from the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. In addition to his extensive background in music journalism, he has also written about media policy, politics, Black history, gentrification, public art, environmental justice, social justice protest movements, and community health. He had a brief cameo in the Boots Riley film “Sorry to Bother You” and been featured on NPR, KPFA, the New York Times, the Oakland Tribune, PBS Newshour, TVOne and BET.
