22 Wordpress Themes put to good use by Hip-Hop Blogs

It’s been nearly two weeks since I started offering people a free Wordpress blog setup. One thing I’ve discovered during that time is a lot of people interested in the offer are held up by the theme selection process.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise because in that offer I refer people to the Wordpress theme repository to make their selection. The problem is the theme repository hosts over a thousand themes, which makes for a heaping portion of analysis paralysis.

Theme demo pages also don’t give us a true sense of how the themes will appear with real content, nor do they demonstrate the flexibility made possible through blog customizations. I prefer to look at which themes are actually being put to field use and how they perform there.

One of the strengths of Wordpress is that you can always easily change themes in the future but still it’s good to start off on the right foot so it’s understandable why people approach the decision with some trepidation. To help you along with your theme selection, here’s a list of Wordpress themes in use at hip-hop blogs that either showed up in my own RSS reader or at lists recently compiled by XXL and Vibe.

These are Wordpress themes only so you won’t find any Blogger or Typepad sites here. Cases where the layout was custom created for the site without being derived from a public theme as a starting point (or at least without one I can identify) will also be left out.

Maybe you can hire Matt Brett who designed Concrete Loop or Paola Mendoza who is behind several iterations of the Smoking Section among a number of other urban sites. But for most of us, available Wordpress themes give a good low-cost or no-cost solution out of the box and can easily be tweaked to look less cookie cutter.

By the way there are some Matt Brett created themes available at ThemeForest. They cost about $30 each which I’m assuming is less than what Angel paid.

And now on with the show. Twenty-two Wordpress Themes put to good use by Hip-Hop Blogs.

1. Kubrick (the Wordpress default)
Blogs: Nah Right, Dallas Penn, The Meaning of Dope

Had to start this list with the default Wordpress theme because it is the most commented on theme for a hip-hop blog. The two column theme with the Royal Blue round-cornered header has been associated with Nah Right from the start.

These days huge ads surround the Nah Right content container on three fronts, but we can look at Rock the Dub (a Blogspot blog using Kubrick) to see this theme in its more austere form.

Dallas Penn has been rocking Kubrick with a photo of Paul Wall’s grill for the header but he has plans to move to the premium theme Thesis in the near future.

The Meaning of Dope, the Toronto-based scavengers of lost hip-hop video treasure flip the Kubrick theme nicely showing how much a header and dark background can change the overall effect.

2. Chaotic Soul
Blog: 2 Dope Boyz
Demo Chaotic Soul
Download Chaotic Soul

I don’t think they made any significant changes to the original theme.

3. Firewall
Blog: 57th Ave
Firewall Download and Demo

I never heard of 57th Ave before but apparently they’re one of the top 100 blogs according to XXL. I’m not liking this theme all too much but this is a good example of how just changing the header and background goes a long way to personalizing a theme for minimal effort.

4. Contempt
Blog: illRoots
Contempt Theme Download

Oh no, another blog that’s been swallowed like Jonah into the belly of the Cop Out banner ad whale.

Contempt is notable because it is clearly derivative of Kubrick. That tends to happen with popular blog templates… They spawn imitators.

Do not confuse this theme with Godard’s Contempt. One of my favorite films.

5. Grid Focus
Blog: Cocaine Blunts
Grid Focus Theme Demo

I’ve long been a fan of this theme by Derek Punsalan, particularly how it had been tricked out by blogging/freelancing expert-at-large Skelliewag. She’s since moved on to other themes though.

Like Kubrick, Grid Focus has been influential and spawned some derivative themes along the way. I know I’ve seen several at Press75. I’m not sure if the Cocaine Blunts customization started from Grid Focus or from one of the derivative themes but either way the Grid Focus DNA is there. See the fonts, the space for a 3rd column and especially the styling of the dividers between the posts.

I wonder if Skellie herself was an influence for noz because I remember her using short wide graphical banners in the sidebar for navigation as well. For comparison sake, a site sticking more closely to the original Grid Focus plan is Technoccult.

6. Atahualpa
Blog: Daily Math
Atahualpa Theme Page

I’d never heard of this theme before Combat Jack launched his site but I do see it was recently featured at the Free Wordpress Theme Repository so maybe it’s been gaining some market-share.

7. Magazeen
Blogs: GrandGood, RapGaydar
Magazeen Theme Page

This sexy-looking theme was put out by Smashing Magazine last year and adopted by underground news source Grand Good shortly thereafter.

Magazeen works easily and always had a knack for auto-cropping my thumbnails at Rap Gaydar in the gayest way possible… Which I appreciated.

8. Connections
Blog: Miss Info
Connections theme by Vanillamist

It’s Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan’s blogosphere. We’re just posting in it.

Miss Info’s site puts a new header image on the classic wordpress theme Connections.

Here’s a whole archive of free themes created by Sadish – one of the two people behind Connections. One of the best ways to find themes is to see what else the designer of a theme you like has created.

Sadish also created the MistyLook theme which looks like a sibling theme to Connections and is used at Stuff White People Like.

9. Blue Pigment 1.0
Blog: Shabooty
Blue Pigment 1.0 Theme Demo

Key changes by Shabooty. “Out of the blue and into the black” as Neil Young sang. Getting rid of the diagonal lines also helps. The background of the blog posts still stands out with the use of a tiling wood pattern.

10. Suffusion
Blog: Ear Fuzz
Suffusion Theme Page

I’ve never used Suffusion but the write-up sounds interesting. It comes with a number of different color schemes and template options

The collage of carefully chosen album covers and the yellow background with indigo links gives Ear Fuzz a unique look, setting it apart from other blogs.

11. Benevolence
Blog: UnKut, Floodwatch Music
Benevolence 2.0 Demo
Download Benevolence or check other themes by Thought Mechanics

This is another classic Wordpress theme. The original Benevolence theme goes back at least five years and can be seen in use on Floodwatch while Unkut uses the (slightly?) newer 2.0 version. I have no idea what the difference is between the two versions.

Unkut’s trademark razor blade photo provides some illicit branding to go along with the site name.

When I visit Unkut on my Blackberry I have to click next through about 9 pages of sidebar photos to get to the text of a post. This is a definite indication of an older theme because the new style is to have the content show up first in your html (better for search engines and blackberries) and use css floating to handle where the sidebar appears. (update: looks like Robbie added a mobile version in the past few months eliminating this problem. thorough!)

Check out the other themes from Thought Mechanics as well. Bionic Jive is a very interesting one if you want something less ubiquitous than Benevolence.

12. Redoable Lite
Blog: So Many Shrimp
Redoable Theme Page (not Lite)

So Many Shrimp is hosted on Wordpress.com and it looks to me like Redoable Lite might only be available there.

But you can download the full version of Redoable and it wouldn’t be hard to clear out or hide the third column.

13. Clean Home
Blog: Beer and Rap
Clean Home Theme Page (not Lite)

Theme name is accurate.

14. Vigilance
Blog: Throat Chop University
Vigilance Theme

This isn’t too far from Clean Home as implemented at TCU.

You can see the same theme in black and green at the Math for Primates podcast site.

15. Abstractia
Blog: Hip-Hop Classroom
Abstractia Theme write-up (download and demo seem broken at the moment)

This is a blog I set up for a Brooklyn based company called Flocabulary. They came to me with the green chalkboard logo for the header and I started looking for a theme to match. I figured the khaki/cream background and maroon headlines would suit the green nicely. I also really like the way this theme gives the date/calendar icons their own lane in a gutter to the left of each post.

The designer Rob Goodlatte had a number of similarly sharp-looking free themes at his site but it looks like they’re unavailable now after a recent site redesign. Hopefully they will reappear in the future.

16. Daily Edition (premium theme)
Blog: The Rap Up
Daily Edition

This is a premium magazine theme by WooThemes. Pricing available at the website.

I try to subsist mostly off free themes but paying for a premium theme can be worth it and later in this list we’ll find a few cases where I’ve done it. For not too much money you’re buying time-savings with an instant slick appearance like this theme over at the Rap Up.

Also premium themes are better supported than free ones and more likely to have upgrades and improvements made over time.

17. Modicus
Blog: Trees For Breakfast
Upstart Blogger Themes Download Page

Upstart Blogger has created a number of great original Wordpress themes. You can download many of them at the link above and some other ones here.

Trees for Breakfast makes the theme their own by changing the colors and laying the page over a fixed and leafy background image.

18. Qwilm! 0.3
Blog: Staple Crops
(Can’t find theme download anywhere???)

It seems like the Qwilm theme is no longer available. If that’s incorrect, please point us to it.

I think this theme is a great match for the smart and forward-looking Staple Crops and I dig the use of the background image. The Flash banner could make for a cool ad of some sort but I don’t support using it for a site logo. Still, overall this is a fresh use of an obscure Wordpress theme.

19. Cutline
Blogs: Fat Lace, Ich Luge Bullets, Wesley Verhoeve, Grow On Flow On
Cutline Theme for Wordpress

Cutline is a free two or three column theme originally created by Chris Pearson, now supported by Splashpress Media. It exemplifies Pearson’s usual strengths with impressive typography, a balanced layout and clean HTML code.

Mostly standard modifications here involving supplying a header unique to the site aside from Wesley’s site which tweaks the Cutline theme a great deal. The sidebar background is changed to gray and the hard lines are removed. This softens and sophisticates the overall look of the site and along with the headline styling contributes to making the blog posts pop.

Grow On Flow On is a blog I just set up for a new blogger who signed up via the Free Blog Offer. They supplied the logo to be used for the header which was easily integrated with Cutline.

20. Thesis (premium theme)
Blogs: Crate Kings, Oh Word, Internets Celebrities, Kevin Nottingham, Moe Arora, Very Smart Brothas
Thesis at DIYThemes

Thesis is a premium theme created and regularly improved by Chris Pearson. I shelled out for it because elegant coding is fun to work with and good for search engine mojo. Thesis looks good out of the box, is configurable with no coding through a powerful admin interface and amazingly flexible via “hooks” if you’re willing to get under the hood.

It’s telling that Semantik who works in search engine marketing moved Crate Kings to the Thesis theme for his site which funnels traffic from his production tips and content to his store.

You know this guy? I’ve been extremely pleased with Wordpress and Thesis since relaunching Oh Word last year.

I spent about a week tweaking the IC site during its Thesis redesign. I tried to incorporate the Golden Ratio into the design as well as smart decisions about the sidebar usage and site tabs. The tabs up top are mostly pages but IC Videos is a category archive making it easier to manage. Page also incorporates links to social network outlets and the Facebook fan page widget.

A bit cluttered and hard to read for my liking.

The opposite of cluttered. Mogul in the Making Moe removed the navigation bar to keep things simple and allow for more space above the fold. Nav options “Join my Network” “Learn About the Biz” “About Me” “Get @ Me” end up in the sidebar instead.

Web pro Liz Burr recently moved Very Smart Brothas to Thesis, adopting a basic but sharp look with a narrower 2nd column and a blue background.

21. TV Elements (Premium)
Blog: The Week In Rap
TV Elements Page

A premium theme designed to be used for video content.

Setting up The Week In Rap blog was another small job done for Flocabulary. Tweaks included incorporating the logo, and hacking at the code so that user comments appeared for the latest video on the homepage.

22. Quommunication Video (Premium)
Blog: Oh Word TV
Quommunication Video

Another premium theme for video content.

For this video curation blog I integrated Oh Word’s Thesis html and css so it would look like part of Oh Word. Also changed the player functionality so that the links to videos weren’t Ajax calls because those weren’t changing the url and therefore would never be seen by a search engine.

Bonus Beats

Just for an added bonus let’s close out with six excellent non-hip-hop sites and the Wordpress themes that power them.

1. Hipster Runoff
Theme: 5 Years (plus significant customization)

2. Murketing
Theme: Cogno Blue

3. Generation Bubble
Theme: Garland

4. No Caption Needed
Theme: Barracus

5. Razzball
Theme: Prosumer

6. Racialicious
Theme: blog.txt

Now go pick a theme already. That free blog setup is waiting for you.