In 1999, childhood friends Rob Stone and Jon Cohen holed up in a single-room office with a small team of collaborators to begin work on what we now know as The FADER. They put Funkmaster Flex on the cover, recruited Jonathan Mannion to shoot him, and asked the pressing question—Is Funkmaster Flex The Most Powerful DJ In The World?!. It was a dilettante operation, fueled more by passion than any publishing industry expertise and that's exactly why it worked.
"Let's just make this the coolest thing that we think is cool," remembers Rob Stone. "We broke every rule. That attracted creative talent. People were like, 'What the hell are these guys doing?'," says Jon Cohen.
As we celebrate the milestone of our 100th issue, we are proud to present the first in a series of videos exploring The FADER's legacy. Watch above, and stay tuned more more behind-the-scenes clips tracing our history.
