After helping to launch ego trip, Elliott "YN" Wilson served as music editor for The Source before taking over as Editor-in-Chief of XXL Magazine where he reigned supreme for 87 issues. Wilson currently serves alongside the rest of the ego trip collective as executive producer of Vh1's "Miss Rap Supreme." This week YN weighs in with his favorite moments in the media as well as advice for aspiring hip-hop journalists.

Have a Strong Work Ethic
You have to grind. When you first get in the game, you have to really pay your dues. You've got to grind it out. Being somebody’s assistant you shouldn’t be leaving before your boss leaves at the job. When you are coming up and trying to make a name for yourself, the biggest thing to do is to outwork everybody. You gotta be at work on time, you want to work long hours, you have to realize you're not really ever off. Even when things are going on during the evening or weekend, if it's an event you need to be at you should try to go to it. You should never clock out. You should just recognize you need to have a strong work ethic. Outwork everybody, especially in the early stages of your career. Become a super dependable person. That’s how you get more work and get more assignments -- your ability to meet your deadlines and turn things around quickly. It all comes out in the work ethic. If you’re going to do this, then be supercommitted. Be the hardest worker in the spot.

Greatest Moments in YN's History:

The first big moment of my career was launching egotrip – me and my partner Sacha Jenkins started this magazine, which wasn’t just hip hop, it was hip hop, rock, skateboarding, graffiti... We covered all the elements, really youth culture. Being 22/23 and just having that energy and the diy work ethic. Being an entrepreneur and building this brand that through the years, with the contributions of others me and Sacha have been able to create this brand that still exists today. Now we got television shows. To me the greatest album of all time is Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Who would think 20 years later I have a tv show on right after Flavor Flav, for better or for worse, tonguing down chicks all day, that's one of the biggest shows in tv history. Who would know that that was something that was gonna happen? I think that’s the humbling part, that something that two guys started, no homo, in his mama’s bedroom is still an enduring brand. It was a lot of sacrifice through the years so I’m really proud of the launch of ego trip. We started planning Fall '93 and the first issue was Summer '94.