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.

Respect Your Elders
People need to respect their elders in the game. Because my image is very brash and aggressive, what I run into a lot a lot of times when people are fans of my work, they’ll be like ‘Oh my God, you’re YN! You’re the shit!’ and big me up, but big me up all aggressively. Then they’ll feel there is a comfort level where they if there’s something they don’t like, they’ll come at me in a passive aggressive way like “your show sucks.” A lot of times people feel they can talk reckless right out the gate, and to a certain level you have a right to say whatever you want and everyone has their opinion. But I do think you should respect your elders in this game. You have to earn that position to really be able to critique other people if you’re going to do that in a disrespectful way. I feel like a lot of times I inspire that kind of energy where you are either fanatically for me or real critical of me and want to challenge me or engage me in something to get your standing. It’s still important to respect your elders in this game. You obviously want to reach certain levels that the people that have come before you have. That’s what I did, I studied everybody that came before me and respected them to a certain extent and I found my opening and my lane and worked hard to get to where I wanted to get. Because there was a lot more interaction with editors and people in this business, I got to have peer groups and mentors who could guide me more. Nowadays because of the internet there is less of an experience of people getting that kind of guidance, because the outlet is there to get your voice out so quick, people feel they are at a higher level than they are. I guess people need to take stock and realize they still have a way to go. Respect your elders -- that’s the old man speech.

Greatest Moments in YN History:

The Reign of Terror. The XXL thing. Being YN and saying I’m gonna beat The Source, and beating The Source, and being part of the history and that crazy-ass-87-issues-longest-run-ever great editor run that I had. Now that I’m not doing it, I can look back on it and say ‘Wow I really did it.’ When you’re doing it you’re cognizant of it, but at the same time you’re still doing it and you’re still trying to stay on top. Now I can look back on it and be proud of it and understand that’s a huge part of my career and in a lot of ways my legacy. It’s really big and humbling and something that is really bigger than myself in a lot of ways.