Bönz Malone is an American writer and actor.

Career

Writing

Malone began his writing career at Youth Communication in 1986, where he was a teen writer and reporter for New Youth Connections (later renamed YCteen), a magazine written by and for New York City public high-school students. At Youth Communication, Malone developed and perfected his hip hop writing style in a monthly column called Streetalk, which ran from 1987 to 1989. Malone later took the Streetalk column and style to Spin magazine, Vibe magazine, and other venues for which he became a notable contributor.

In 1995, he wrote the Notorious B.I.G. cover story for July issue of The Source magazine titled, “King of New York“, which became the magazine’s highest-selling issue. In the same month of that year his feature article, Deep Space Nine was published in Vibe magazine, being the first article to introduce all nine members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Malone was an A&R executive in 1992 at Island Records, where he signed Mobb Deep to their first record deal. He also claims to have missed the chance to sign the Notorious B.I.G. when he lost a dice game.