Hip-hop website Oogeewoogee aims to show the world an intelligent, creative, thoughtful generation

Tom "Chico" Stafford is an imposing figure - both physically, at 5-foot-10, 240 pounds, and by what comes out of his mouth.

He apologizes for cursing but says he gets frustrated with his African American community.

What especially riles the 64-year-old serial entrepreneur are those who ask for handouts and those who allow money to define them.

The latter has happened to hip-hop culture, Stafford said, with rappers whose lyrics degrade women and celebrate drugs and gross consumerism getting all the attention - and a good deal of sales. He calls them "the a- that Wall Street has created."

"If you allow people who only care about money to define you, they're going to define you by what they think they know about your lifestyle and culture," Stafford said.

So the Overbrook Farms resident is using some of his money to help redefine, inspire and more intelligently serve the global hip-hop culture.

The forum by which he aims to do that - www.oogeewoogee.com. - has as its tagline, "Not their news." By their, Stafford means "the powers-that-be that control everything."

"Once you take money from Wall Street, you have to dance to their music," he said. "At a site like Oogeewoogee, you can't be politically correct."

It's not.

Take a recent piece by staffer Shahida Muhammad, 26, entitled, "The verdict is that our lives still don't matter to them."

In it, Muhammed called a Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, who was black, evidence that the justice system is not past "the haze of white supremacy that has made it a joke . . . At the end of the day, the same mentality that made public lynchings an American pastime still exists."

Stafford, a father of two and considerably older than his racially diverse staff of seven twentysomethings, also writes. A recent column condemned those who will "pluck" a young black athlete "off of his current path, and set him on the fast track to money and fame." That surpasses important milestones "that would have bettered that child's life in the long run."

For his path to college, Stafford credits regulars at the barbershop in Strawberry Mansion, his childhood neighborhood. After graduating from Lincoln University with a psychology degree, he built a lucrative career that includes ongoing ventures such as Integrated Support Strategies (ISS), a technology company; Jamira Realty, and NewYork.com, a transactional website for show tickets, restaurant reservations, and more.

Oogeewoogee.com - named after a dance a Lincoln student used to do - started as something different two years ago and went nowhere.

"It was about politics and social issues from an old man's point of view," Stafford said.

He shut it down about nine months ago and restarted it less than 60 days later with a new marketing strategy.

"I've always been really intrigued by the globalness of the hip-hop phenomenon," Stafford said. "You've got some wonderful kids out here doing some wonderful things."

Mainstream media, however, focus too much on the negative, he said. "We don't have gossip or negative stuff on the site. We have brain food."

Timothy Welbeck, who teaches a course on hip-hop and black culture at Temple University, said there's "significant good" in hip-hop. His hope is that Oogeewoogee.com "will become a significant voice in hip-hop culture so it can combat some of the negative imagery."

Hip-hop is ubiquitous in corporate advertising, from fast food to fashion, Welbeck said, and is such an economic force that Forbes compiles a list of top hip-hop earners.

Oogeewoogee.com, currently sharing ISS office space in Bala Cynwyd, will be moving to a new studio near La Salle University with capability for video development, podcasting and broadcasting.

"Oogeewoogee wants to be able to talk globally and show this community of hip-hoppers all over the world if you just come together, what a powerful force you could be," Stafford said. For instance, staffer Danny Chung, 29, of Chinatown, is recently back from China and South Korea, where he documented the hip-hop culture.

The website is attracting 150,000 unique visitors a month, he said. Until an e-commerce strategy is determined, ISS, with annual revenue of nearly $19 million, is paying the bills, Stafford said. He's looking for senior-level people, including a content manager "with some aggression, ego and passion."

Creating jobs, showcasing the talents of a generation and, Stafford hopes, triggering more political and social activism among 18- to 25-year-olds, is also about meeting his need to give back "because I got so much from the community."

"It is representative of who he is," said Earl Boyd, who met Stafford 25 years ago, when they were tenants in the same office building. Now, Boyd is director of entrepreneur services at Entrepreneur Works, a Philadelphia nonprofit that helps small businesses get started.

Stafford donated $5,000 last week to an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign Entrepreneur Works launched last month to raise $10,000 by Dec. 31 to serve more clients in 2015.

"It's like him to rise to the occasion for something like this," Boyd said of Stafford's contribution.

Of his friend's effort to promote the hip-hop culture, Boyd said: "Not only is he a visionary, he makes things happen. He's probably one of the best-kept secrets around Philadelphia when it comes to entrepreneurs."

215-854-2466 @dmastrull