It began as a fun, seemingly harmless way to waste a few minutes. Log in to Facebook, see what your friends are up to, find out what everyone else you kind of know (but never see) is doing, write on a couple of walls and log out.

Since it opened its doors to anyone with an e-mail address, however, Facebook has become a juggernaut in social media and now allows its millions of users to post multimedia on their own and others’ pages, chat with each other online and even get notified via Facebook when their favorite artist is coming into town.

Twitter, a hugely successful online community revolving around what are essentially Facebook status updates, has similarly enjoyed a dramatic increase in users recently. Twitter, like Facebook, also offers its users an immediate outlet to the world that is rarely, if ever, censored.

What Facebook and Twitter have been so successful at achieving in recent years has been allowing its users the freedom to voice their opinion and comment on or post anything they please (for the most part). It was for this reason social media became an instant hit among hip-hop fans and aspiring artists across the country.

MySpace was the first giant to surface in social media.This revolutionary site made it possible for people to communicate with one another like never before.

Artists suddenly had the opportunity to increase the exposure to their work considerably, and hip-hop heads had unlimited access to a seemingly infinite treasure trove of new music, all for free and all with the freedom to comment on and notify others of the new tracks with ease. It was a win-win for hip-hop on both sides.

Facebook and Twitter have effectively conquered the world of social media, and the word of hip-hop is spreading like wildfire. All it takes is an artist to post a single link to a download page and the frenzy begins. One recipient tweets the link to a friend or posts it on their wall and all of a sudden astounding numbers of people have access to an artist’s work they would have never had the opportunity to hear before.

Blogs, which usually all have their own Facebook and Twitter pages, have also had a great impact on the hip-hop community and the availability of new hip-hop to loyal fans. Again, all it takes is one minuscule leak and the entire world can have an album before it’s officially released.

A recent and excellent example of this is Jay-Z’s new album “The Blueprint 3.” It was set to be released Sept. 11 but was leaking through several blogs a month early and had completely leaked about a week before the release date. Blogs gather the newest music released by the most mainstream and obscure artists and provide hip-hop heads around the world with gold day after day, and it’s all for free.

So subscribe to a few hip-hop blogs, fellow hip-hop heads, and stay current with who’s coming up in the game and doing their thing.

I recommend nahright.com, onsmash.com and fakeshoredrive.com (a Chi-town hip-hop blog).