The Source (magazine)

The Source is a U.S., monthly full-color magazine covering hip-hop music, politics, and culture. The magazine was founded as a newsletter in 1988 by David Mays and Jon Shecter, and is now owned by Black Enterprise Incorporated. The current president of the publication is Jeremy Miller. Mays and rapper Benzino were terminated from their positions as CEO and president respectively in 2006. From humble beginnings, The Source had grown into one of the largest and most influential hip-hop publications in the United States. It had even grown to the point of being called "The Bible of Hip-Hop."

History

The Source was started originally by David Mays and Jon Shecter while they both attended Harvard University. The two were once radio DJs and hosted Street Beat on the college radio station WHRB. Mays and Shecter, both white men, were influenced by hip-hop and wanted to give praise by devoting coverage to the rising music genre. The Source originally started as a concert newsletter. Its popularity became known when The Source scored an interview with LL Cool J. The Source was growing from one small newsletter to a mainstream magazine.

The two decided to hire their college friends James Benard (as Senior Editor) and Ed Young (as Associate Publisher), who both immediately became equal shareholders in the ownership of the magazine. At the time, Mays handled duties as the Publisher for the magazine, and Shecter was the editor-in-chief. The Source was moved from Boston to New York in 1990. Their move was to expand the magazine in a mainstream market.

The Source became the most respected name in hip-hop journalism. The magazine included many notable features, including Unsigned Hype (a monthly profile of an up-and-coming rapper or group; DMX, Eminem, Notorious B.I.G., Common, and 50 Cent are among the many who have been featured).

The "Record Report" is special feature in the publication. Journalists would judged albums by "mics". The Source "mics" the equivalent to a star rating. The publication uses a rating system from one to "five mics." An album that is rated at four-and-a-half or five "mics" is considered by The Source to be a superior hip hop album. The avatar used to rate the albums The Source reviews is a hand gripping a microphone. Over the first ten years or so of the magazine, the heralded "five mic" rating only applied to albums that were (and have held up over time to be) universally lauded hip hop albums. Some examples are A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory, Nas's Illmatic, Outkast's Aquemini and De La Soul's De La Soul Is Dead.

The magazine also featured cover stories on the crack/cocaine epidemic, police brutality, and New York's investigation of high-profile rappers. The publication has over eight million subscribers worldwide, and remains one of the most popular hip-hop magazines in the world.

The Source Enterprises

As The Source expanded, the magazine then became involved in television programs such as The Source: All-Access, The Source: Sound Lab and its annual award show. The Source Awards are given to rappers and some R & B acts for their contributions to hip-hop. The "Lifetime Achievement" Award is the highest award given to a rapper who has contribute their time to succeeding in the hip-hop music industry. The Source also releases a compilation album of hip-hop/rap hits. The Source has expanded overseas with a French version of the rap magazine, alongside a Source Latino and The Source Israel magazine franchises. The company has invested in mobile phones and ringtones in which subscribers are offered their favorite choice of hip-hop ringtones. The Source also invested in its own urban clothing apparel company.

The Source Awards Controversies

The magazine is also known for its annual,The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards Show. The first live (but untelevised) show was held in 1994, with the only notable event being Tupac Shakur running onstage during a set by A Tribe Called Quest, interrupting their performance. No violence resulted.

The second broadcast was taped in 1995 at the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Many point to this show as heightening East Coast/West Coast tensions. Death Row Records' Suge Knight publicly questioned why Bad Boy Records honcho Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs had to appear in every one of his labelmates' videos. Some feel that this escalated the disrespect between the two coasts, and indirectly led to the deaths of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997.

The Source held their award show in Pasadena, California in 2000. The award show had to be stopped due to violence in the crowd and backstage. The fight caused DJ Quik to be hospitalized and resulted in Pasadena banning The Source from having their awards held in the city. Only five of the fifteen awards were given out during the telecast, and two performances were cut short. Still, despite the fact that no fights were shown on the broadcast, the 2000 awards' television ratings were 31 percent higher than the previous year's show.

The bad publicity caused UPN, the network broadcasting The Source Awards, to sever their ties with them. The Source Awards were featured on BET but it's uncertain if the network will continue the award show.

Benzino and his role at The Source

After the editors resigned from the publication, Raymond "Benzino" Scott became a co-owner of The Source. Benzino was a member of the Almighty RSO when he first meet Dave Mays while at Harvard. He needed support from Mays to get his group some credibility. In a short time, Mays became the RSO's manager. While Mays was gaining support from advertisers willing to invest in The Source, Benzino managed to broker a label deal at Tommy Boy to distribute his group. The Almighty RSO was known for their controversial song "One In The Chamber". In 1994, Benzino pressured Mays to slip a four page article about the group into the magazine against the will of the editors. The article forced a major walk-out among staff members.

The magazine had indeed inserted favorable coverage to Benzino and his numerous ventures (including the reformed Almighty RSO, now known as the Made Men). Even at The Source Awards, Benzino, a relative unknown, performed at the show to the surprise of a stunned audience. When Benzino was arrested in Florida after taping The Source Awards, Mays rallied for an investigation of the Miami Police for their treatment of the rapper and threatened a boycott against Miami.

The feud with Eminem

In 2002, Benzino started a feud with rapper Eminem. Benzino claimed that Eminem was a product of the machine that sought to discredit black and Latino artists' contributions to hip-hop. He released a diss track called "Pull Ya Skirt Up", in which he says, among other things, that Eminem would only be remembered as a battle rapper, such as Canibus, if he weren't white. The track also alleged that the rapper would never have gained his level of popularity without being featured in The Source's Unsigned Hype column. The Source published several articles discrediting Eminem. Eminem responded back in a series of diss songs (namely "The Sauce" and "Nail In The Coffin") that attacked Benzino's street credibility and ethnicity. He also mocked Benzino for trying to make his son Lil' Ray Ray into a rap star. These records were widely seen as highly damaging to Benzino and The Source's credibility. Undaunted, Benzino went back and recorded several more tracks, including "Die Another Day" (in which he likens himself to a hip hop version of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and calls for Eminem's death) and "Lose Yourself" (which plays off the chorus of Eminem's hit song of the same name). These tracks were widely ignored.

The Source then went another route to take down Eminem. It went as far to dig up an old tape in which a young Eminem was rapping racial slurs against Blacks and women. The magazine devoted its entire coverage to the discovery of the tapes, and also the negative impact that Eminem has had on the hip-hop industry. For his part, Eminem did not deny making the tapes; he claimed that he made them after a bitter break up with a black girlfriend (a situation upon which he elaborates on "Yellow Brick Road" off his Encore album). He apologized for making the tapes but also exhorted the public to consider the origin of the allegations.

Nevertheless, Eminem had sued The Source for defamation and copyright infringement. The federal courts allowed an injunction to distribute a minimal amount of lyrics of the alleged tape. The Source ignored the injunction and went forth to publish the entire lyrics on its website and in its magazine. By ignoring the injunction, The Source was found in contempt of court and were forced to pay Eminem and his label, Shady Records a considerable sum in compensation. In 2005, lawyers for Eminem were preparing for trial over copyright infringement but aburptly withdrew stating that the rapper issue with The Source was done and there's nothing from the magazine. Benzino still hasn't officially squashed the beef with Eminem. Mays and Benzino both countered the withdrawal of the lawsuit calling it a "cowardly" move. They both claimed they can finally expose the truth about Eminem and planned to eventually release the "racist tapes" in a future magazine. Nevertheless, The Source was satisfied with the results, and felt that the move was considered a win for both parties.

Benzino's Resignation

Benzino still continues to feud with Eminem and many others associated to him. Internet bloggers had rallied a petition for the removal of Benzino and Dave Mays. Under pressure, Benzino decided to step down from his post at The Source. In 2005, Benzino formally announced that he's resigning as chief operations officer and co-owner of The Source. Benzino cited that his battle with Eminem and the magazine's publishers were hurting the revenue of The Source. Within a few mere days Benzino announced that he returned to The Source as co-owner and currently works with The Source. Industry insiders believed that The Source staged a fake event in order to encourage advertisers to invest in the controversial magazine. The rapper refuted his claims about saving The Source, and instead blamed Interscope's chairman Jimmy Iovine. Benzino believe that Iovine was pressuring to fire rap mogul L.A. Reid if he didn't have Def Jam advertising removed from The Source. The reason why Benzino stepped down was to save Reid's position as president of Island Def Jam, or so he claimed. Last year, Benzino had been on radio denouncing Def Jam's founder Russell Simmons for not participating in his smear campaign to expose Eminem as a racist. He had used racial comments about Simmons in the past forcing Def Jam to pull a vast majority of their ads from The Source. As of today, Interscope, Def Jam, Tommy Boy, Virgin, Motown and Universal have pulled advertising from The Source. It is noted that Benzino was signed to each of these labels before the massive decrease in general advertising.

The magazine has experienced their recent lawsuit from former editor-in-chief, Kim Osorio, the fifth Editor In Chief who took over from Carlito Rodriguez. Osorio alongside Michelle Joyce, a former marketing executive, both filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the magazine over gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Osorio claimed that Benzino and his friends from Boston would get special treatment while the female staffers were to abide by the rules. Also numerous complaints about harassments to female staffers were turned down by Benzino and Mays.

After the departure of Osorio, staff editor Joshua "Fahyim" Ratcliffe was appointed to the publication. Ratcliffe abruptly left after he was ordered to change The Minstrel Show from rap group Little Brother was being changed after threats made upon him from Benzino. Ratcliffe believes that Benzino's jealousy of the group deserving a higher rating was too much at The Source, and Ratcliffe resigned after being forced to change the rating of the album. Lil' Kim who released The Naked Truth received the five mic rating instead. Although critics speculated that Lil' Kim's manager was dating Dave Mays, this is the first time that a female rapper ever received the highest rating in the magazine. The Little Brother album received a four-and-a-half mic rating instead of a five.

The Future of The Source Magazine

Currently the future of The Source is uncertain. The publication is losing subscribers due to not delivering magazines on time and is facing numerous lawsuits totaling over a million dollars. Rival magazine XXL is now the best-selling hip-hop magazine, and The Source is losing major advertising from the feuds with Eminem.

In 2005, The Source Magazine began a wave of lawsuits. There was 100 million dollar lawsuit filed against BET on behalf of the publication. The publication's awards show was to be featured on BET until the network severed ties with the magazine. Also a dispute with Hot 97 staff personality Funkmaster Flex has lead to another lawsuit against him and the radio station. Controversial statements were made by the deejay towards a recent article in which it targets Hot 97 over alleged unethical radio practices. In addition, The Source is still facing a lawsuits of their own. There is a lawsuit that targets the owners' travel expenses for the 2003 Source Awards. The Smoking Gun claimed The Source owes over 1.2 million dollars in unclaimed jewelry and unpaid airline tickets for both Benzino and Mays families. Also lawsuits from former employees of the magazine also plague The Source. Benzino and Mays were filming a video in the Dominican Republic, and while they were away The Source staff had another walk-out. The protest came from paychecks not clearing and Benzino and Dave Mays were nowhere in sight. The Source avoided paying freelance writers for the stories they wrote in the magazine. In 2006, shareholders of The Source officially terminated the positions of Mays and Benzino. Black Enterprises the company that supports the publication has decided to fire the moguls after revenue from the publication decreased. Mays and Benzino tried to advert the firing by placing a restraining order against the company. After the restraining order was lifted shareholders moved forth and formally removed them. The company appointed former editor Jeremy Miller to assume the post of CEO of The Source. The rumors around the rap websites state that The Source is close to bankruptcy. The financial stress from losing advertisers, losing subscribers, and lawsuits may force the company into involuntary bankruptcy and a possibility that the magazine will go out of business. The effect of The Source Magazine's departure will greatly affect the fans due to the 15 years of impact the magazine had on the hip-hop community.

External links

The Source | The Source

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