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 is co-owned by Mays and hip-hop artist Benzino. Since its beginnings, The Source has grown into one of the largest and most influential music publications in the United States. Its main rival is XXL magazine.

Journalistic Integrity and Scrutiny

For over 15 years, The Source has been the resource for hip-hop music. They were the reigning magazine. As of 2002, The Source has been the subject of scrutiny. From its ties to rapper Benzino, to the is alleged bias against rappers, The Source still garnish the most readers to date.

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The Source Enterprises

As The Source expanded, the magazine then became involved in television programs The Source: All-Access, The Source: Sound Lab and its annual awards. The Source Awards are given to rappers and some R & B acts for their contributions to the music. 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 invested in mobile phones and ringtones in which the subscribers are offered their favorite choice of hip-hop ringtones. The Source also invested in it's own urban clothing apparel company.

Related Topics:
French - Latino - Israel - Ringtones

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The Source Awards fiasco

The magazine is also known for its namesake,The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards Show. The first live, but untelevised, show was held in 1994 at the Paramount Theatre in Madison Square Garden.

Related Topics:
1994 - Madison Square Garden

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The Source Awards is the first hip-hop show devoted to giving credit to hip-hop and awarding artists for achievement in the genre. Back in 1995, while in Miami, The Source Awards was at the center of controversy. This is the first time where hip-hop awards show broke out in violence. This tradition follows most hip-hop award shows. The Source did play an inadvertent role in untimely deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace). The awards show invited Bad Boy and Death Row Records to the event and a riot involving several men occurred.

Related Topics:
Tupac Shakur - The Notorious B.I.G. - Bad Boy - Death Row Records

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The Source held their award show in Pasadena, California in 2001. The award show was sparred by violence in the crowd. The audience got into a riot and people were injured. The fight landed DJ Quik in the hospital and resulted in Pasadena banning The Source from having their awards held in the city. Also, the bad publicity caused UPN, the network broadcasting The Source Awards, to sever their ties with them. The Source Awards now are featured on BET.

Related Topics:
Pasadena, California - DJ Quik - UPN - BET

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Benzino and his role at The Source

The magazine is now run by Dave Mays and Raymond "Benzino" Scott, a member of the Boston rap group The Almighty RSO. Benzino and his role at The Source is a topic of much controversy. The rapper has been involved in his group when he first meet Dave Mays. The two were befriended 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 somehow manage to broker a label deal at Tommy Boy to distribute his rap 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, including the original members: co-founder Shecter, music editor Dennis and the associate editor Benard.

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From 1988 to 2001, Benzino was secretly investing and working at The Source. 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 relatively 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 a investigation of the Miami Police for their treatment of the rapper and threatened a boycott against Miami. The rapper always denied that he had a role in the magazine, but factual evidence proves that Benzino's role indeed affects its journalistic integrity.

Related Topics:
1988 - 2001 - Miami

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The Source against Eminem

In late 2002, Benzino began a feud with multi-platinum white rapper Eminem in order to create publicity for his newest album. Benzino claimed that Eminem was a product of the media 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 a la 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 writers of The Source were forced to write stories 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.

Related Topics:
Canibus - Martin Luther King, Jr. - Malcolm X

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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 source (no pun intended) of the allegations. 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 hefty sum of compensation. On January 3, 2005, Eminem was granted his trial for copyright infringement. But as of March 24, 2005, Eminem withdrew his lawsuit stating that he was done with The Source and he felt there was nothing else to take 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.

Related Topics:
Racial slurs - Encore - Shady Records - January 3 - 2005 - March 24

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The Beef Controversy

Image Entertainment made a DVD chronicle called Beef in which it detailed information on The Source Magazine's misdeeds. The documentary featured nearly 30 minutes of interviews from Eminem, 50 Cent as well as Benzino and Dave Mays. It detailed the situation that lead to the general public perception of Benzino and The Source. This segment even featured scenes lambasting Benzino, painting him in a negative light. The debacles at The Source have been discussed, criticized and speculated on for years. It was all going to come to a head with the release of the Beef 2 DVD. The Source had generally threaten to pull the plug on the DVD. Other deals on the table with The Source had to comply with the magazine's decisions to remove the near 30 minutes of footage exposing them. Even better in the contact it claimed that "nobody is ready to die for that shit." Image Entertainment and The Source agreed to have the footage removed from the final cut of the documentary. This fueled rumors of The Source's involvement in distorting the truth. Image Entertainment also distributes The Source Hip-Hop Hits.

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