Given their recent freefalls, I'm not sure whether it's more accurate to say The Source magazine is having a New York Times moment or the Times is having a Source moment. For the past year, the two media stalwarts (emphasis on warts) have been living on borrowed thumbs—all of theirs are stuck in their eyes. It's as if The Source, the self-dubbed vessel of "hip-hop music, culture and politics," and the Gray Lady, America's newspaper of record, are racing to see who can alienate their subscriber/reader/fan base the fastest. For every Times misstep, there's been a self-inflicted wound at The Source, too.
NYT: Jayson Blair's pulp fiction.
Source: Attempted murder charges against general manager Leroy Peeples and marketing director Alvin Childs for their involvement in a July bar shoot-out that seriously injured three people.
NYT: Judith Miller's pro-war press releases.
Source: Editor-in-chief Dasun Allah grafitti-ing a Jehovah's Witness assembly hall in Harlem.
NYT: Delaying for a year a story on the U.S. military paying for positive press in Iraqi newspapers.
Source: An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation (since found meritless) into sexual-harassment allegations by former editor-in-chief Kim Osorio and former marketing director Michelle Joyce.
NYT: That miss-the-mark series on Las Vegas.
Source: $18 million owed in rent, bills and state and federal taxes; nosediving revenue and audit figures.
Having grown up with The Source—it started in 1988, my high- school freshman year—this is some painful shiznit to watch. Long before I began my mornings with the Times, The Source was required reading. (And required ogling: the women in those hotties-with-bodies DVD ads ... damn!)
Rather than being the bible of hip-hop, The Source was more like National Geographic, bringing to life a culture that was largely unseen and rarely chronicled. The magazine texturized hip-hop, focusing on the people, places, politics, companies, issues, laws, mores, taboos, trends and lifestyles affecting the culture, while also benchmarking its place in the global scheme of things. I had no desire to go to Compton after zoning out to N.W.A., to Houston's South Park neighborhood after vibing to Scarface, nor to New Orleans' Ninth Ward after uugh-na-na-na-ing to Master P, but through The Source, I could. (I'd eventually hit all three places; problematic as advertised.)
In that it reinforced my hip-hop worldview, The Source was like a hip-hop Drudge Report. I'd rush to beat my friends to the newsstands for the latest issue, so I could Bill O'Reilly on the homies when they said something stupid. Like the time Kevin said Redman sucked. My response was something to the effect of, "If he sucks, you blow." Juvenile, I know. But then I ran down his discography and quoted a couple of dope lines: "So f--k what you heard, word to herb/ 'Cuz I'm the mack framma lamma/ Plus I kick the grammar straight from New Jerzzz." For hours on end, we'd argue like the ex-comic book junkies we were. Could Superman beat Wolverine became could Biggie beat Tupac, Common beat Ice Cube.
The denouement began in 1994, when a crew of Source staffers boned out after Mays produced a fawning story on the Almighty RSO, Boston-based thug-rappers whose Revenge of da Badd Boys EP was, in my opinion, so-so. The glowing story sparked controversy over Mays' relationship with Scott (a 50 percent owner) and The Source's five-microphone rating (one = booty; five = classic). Though The Source got more right (Nas' Illmatic and Outkast's Aquemini are five-mic'ers) than it did wrong, the damage was done. Over the next decade, The Source continued to hijack its credibility with attacks on 50 Cent and Eminem, who wiped his ass with Scott in head-up lyrical battles.
The legal quandaries have added a circus atmosphere—will Jay-Z buy The Source?—to what was once a serious hip-hop magazine, one that informed, educated and challenged. As I read the latest issue of competitor XXL (promotional tag line: Hip-hop on a Higher Level), I realize the answer: The Times is having a Source moment.
Damon Hodge is a Weekly staff writer. E-mail him at
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