First, this issue has come to us courtesy of Maed from Romania so please send him a 'Thank you' shout out.
I slept on this issue when it came out back in ’90. Right before going to college to start my freshman year, I saw this issue in the record store. I wasn’t really up on buying The Source back then and with trying to buy my last few tapes and records on limited funds, I wasn’t about to start then. But in hindsight, I really effed up. KRS-One in 1990 was the G.O.A.T. and 20 years later, he’s still the greatest to me. I bought that Edutainment album THREE times (vinyl, tape and CD). And to find out after reading this issue that it was supposed to have a Scott La Rock interview included kind of shocked me. Excerpts from Kwame Toure’s speech fit the album’s message perfectly and he stands as one of the three best speakers I have ever heard in person. So would that Scott la Rock interview have been as cohesive? And why would Scott’s estate not cooperate with KRS? I guess we’ll never know unless KRS releases it on bootleg one day. Other than that, back in the early days, The Source was really up on following the social/political aspects surrounding hip-hop. I mean, was the FBI really following hip-hop artists back then because of their lyrical content? I don’t know what you think but there’s no way in hell, the FBI would spend their time following Nicki Minaj or Nipsey Hustle or whoever else is popular today. Popular ‘artists’ today really have nothing to say outside of their label mandated formula. Lyrics really had power back then and maybe the government was checking into these groups. Ironically, this particular issue is the first issue where The Source changed from “The Voice of the Rap Music Industry” to “The Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture, and Politics”, which they discuss in the editorial.
