The Source March 1992 issue featuring Fab 5 Freddy, Ed Lover, and Dr. Dre from YO! MTV Raps

This is one of the few issues from the early years of The Source that I have never posted before. I remember when cable television was just being installed in Philly citywide back in 1988/1989. We had to wait until early/mid ’89 but a friend of mine was fortunate to have his entire block wired before mine in late ‘88. He called me one Saturday morning and told me to run over to his house to see this new show called Yo! MTV Raps. I caught the last few minutes and was completely blown away. He didn’t own a VCR to record the episode so we spent a week discussing it until the new episode aired the following Saturday. It was revolutionary to say the least. Once the weekday episodes began, I rushed home from school so I wouldn’t miss it. BET’s Rap City (with Chris Thomas, Prince Dejour and Joe Clair) was another favorite of ours and we never really thought of the shows as competitors. In fact, the shows were more complementary to one another. I recall KRS-One saying something about video killing the rap star. But it also brought the music and visuals to the masses that didn’t have access. Videos like the ones I linked below completely changed my life.

Files are not guaranteed to be active after 30 days so download them while you can.

**the link is in the comments **

~Vincent~

The Source September 1993 issue (and Fat Tape) featuring Snoop Dogg (RE-UP)

 



I think I said everything about this issue way back when I first posted it here more than five years ago, so get it while you can.

Files are not guaranteed to be active after 30 days so download them while you can.

http://rapidshare.com/files/3565297025/Source%20September%201993.rar

pw=thimk

~Vincent~

The Source May 1994 issue (and Fat Tape) featuring Queen Latifah (RE-UP)

While I will always believe that Queen Latifah created the greatest female hip-hop album of all time, All Hail the Queen, this particular issue is all about DJ Doo Wop to me.  Back in my college days of 1993 and 1994, I bought every Doo Wop mixtape.  And he dropped a couple of good Summer Jam tapes in 1994 that I still keep in rotation when I’m in the gym.  The music, energy, and rawness vividly encapsulate my crazy life at the time and I have to admit that it is bittersweet and nostalgic hearing those mixtapes today.  Doo Wop’s crew was raw as ever and I often wonder what happened to them, too, as I only remember Snaggapuss actually making onto wax.  What really bothers me though is Doo Wop didn’t really keep the momentum going after 1994, which was probably due to getting a record deal.  I know Brandan may be able to shed some more light on the subject since he’s a mixtape connoisseur.

By the way, Gangstarr received 4 mics in this issue for their Hard to Earn album.  Was that too high, too low, or just right?

The Fat Tape is included...

http://rapidshare.com/files/3081235671/Source%20May%201994.rar

Files are not guaranteed to be active after 30 days so download them while you can.

pw=thimk


~Vincent~

The Source January 1992 (1991 Year In Review)

I’m finally back with a re-up. There is no rhyme or reason to the order I’ll be posting these so be patient. I’ll eventually get to the issue you’re looking for. Anyway, the year 1991 was one of the greatest in my life for personal and hip-hop reasons. One of the oddest things about that year (I was 18) was that I worked two drastically different summer jobs between semesters at college. One of those jobs was working at the Philadelphia Zoo where I worked as a picture taker for people who sat on a baby elephant and paid $4.00 for an instant Polaroid snapshot. No one realized that the baby elephant smelled like poop at all. And another time a big ass panther got loose in the zoo and I was the only employee sitting outside while everyone else ran for cover. My boss saved my life by running out to get me. I was so engrossed in the sports section of the newspaper that I didn’t hear the damn alarm go off. But I digress. I worked two jobs on purpose so that I could afford to buy the many great albums and singles being released seemingly every week. I spent damn near all of my money on music and that led to many other financial issues. I barely had money for those expensive college textbooks but what the heck; at least I had the new Black Sheep album, right? And ’91 was the last year I purchased everything exclusively on tape and vinyl. Because during the holiday break in December of that year, I bought a CD player. And I had to buy ALL of my old albums again in CD version. Used music stores were a favorite of mine and I scooped up CD’s for just about half price, which was $6.99, back then. I remember buying my first new CD, Lord Finesse’s Return of the Funky Man, and how at least 10 guys all sat around in my dorm room completely captivated by the album. Damn, I really miss those days when music moved you like that!

Here’s the original link to my first post about this particular issue:
http://thimk.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/be-true-to-the-game/



I still highly disagree with the order of the Source’s top 15 albums of the year (see below). I mean, both Chubb Rock (11) and DJ Quik (9) were ranked above Gang Starr (14). How the eff did that happen? Was it just a sign of the times with so many options to choose from? Tribe will always be #1 for 1991 to me. Anyway, check it out and leave your thoughts in the comment section.

http://rapidshare.com/files/2400029010/Source%20January%201992.rar
PW = thimk



~Vincent~

The Source December 1991 issue featuring Kid 'N Play

Here’s another issue that was stolen from me way back when. I’m sure it wasn’t for the Kid ‘N Play cover story. I’m guessing it was because of the Ice Cube article and record report. I still can’t believe Cube was trying to get into the Nation of Islam while doing St. Ides commercials. I remember reading this and thinking how ass backwards he was becoming. And he never became a member of the NOI anyway.



Was anyone else a fan of Del’s first album? I lucked up and bought that for like $5.99 at a used music store in New Jersey back in ’91. That album is severely slept on, in my opinion, and deserved every bit of the 4 mics it was given. Do you agree?

Source December 1991 issue

The Source September 1990 issue featuring KRS-One

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.

Source September 1990 issue

Coming Soon

Below is just a sneak peek of the never before posted magazines that I’ll be posting over the next couple of months. A couple will be posted here and the others will be posted at The T.R.O.Y. blog.

By the way, I found some of these old Source covers at the official Source website. I can’t believe that after all these years, someone over there finally got up off their azz to post a small portion of their history. Maybe they’ve been checking out Press Rewind? And it actually looks like they a lifted a file or two from our sites but we don’t own them in the first place so what can we do. Anyway, take a moment to check out the other stuff they have posted:


5 Mic/Broken Record reviews - http://www.thesource.com/categories/126/
Other notable reviews - http://www.thesource.com/categories/128/
Various Unsigned Hype - http://www.thesource.com/categories/130/
Source Covers - http://www.thesource.com/categories/224/

And do yourself a favor and buy a used copy of that Edutainment CD, if you haven’t already. It’s more than worth the $3.99.

The Source July 1997 issue featuring The Fugees

It really seemed as if Mos Def’s “New World Water” had conspired against me this week. Damn near 3 feet of snow buried me in the house on Wednesday and no matter how much I shoveled, it just kept coming back. Then we had a mini flood in the basement that gotthisclose to destroying all of my Timberland boxes filled with old tapes from the 80’s and 90’s AND just missed my giant plastic bin of old Source, Blaze, XXL and Ego Trip magazines. And on top of that, wack azz Comcast internet went down for 2 ½ days so I wasn’t able to handle some important business or post this until today. Verizon FiOS anyone?

This issue is rather ironic with the earthquake hitting Haiti just a few weeks ago and The Fugees visiting Haiti for a free concert back in ’97 at the height of their popularity. It’s sort of sad to read about them working well together then knowing that they would never make another group album. But honestly, back in ’95, when that “Fu-Gee-La” single dropped, I never predicted they’d sell a gazillion copies of The Score and I’ve never liked Wyclef or Pras anyway. They were Lauryn’s group from the day I bought their first album and those guys were just background singers. I’ve told my wife numerous times that Wyclef should have stopped making albums after The Score and that he’s in the top 5 on my “Why are these people popular when they’re really wack” list. And I’m not alone in this opinion. I think Brandan hates him, too.

Source July 1997 issue and fat tape

The Source June 1998 issue featuring Big Pun, DMX, Kurupt, Cam'Ron, Nore and more

Not to be graphic or anything but this issue was great for reading while on the toilet lately. I figured everyone else would enjoy it as well so I decided to skip ahead and scan this. With Big Pun as hot as he was back then, I still waited a few months before buying his CD, even after reading the 4 mic review here. He essentially made a double CD into a single CD (24 tracks or so). Does it still deserve 4 mics today? It’s hard to believe that this was the heralded ‘rookie class’ back in ’98, too. Compared to the XXL 2009 freshman list, which do you like better? I also have to admit that I did not like DMX in ’98 and never bought his music but he was hotter than almost everyone that year with two platinum albums. And no one was really giving Cam’Ron a chance either even with Biggie’s cosign. And what about Kurupt? I swore he would finally get some solo shine with his double CD. I can’t remember if it was his label situation or some other politics that stole his thunder but it didn’t sell as well as he thought it would. And wasn’t he engaged to Foxy Brown back then, too? Anyway, if you enjoy this issue, then let me know and I may skip ahead to some other issues in ’98, ’99, or ‘00.

Source June 1998 issue and fat tape

The Source June 1997 issue featuring The Wu-Tang Clan

This issue was graciously scanned for you by Marthijn, who is from The Netherlands. Show your appreciation by giving him some thanks in the comment section.

Source June 1997 issue and fat tape

The Source May 1997 issue featuring The Notorious B.I.G.

Source May 1997 issue and fat tape

The Source April 1997 issue featuring The Notorious B.I.G.

Source April 1997 issue and fat tape