It's Been A Long Time...(continued)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done this but I’ve decided to post magazine issues again when I have some free time.  The past couple of years have been very hectic with school, family, and work completely monopolizing my time.  My 3 year old daughter and 8 year old son are two of the greatest joys of my life but I missed blogging as a stress outlet.  See, adults need time to do what they want, too.  It’s amazing how much I relate to songs like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” nowadays.  I never thought that would happen.  Getting older changes your whole life and perspective and you appreciate the little things more and more.   And the big 4-0 is just around the corner for me.

Questions/comments for you:

Do you have any children?  If so, what hip-hop music do you allow them to listen to in your presence?  Or to put it another way, if you’re playing hip-hop in the car with your children, what is allowed?  Wu Tang? Tribe Called Quest?  D.I.T.C.?  I’ve been experimenting with this for a while now.  I don’t play anything with profanity while my children are in the car but I hate edited versions of albums.  So I usually play 80’s hip-hop and my son now loves “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince (especially the video game song).  I try to sneak in a little BDP/KRS-One, MC Lyte, Public Enemy, L.O.N.S., Gangstarr, Run-DMC, Tribe, Main Source, Rakim, EPMD, De La Soul, Common, etc. from time to time, too.

What new music do you like these days?  I have to say, I like a few songs on the Lil Fame and Termanology album "Fizzyology" EXCEPT that I can’t stand Termanology on the album.  Can someone please find me an edited version of the album with his vocals completely removed?  “Crazy”, essentially an M.O.P. song with Termanology almost screwing it up, is hands down my favorite track.  More Billy Danze and less Termanology would have made a better overall album.  Other than that, I miss the “feeling” hip-hop music used to have in it.  It pops up here and there but rarely for an entire album.  I mean, if I were to play Gangstarr’s “Hard to Earn”, Tribe’s “Low End Theory”,  or Redman’s “Whut?” albums right now, there is something special about them that I can’t quite put my finger on.  But it is sorely missing in the mainstream today.  It reminds me of The Roots’ “Illadelph Halflife” intro track where someone discusses hip-hop music becoming a disposable art form. 

  

Since the November air is getting colder, it’s that time of the year when I constantly listen to GZA’s “Liquid Swords”, Black Moon’s “Enta Da Stage”, The D.O.C.’s “No One Can Do It Better”, Above The Law’s “Livin Like Hustlers”, O.C.’s “Word…Life”, EPMD's "Business as Usual", The Roots’ “Do You Want More?!!!??!”, and a few others.  I have no idea why I listen to certain albums more during particular seasons but it works for me.

Last, I have a newfound respect for the hip-hop heads in Europe and all other parts of the world.  They really know their hip-hop history and appreciate the essence of it all.  Since my hiatus, I have received hundreds of requests/props via email from people living in countries like the U.K., Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Netherlands, Brazil, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Australia, and on and on.  I was very humbled and it’s one of the few reasons I wanted to get back into this.  I’m assuming The Source had limited worldwide distribution in its heyday so there are hip-hop heads around the world that never got the chance to read them.

That’s all for now.  Check back soon for a magazine re-up.

~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

Ego Trip Magazine: Issue #7 featuring Q-Tip, Large Pro and Posdnuos - FULL ISSUE

I’m not sure what happened but I never got around to posting the full issue until now.

Ego Trip #7

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