What was the final straw that destroyed Source magazine's credibility?

There seem to be quite a few schools of thought on this. Some say Ray Benzino and his overindulgence of his brands in the magazine and the conflict of interest that was a by product of that, beefing with Eminem and Shady Records and questionable five microphone awards for albums such as Scarface's Fix which was perceived as more of a lifetime achievement award instead of a classic album, Lil Kim's Naked Truth which was received as just a send off for her prison sentence, Bun B's Trill O.G. which was also perceived as a lifetime achievement award/homage to Pimp C and Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy getting it just because everybody was all up on his nuts and he was hot at the moment.

it started going downhill earlier according to people who worked on the magazine. somewhere around 1995 original founder David Mays started putting in extensive articles on his business partner Ray Benzino's group Almighty R.S.O., giving them four mic reviews and such... it even went so far as Mays not telling his editors about the articles, instead writing a dick riding article about the Almighty R.S.O. himself and putting it in at the last minute before the edition went into print. Apparantly this made a lot of people jump ship.

For me, and many others, as readers of The Source I really think it was a very good hip-hop magazine until around 2001 or something like that. i think it was at the same time as Benzino started being more hands-on as far as directing what actually went into print.

about the reviews though... i think Scarface's "The Fix" were just as deserving of the 5 mics it got as Jay-Z's "The Blueprint" and Nas' "Stillmatic" so i don't see anything wrong with that - one of 'Face's best album, which is saying a whole damn lot... The Lil' Kim 5 mics rating was fucking SCANDALOUS though. i remember reading that review and going out to check that album out and was like WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!?!!!!!!!! so up until that point i had respect for The Source magazine ratings but that proved it was all bullshit from now on.

However, while I do agree with you on the absurdity of Bun B's mediocre "Trill O.G." album receiving a 5 mics rating, I can't think of an album more deserving of a masterpiece rating than Kanye's "MBDTF". that LP is generally seen as Kanye's best work today, something I completely agree with

^^everything claaa said

The whole Benzino and Eminem thing was sort of the nail in the coffin. If I remember right, I think most people started to check out XXL magazine after that. The whole mic rating system from the jump was flawed. Plenty of classics album did not initially get 5 mics that were undoubtedly classic, plus a lot of solid material through they years would get 3 mics that was not deserving. Like if an artist had a follow up that wasn't on par with debut, it would get shitted on, even if it was better then 90% of what was coming out then.

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Originally Posted by claaa7

I really think it was a very good hip-hop magazine

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It was like the rap bible in the 90's


Peace

beefing with slim shady during the shady era was not a smart move by zino even if most of eminems material was corny

Yeah obviously hacky journalism, payola, bias started to destroy it from within. 'O' magazine has never had these problems. Do they still even make any hip hop magazines? I haven't seen Vibe or XXL in a store in about 5 years. The last magazine I bought had RZA, GZA and Rae on the cover cos GZA was going to be the sidekick on CL2.

they still make XXL and The Source, but as they used to be 300 pages each issue now they are like 150 (still 50% ads tho), the content is hot garbage on garbage artists while the price is about the same... haven't bough either in years

the only music magazine i really love these days is WAX POETICS.. it's expensive (especially as an import) but they feature some truly great in-depth articles on really good artists - both legends and newer ones. it's not only hip-hop but also soul, funk, R&B and a little jazz but there's at least some hip-hop in each issue.

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Originally Posted by b-dolo

The whole Benzino and Eminem thing was sort of the nail in the coffin. If I remember right, I think most people started to check out XXL magazine after that. The whole mic rating system from the jump was flawed. Plenty of classics album did not initially get 5 mics that were undoubtedly classic, plus a lot of solid material through they years would get 3 mics that was not deserving. Like if an artist had a follow up that wasn't on par with debut, it would get shitted on, even if it was better then 90% of what was coming out then.

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Got to agree with intial post. Source bodied itself with suspect mic ratings.i have distinct memory of when hip hop heads let their mic rating dictate how they percieved an album. If it didn't get at least 4 misc it was considered trash, which is sad considering how wrong they tended to be with the reviews.

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Originally Posted by b-dolo

The whole Benzino and Eminem thing was sort of the nail in the coffin. If I remember right, I think most people started to check out XXL magazine after that. The whole mic rating system from the jump was flawed. Plenty of classics album did not initially get 5 mics that were undoubtedly classic, plus a lot of solid material through they years would get 3 mics that was not deserving. Like if an artist had a follow up that wasn't on par with debut, it would get shitted on, even if it was better then 90% of what was coming out then.

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Got to agree with intial post. Source bodied itself with suspect mic ratings.i have distinct memory of when hip hop heads let their mic rating dictate how they percieved an album. If it didn't get at least 4 misc it was considered trash, which is sad considering how wrong they tended to be with the reviews.

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Originally Posted by b-dolo

Got to agree with intial post. Source bodied itself with suspect mic ratings.i have distinct memory of when hip hop heads let their mic rating dictate how they percieved an album. If it didn't get at least 4 misc it was considered trash, which is sad considering how wrong they tended to be with the reviews.

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They gave BTNH E.1999 Eternal 3 1/2 mics. The album is a classic.

Good one. Then they would go back later and re rate albums to be classic. Thats BS, hire people who know what classic material is. Smif n Wessun-Da Shinin', got 3 mics. Maybe not a 5 mic classic, but way more deserving.

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Originally Posted by IrOnMaN

They gave BTNH E.1999 Eternal 3 1/2 mics. The album is a classic.

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East Coast hip hop people cannot understand those rapid fire lyrics, that is why we never really cared for them or Twista. We are used to enunciation.. I have never owned a Bone Thugs N Harmony or Twista album

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Originally Posted by David Daniel Davis

East Coast hip hop people cannot understand those rapid fire lyrics, that is why we never really cared for them or Twista. We are used to enunciation.. I have never owned a Bone Thugs N Harmony or Twista album

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Yeah I get that the production from DJ U-neek was fire though it kept me hooked

Yeah, he has that dark shit. He would be good for those super lyrical rappity rap emcees that cannot pick good beats to save their lives.