Tuesday, April 19th, 2005

Reginald C. Dennis on The Source

Were you looking for Jay Smooth’s part 2 of the history of The Source? Then buckle up, because former Music Editor Reginald C. Dennis has decided to reveal the whole thing at HipHopDX.com. It’s a three-parter on the early days of the magazine through the ’94 blowout, up top his thoughts on the current day. Read it. Then pick up your jaw and put it back in your face.

+ Part 1.

+ Part 2.

+ Part 3.

posted by Jeff Chang @ 6:48 am | 5 Comments

5 Responses to “Reginald C. Dennis on The Source”

Snoopy says:

April 20, 2005 at 7:41 am

First I want to say, jeff I just read some excerpts from your book and its on some real shit. This is a book that hip hop needed. I’ma try and buy that shit but money is tight at the moment so maybe when my local library stock that book I can go cop it but the few excerpts I’ve read so far are on point and very insightful. Great job.

As for that Source magazine editor, why he hatin on Benzino? he actin like a woman scorned I’ve seen this dude hate on BEnzino for a long time. Leave him alone he put The Source on the road to glory.
jb says:

April 20, 2005 at 7:43 am

I haven’t done anything for the past hour and half at my job thanks to this article but I’m glad even if my employer isn’t.

There are a lot of hip hop quotables in here but I’m gonna go with this one:
“Hip-Hop is something that is to be lived, so turn off the radio and the video show and get out there and be about it.”

Thanks for linking this.
Kevin says:

April 20, 2005 at 9:06 am

Jeff:

first off, your book is a burner. Everybody claiming h/h needs to read it. On the Source fiasco, i did have to pick my jaw up off the floor. A lot of it I’ve heard through rumor, innuendo, etc. At some point, hip hop writers, lovers, consumers, poseurs, whomever, need to realize that sometimes we get what we ask for. Hip Hop is bigger, badder, greater than Benzie or any one else, but you wouldn’t know it reading that horrific account. The whole affair is fucking sad, man. I feel like Dennis feels when he says, “It’s 2005, and you should be doing your best to make sure that 2005 is considered the best year ever.” That goes for the next 25 years as well.
Jay Smooth says:

April 20, 2005 at 9:42 am

Exactly how I was gonna introduce it..
ronnie brown says:

April 23, 2005 at 4:31 pm

now that the rotting soft white underbelly of Hip-Hop’s flagship publication has been revealed, perhaps those who consider themselves the guardians of Hip-Hop culture will finally decide that ghetto strongarmin’ and PROFESSIONAL ethics are mutually exclusive business practices.

The very quality that made Hip-Hop so liberating to its African-American, Afro-Latino and Afro-Carribbean creators and fellow participants, (i think Reggie Dennis called it “bending the world to your will”)is the same quality that will (if not governed with a sense of self-restraint and basic morality) corrupt and eventually destroy everything that made Hip-Hop such a creative force in the first place…

Feed Me!

Revolutions

DJ Nu-Mark :: Take Me With You
DJ Nu-Mark remixes the diaspora…party ensues!
El General + Various Artists :: Mish B3eed : Khalas Mixtape V. 1
The crew at Enough Gaddafi bring the most important mixtape of 2011–the street songs that launched the Tunisian & Egyptian Revolutions…
J. Period + Black Thought + John Legend :: Wake Up! Radio mixtape
Remixing the classic LP w/towering contributions from Rakim, Q-Tip + Mayda Del Valle
Lyrics Born :: As U Were
Bright production + winning rhymes in LB’s most accessible set ever
Model Minority :: The Model Minority Report
The SoCal Asian American rap scene that produced FM keeps surprising…
Mogwai :: Hardcore Won't Die But You Will
Dare we call it majestic?
Taura Love Presents :: Picki People Volume One
From LA via Paris with T-Love, the global post-Dilla generation goes for theirs…

Word

Cormac McCarthy :: Blood Meridian
Read this now before Hollywood f*#ks it up.
Dave Tompkins :: How To Wreck A Nice Beach
Book of the decade, nuff said.
Joe Flood :: The Fires
The definitive account of why the Bronx burned
Mark Fischer :: Capitalist Realism
K-Punk’s philosophical manifesto reads like his blog, snappy and compelling. Just replace pop music with post-post-Marxism. Pair with Josh Clover’s 1989 for the full hundred.
Nell Irvin Painter :: The History of White People
Well worth a Glenn Beck rant…and everyone’s scholarly attention
Robin D.G. Kelley :: Thelonious Monk : The Life And Times Of An American Original
Monk as he was meant to be written
Tim Wise :: Colorblind
Wise’s call for a color-conscious agenda in an era of “post-racial” politics is timely
Victor Lavalle :: Big Machine
Victor Lavalle does it again!