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UNDER THE INFLUENCE

MAGAZINE:  THE SOURCE
ISSUE: FEBRUARY 2007

It's been 10 years since the untimely death of Christopher Wallace a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., who is still considered by many to be "the Greatest Rapper of All-Time." The Source deciphers B.I.G.'s musical accomplishments to understand how and why a decade later, he is still a leader to follow.

 

 

GET LIFTED

MAGAZINE:  THE SOURCE
ISSUE: JULY 2005

Armed with a stack of breaks and a gold foil T-shrit that reads "King of NY," the mastermind behind Jay-Z's "U Don't Know," Fabolous' "Breathe" and Fat Joe's "Save 2 Say (The Incredible)" draws gasps and screwfaces alike as he takes the stage.

 

 

INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS

MAGAZINE:  THE SOURCE
ISSUE: JUNE 2005

Mos Def is a very patient man. Between sips of gingerale at a secluded restaurant in Brooklyn's trendy DUMBO neighborhood, his speech is laced with pregnant pauses. While Mos never stutters, his mouth hangs with the weight of his words until he's good and ready.

 

 

 

QUIET STORM

MAGAZINE:  THE SOURCE
ISSUE: AUGUST 2004

On a windy day in NYC, Nas is living on th edge, trying to find balance. His bejeweld wrists are flexed in a mock Spiderman pose as a stiff breeze threatens to send his 170-or-so pounds off a downtown rooftop. While a photographer captures the Supa MC's antics, he smiles nervously. Truth be told, he didn't want to get up this morning to do the shoot. And a year ago no one woul dhave guessed that Nas would be posing for the Source. but like Peter Parker, he understands that with great power comes great responsibility.

 

 

 

 

IT WAS WRITTEN

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: JULY 2004

At 15 he lied his way into the US Airforce. By 19 he was a heroine-addicted pimp on the streets of Detroit. He was serving time at 25 for attempted robbery and learned how to bootleg liquor behind bars. This isn't the life of supervillain from the one of Donald Goines' celebrated novels, such as Daddy Cool or Crime Partners. This was the life he lived. The life he chose. The life he sold in the pages of some of the most uncompromising and compelling depictions of the Black experience in America.

 

 

 

 

RECORD REPORT

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: JUNE 2004

Do gangstas go to heaven? From his earliest days as a Geto Boy, Scarface has been equally preoccupied with the body and spirit. From the cryptic "Mind Playin' Tricks On Me" and "Seen a Man Cry" to the more recent "Sorry 4 What?" from The Last of a Dying Breed, Brad Jordan has consistenly shown that his rhyme book is a stairway to both Heaven and Hell.

 

 

 

 

TRUE LIES

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: JUNE 2004

Disgraced New York Times Journalist Jayson Blair comes clean on his dirty little secret with Burning Down My Masters' House The Source: your a Black mand with a Polish girlfriend who lied about sleeping in his car and got fired from the New York Times for plagiarism. It's like a Chappelle Show sketch. Jayson Blair: I guess I'm a representative of my generation: crazy, interracial (dating) etc. All I need is a rap album. But no, I am not going to remake myself as a Hip-Hop artist. I can't rap or sing.

 

 

 

 

POWER 30

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: JANUARY 2004

Power equals work over time. Any high school physics student can tell you that. But that simple equation has real applicatoins to the Hip-Hop music industry. If you're not prepared to work for the duratoin and maintain what you achieve, don't bother. Power is not guaranteed. Just ask anyone who lived through the summer's northeast blackout. This year, a lot of people who though they had the game on lock were caught slipping and new brands (or old ones with new faces) dominated. Peep the list. The Power 30 recognzes those who didn't take power for granted and worked to find that new winning combination instead of playing it safe.

 

 

 

EAR TO THE STREET

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: DECEMBER 2003

Biz Markie is a troublemaker. Though groups like Nice & smooth and the pioneering Cold Crush Brothers dared to harmonize their liyrics, ti was never considered the norm for a rapper to sing. But over a tinkling piano melody on the song "Just A Friend," Biz ambitiously - and comedically - stretched his vocal chords. The song became a huge crossover hit and the damage was done: Rappers were given the green light to sing.

 

 

 

 

CONTROL FREAK

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: NOVEMBER 2003

Ludacris can juggle women, knives and your favorite MCs, but when it comes to his family, industry rumors and conservative haters, this Ringmaster doesn't clown around.

 

 

 

 

ANATOMY OF A CLASSIC ALBUM

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: AUGUST 2003

MC's can learn alot about making good hip hop from the Transformers. For instance, take Soundwave, the Decepticon Communications expert / boombox, whose tapes were as lethal as they were cool. In battle, they would fly from his chest tearing apart the competition (Ravage) or breaking new ground (Rumble). Add to that his digitized voice straight out of "Planet Rock" and it's clear Soundwave was a B-boy classic

 

 

 

 

THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF HIP-HOP

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: AUGUST 2003

We weren't supposed to be here. Hip-hop in general and The Source in particular. This tenacious little culture - damnit, for th elast time, read the definition you haters: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group - wasn't supposed to survive the onslaughts of C. Delores Tucker and a host of other people who just didn't get it. And this magazine whas supposed to remain an ambitious pipe dream that ran ads from skippy Whites, no Nike. But here we are 15 years, four presidents and 167 issues later.

 

 

 

 

ANGER MANAGEMENT

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: MAY 2003

KEITH MURRAY was only doing a favor. A Samaritan-like gesture. He never imagined that three years in prison on on assault charges would be his reward. The story has two versions. Murray's starts something like this: A promoter from Ohio named Latif Huges called him at the 11th hour to rock a stage with the Wu-Tang Clan and Mic Geronimo in New Britain, Conn. Since Murray had worked with Hughes six months earlier, he gladly crammed into a 15 passenger van with his 10 closest friends for the two-hour-plus drive from Long Island to the club. Latif's brother was at the wheel.

 

 

 

 

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: NOVEMBER 2002

The Boot Camp Clik aren't happy with their label. "We ain't really no backpacker niggas," asserts Ruck, the irrational half of the Heltah Skeltah duo, as he adjusts his knee socks. "We came from that era, but we ain't on that." Buckshot, front man of Black Moon and co-CEO of Boot Camp Clik's label, Duck Down, chimes in as he dribbles a B-ball, a prop from their album cover shoot.

 

 

 

 

SPEED BUMPS

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: OCTOBER 2001

"I was born into this thug shit," begins a frustrated, yet earnest, Cormega. Five years after drawing first breath at Brooklyn's St. John's hospital, Corey McKay saw his mother, Dorothy, brutally shot and killed with his own eyes. But it didn't phase him then. "When you're a kid they don't teach you how to approach death," he says pensively. "when my mom died, I didn't take it seriously. I was thinking it was like a cartoon and she'll be back."

 

 

 

 

BALLOON MIND STATE

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: AUGUST 2001

Timbaland won't allow you to deny his genius. Tonight he's sprawled out sleepily on a couch in Studio 4 of NYC's famed Manhattan Center Studios. Save for his million-kilowatt diamond-studded watch that periodically peeks out from under his modest threads and catches your eye, he could easily go unnoticed. And in this rare case, he may want to be anonymous. He's been working around the clock on a number of projects, including his third LP, Indecent Proposal, so rest time is scarce.

 

 

 

SECOND ROUND KNOCKOUT

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: AUGUST 1999

It's been one year and 500,000 records since Untertainment's lead artist jacked Magnum P.I. for his Ferrari and rode teh beat for the smash single ".357." The raspy-voiced point guard turned MC sprayed verses with such intensity taht he didn't just bless a mic, he gave it last rights.

 

 

 

 

 

MIC CHECK

MAGAZINE: THE SOURCE
ISSUE: APRIL 1999

Imagine, if you will, a place where Natural Born Killers meets Pee-Wee's Play House in a demented lyrical orgy. A place where South Park's Cartman teaches at the temple of hip-hop and brings in the severed head of a bitin' MC for show and tell; where the only thing held sacred is a bag of shrooms and a microphone. Welcome to the world of Slim Shady.