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The Source

Source, The

Founded as a newsletter in 1988 by two Harvard students, The Source is now a monthly full-colour magazine covering hip-hop music, politics, and culture, published in New York.

30 articles

List of articles in the library

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Assassin, Doc Gynéco, IAM, MC Solaar, Ministère Amer, NTM, Passi: MC Solaar, IAM, Passi et al: Paris

Report and Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, March 1998

Once considered a racial utopia for Black American expatriates in the '60s, Paris has become a different beast. Today, in a city often wracked by ...

A Tribe Called Quest: After The Love Is Gone: A Tribe Called Quest

Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, October 1998

DRESSED IN A black T-shirt with THE LOVE MOVEMENT emblazoned in silver on the back, baggy jeans, and a blue denim fisherman's cap pulled down ...

Dallas Austin, TLC: TLC: Spice Who?

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, April 1999

THE EXPRESSION "eagerly anticipated" may be one of the most played out in the lexicon of show business. Not because fans don't fiend for new ...

The Beatnuts: Strange Brew

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, September 1994

A thirst for reckless beats and raw grooves fuels the Beatnuts in their quest through the urban badlands. ...

Blackstreet, Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew, Teddy Riley, Keith Sweat: Teddy Riley: The Life of Riley

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, April 1999

WITH SMASHES like Bobby Brown's 'My Prerogative' (1988) and Johnny Kemp's 'Just Got Paid' (1988), Teddy Riley invented New Jack Swing and forever changed the ...

Mary J. Blige, Brandy, Brandy & Monica, Darkchild, Whitney Houston, Rodney Jerkins: Rodney Jerkins: The Beats Are Mine

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, 1999

WITHIN THE rhythmic belly of the Hit Factory studio, chunky-funky 21-year-old producer Rodney Jerkins is beginning to look slightly fatigued. ...

Foxy Brown: In the studio with Foxy Brown

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, October 1998

LOOKING MORE like a model just departed from a catwalk than a rapper hustling to finish an album, Foxy Brown sits quietly behind the massive ...

Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim: Lil' Kim & Foxy Brown: Mack Divas

Report and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, February 1997

What demons lie beneath the excessive glam and the in-yo face sexuality? The Source gets hip close and personal with hip-hop's twin testaments to divahood: ...

Busta Rhymes: Woo Busta!! Professor Rhymes holds forth

Profile and Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, 1998

"BEHOLD. BEHOLD. BEHOLD." Busta Rhymes is quietly repeating the word under his breath He’s in LA, in the thick of sessions for his third solo ...

Busta Rhymes: Apocalypse Now?

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, January 1999

EIGHT YEARS AGO, BUSTA RHYMES ROARED INTO OUR HEARTS WITH THE MANIC ENERGY OF A HIP-HOP ACTION HERO. NOW HE'S A MULTI-PLATINUM ARTIST AND A ...

Common: Against The Grain: Common

Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, March 2003

EIGHT DAYS BEFORE Jimi Hendrix's sixtieth birthday, Common sits comfortably in the guitar god's apartment sipping Poland Spring. ...

Missy Elliott: Da Real World (Elektra)

Review by Amy Linden, The Source, 1999

THERE ARE cultural watershed moments. Blips in the radar screen that make you anticipate what lies ahead and forget what came before. One of those ...

Faith Evans: One More Chance

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, April 1999

FOUR HUMID Gemini summers before her life morphed from those joyful days of chilled Cristal dreams and gleaming jewelry to the black widow midnights of ...

Aretha Franklin

Essay by Amy Linden, The Source, 1998

THE SUBJECT is female singers, and we’re gonna make it easy on ya. ...

The Fugees, Lauryn Hill: Lauryn Hill: Black Magic Woman

Report and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, September 1998

LAURYN MAY BE BEAUTIFUL. LAURYN MAY BE BRILLIANT. BUT WE LOVE HER. ...

Heavy D. & the Boyz: Heavy D: There's Something About Heavy

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, July 1999

WHEN HEAVY D was just a kid, when he was Dwight Myers, the youngest of six children in a Jamaican immigrant family, he used to ...

Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Ruffhouse/Columbia)

Review by Amy Linden, The Source, September 1998

WHAT DOES it say about hip-hop when one of the better hip-hop records of the year contains little actual rapping? Thoughtful, passionate, purposeful and unmistakably ...

Wyclef Jean: Only Human

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, July 2002

Wyclef Jean is one of America's favorite crossover rappers. But will he be able to keep it clean when he takes it back to the ...

R. Kelly: Sittin' On Top of the Game

Profile by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, April 1999

BEFORE TRANSFORMING himself into the premier rhythm & blues singer/songwriter/producer of the post-soul generation, R. Kelly was just another new jack poser trying to succeed ...

Naughty By Nature: Eye of the Storm

Profile and Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, May 1999

They rocked baldies and chains before it was cool, and hold three of the game's hottest anthems. Now, eight years after 'O.P.P.', Naughty By Nature ...

The Notorious B.I.G.: Notorious B.I.G.: Life After Death... Till Death Do Us Part (Bad Boy/Arista) (five mics)

Review by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, April 1997

HOLDING BACK the tears, you can't help but think back to three years ago when the poetic masterblaster known as the Notorious B.I.G. dropped his ...

OutKast In The Promised Land

Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, August 1996

FINAL EXAMS AT Morehouse College were a bitch. Nearly four in the morning on a starry autumn night years ago, I found myself making a ...

Q-Tip: Abstract Poetics

Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, April 2002

THINGS ARE ABOUT to change. Trust. The rap industry may soon find itself caught out there as many hiphop fans seek sounds more suited for ...

Queen Latifah: Order in the Court (Motown)

Review by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, July 1998

DAMN NEAR ten years ago, an intriguing Afro-centric mama named Queen Latifah flexed like pure royalty on her debut disc, All Hail the Queen. With ...

Queen Latifah: From Here to Royalty

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, 1998

Y'all know Lah: She's our number one sister, our Queen for life. Ladies first and all. But y'all cats be wonderin'. Wantin' to know if ...

Run-DMC: House Divided

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, April 2000

The thrill is gone for the crew from Hollis, Queens. With DMC's voice failing and run eager to battle rap against the new school, will ...

Shyheim: Rugged child, running wild

Profile and Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, June 1996

With a new album and a budding acting career, Shyheim sets out to lead a lost generation ...

Smoothe Da Hustler: Brooklyn Representer

Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Source, April 1996

  THE UNDERGROUND gem 'Broken Language' was no doubt the illest single to come from a hip-hop neophyte in a long time. Smoothe da Hustler rocked ...

Trick Daddy: Trouble in Motion

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, April 2001

On the run from the ghetto vices of hard drugs, fast women and sheisty po-po, Trick Daddy sees peace at the finish line. But is ...

Truth Hurts: Truthfully Speaking

Review by Amy Linden, The Source, August 2002

STEVIE WONDER once declared that love's in need of love today. It's a beautiful notion, but one that eludes much of the current R&B. Case ...

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