A little over three years ago when The Source was reeling from their battle with Eminem, G-Unit and XXL, HipHopDX hammered another nail in their coffin. Former Source Music Editor and XXL Founder Reginald C. Dennis spoke for the first time about the rise and fall of The Source; from reviewing the classics like The Chronic and Illmatic to physical altercations with Benzino. Since we’ve got interviews with Source Co-Founder Jon Shecter and former XXL Editor-In-Chief Elliot Wilson this month, what better time to revisit a classic. Here are some of the highlights in heavily edited and abridged version, to read the full original interview in its 33 page glory you can find them right here:

Part 1: The Greatest Story Never Told [click to read]
Part 2: Benzino’s Hostile Takeover [click to read]
Part 3: Mays, Benzino, and a Gun [click to read]

“Everything you are about to read is something that I’ve seen, heard, or know. It’s all opinion, of course, but as you’ll see, my positions are highly informed. You can hate it or love it.” – Reginald C. Dennis

In 1988, Reginald discovered a record store called Varsity Records, owned and operated by a man named Bill Moss. It was there he discovered a whole new side of Hip Hop. “I began uncovering hundreds of rap records that I had never heard of. Too Short, N.W.A., The Geto Boys, 2 Live Crew – I didn’t know who these people were, but once I started listening I couldn’t get enough.” One day Bill handed him a magazine that he had received in the mail, and asked him to read it over to see if it was worth stocking. That magazine was The Source, and according to Reginald, “I am not exaggerating when I say that in that moment the course of my life was forever altered. This was the first time that a magazine ever spoke to me in a meaningful way. I had read a lot of good writing on Hip Hop – I was always looking through the Village Voice and Spin – and sometimes even Word Up and Fresh – but The Source was the only place where the music and culture were being discussed in the proper context and with the proper enthusiasm. And it just got better. I started with the third issue and never missed a beat. The Too Short/N.W.A. cover, the Malcolm X issue, the 'Decade of Rap' – it was as if I’d been spending my entire life waiting to read something like this, and somewhere in the back of my mind I began to wonder how I might become a part of it.”

HipHopDX: Any albums you regret not giving the coveted five mic rating?
Reginal Dennis: In 1992, we gave Dr. Dre’s The Chronic four-and-a-half mics. Had I the opportunity to press reset, I would have given it a five. Here’s the story:

We got the advance of the album in October of 1992 and it immediately became an office favorite. And our version was a little better than the one everyone else got to hear because we had the joint that was sequenced differently, had different song arrangements and in some instances, different lyrics. It was all good. In fact it was too good — and I didn’t want to let the album out of my sight, so I decided that it would be reviewed totally in-house, meaning that a fellow Source editor would handle the task.

So my man Matty C, fellow editor and the king of "Unsigned Hype," did the do, and he gave it four-and-a-half — he thought "Lil' Ghetto Boy"  was the weak link in the chain — and that was that. I was firm on my “no fives” rule and that was also that. If you check the actual review, you’ll see that the byline is attributed to “TMS” (The Mind Squad) — which, for those that don’t know, was how we handled things that were done by group effort or committee. I can’t remember why we didn’t use Matt’s name, but it couldn’t have been because of anything too serious.

Anyway, no one could have predicted the seismic shift that this album would produce. And it wasn’t like there was anyone on staff jumping up and demanding that this record be a five. We sent the review off to the printer around the time "Nuthin' But A G Thang"  started to catch fire and we could all tell that the landscape was about to change. By the time the magazine went on sale the streets had declared that this album – an album that many folks had still yet to hear – (remember: one of the reasons why folks read The Source was because we’re getting the music first and regularly reviewing important albums two months before they hit the racks) – was going to be a classic. And to tell you the truth, we all knew it as well.

I remember going to the video shoot for Naughty By Nature’s "Hip Hop Hooray." It was being filmed in a studio just off Astor Place in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. I had the advance of The Chronic in my pocket the whole day. I didn’t let that tape out of my sight for a second. I watched Treach and Spike Lee do their thing for most of the afternoon, and if you’ll remember the video, much of it included footage of huge crowd scenes, which were being filmed that afternoon. So there were a lot of people around, maybe a couple of thousand all total; both inside the venue where the video was being shot and outside milling in the street and blocking traffic. You’ll also recall that that the video featured many Hip Hop guest stars, like Eazy-E and Run-DMC, who were also hanging out for their cameos. And because Naughty was so popular and because Spike was a celebrity director the video set became a news event and word began to spread that this was the place to be. It wasn’t long before The Source van arrived on the scene. And when I spotted it I came down stairs kicked it with my peeps. Well, since I had the Dre tape on me, and since the van had a ridiculous sound system, and since we had a huge crowd to play to… I put the tape in the deck and turned shit up full blast to get everyone’s attention and drown out the endless loop of Naughty’s constant "heeeeey, hooooo" chant. Continued on page 2 »