HipHopDX.com Publishes Tell-All Story on The Source From Former Editor
April 22, 2005 (PRLEAP.COM) Entertainment News
Former Music Editor at The Source magazine, Reginald C. Dennis watched the now-troubled hip-hop magazine rise from the bottom to the top of the publishing heap, but left after owners Dave Mays and Ray Benzino created an environment that could no longer be tolerated. For the first time in the 11 years since he left the magazine, Reginald C. Dennis tells all the tales.The 3 in-depth articles published on HipHopDX.com reveal the increasing corruption and inhospitable working conditions for staff members, fostered by publisher David Mays’ escalating relationship with Ray “Benzino” Scott. Dennis’ candid narrative details the ambitious and earnest beginnings of the magazine and its attempts to present a needed and authentic voice speaking to the burgeoning hip-hop community. He traces the development as he saw it, of Mays’ relationship with Benzino who he dubs a “career criminal;” and the increasingly negative impact it had on The Source, its staff and Mays personally, culminating in an exodus from the magazine of key staff members including Dennis himself.
Amongst the scandals Dennis exposes are stories of Benzino’s threats to staffers to give his group Almighty RSO’s album a 4 mic rating otherwise “he will start puttin’ niggas in bodybags,” guns being brought to staff meetings and Mays secretly inserting editorial features on RSO into the magazine behind the backs of the staff.
Writer J-23 landed the exclusive story after reviewing the now infamous, unreleased Beef II DVD with the original footage documenting the Eminem/Benzino beef and exposing The Source. After offering to make the DVD available to the public, he was contacted for a copy by Dennis, who then agreed to his first interview since leaving the magazine in 1994, based on his appreciation of J-23’s journalistic integrity and guts in trying to get the Beef II story to the public.
Read the full interview here:
• Part 1; The Greatest Story Never Told
www.hiphopdx.com/features/thesource_pt1.html
• Part 2; Benzino's Hostile Takeover
www.hiphopdx.com/features/thesource_pt2.html
• Part 3; Mays, Benzino, and a Gun
www.hiphopdx.com/features/thesource_pt3.html
About HipHopDX.com
Since 1999, www.HipHopDX.com has delivered Hip Hop fans with up to date news, reviews and interviews of some of the hottest events and people in the urban music industry. After 6 years and reaching over 500,000 people per month www.HipHopDX.com continually strives to be the ultimate resources for Hip Hop culture.
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For more info contact:
Albert McCluster III – HipHopDX.com, editor@hiphopdx.com