Some Pics from Classic Source 2pac 1996 Commemorative Issue... just got in mail

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

Just got this collectors item from the good old days.  Back in 96' I had the Dre cover and the Suge cover.  I lost the Suge cover but still have the Dre.  Rap music and the Source magazine was in it's prime during this era, I'm very fortunate to have received a back issue of this mag.... RIP 2PAC!!

[doggfather]

thanks for the pics.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

thanks for the pics.

your welcome.. I knew someone might appreciate it..


Some other notes from this issue I found interesting....

-The article was somewhat critical of Pac.  Pac's legacy has become untouchable and has stood the test of time so in subsequent anniversary issues of Pac in XXL and the Source they never spoke about him as critically as they did in this one.  At one point they call him an "Oversexed Coon"!  If only they knew the kind of coonery and bafoonery that goes on today they would of revered Pac as a Prophet!

-There are some quotes from Pac that the Source had recorded only weeks before his murder.  In one quote he said he was even faced with Bankruptcy while he was in jail.  He said he wasn't afraid to go to the bottom... that once he hit bottom he would have no fear.. and that he can express that reality in his movies and art that no other actors can express.

-I noticed.. at the very end of 95 or beginning of 96 Dogg Pound had a Source cover.. Then Pac had a Source cover earlier in the year when All Eyez On Me dropped.  Then Dre had a Source cover in the early summer upon leaving Death Row.  Then Suge was on the cover a month later.  Then Pac at his death.  Then Snoop got a cover upon releasing the Doggfather!!   Death Row fuccing ran 96!!

-No advertisements for the 7 Day Theory album in the magazine or any mention of its songs or its release (yet Snoop's Doggfather album and Lady of Rage album Necessary Roughness are mentioned).  This just goes to show how mysterious that album was, it sort of came out of some dark underworld and magically appeared in record stores in early Nov. 96'.

...more later  

[Sccit]

dope....


how much did u pay for the magazine?

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

dope....


how much did u pay for the magazine?

I don't want to say exactly... but keep in mind this copy was sealed up in plastic and in mint condition... they probably printed off dozens of extra copies and set them aside back in the day knowing it might be a collectors item.  Because of the excess copies it drove down the price quite a bit.  The Suge 96 cover is selling for a lot higher on EBay.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Thanks again.  To add to what you mentioned:

Some other notes from this issue I found interesting....

-The article was somewhat critical of Pac.  Pac's legacy has become untouchable and has stood the test of time so in subsequent anniversary issues of Pac in XXL and the Source they never spoke about him as critically as they did in this one.  At one point they call him an "Oversexed Coon"!  If only they knew the kind of coonery and bafoonery that goes on today they would of revered Pac as a Prophet!

-There are some quotes from Pac that the Source had recorded only weeks before his murder.  In one quote he said he was even faced with Bankruptcy while he was in jail.  He said he wasn't afraid to go to the bottom... that once he hit bottom he would have no fear.. and that he can express that reality in his movies and art that no other actors can express.

-I noticed.. at the very end of 95 or beginning of 96 Dogg Pound had a Source cover.. Then Pac had a Source cover earlier in the year when All Eyez On Me dropped.  Then Dre had a Source cover in the early summer upon leaving Death Row.  Then Suge was on the cover a month later.  Then Pac at his death.  Then Snoop got a cover upon releasing the Doggfather!!   Death Row fuccing ran 96!!

-No advertisements for the 7 Day Theory album in the magazine or any mention of its songs or its release (yet Snoop's Doggfather album and Lady of Rage album Necessary Roughness are mentioned).  This just goes to show how mysterious that album was, it sort of came out of some dark underworld and magically appeared in record stores in early Nov. 96'.

...more later  

Like VIBE, the Source was more on the critical side regarding Pac while on Death Row, so a lot of that comes as no surprise.  Death Row and its artists got a lot of attention from 1995-1996, because that's what was the hot topic, and they figured there's no reason to ignore them, so they sold their magazines, even if they weren't generally praising everyone.  But a lot of that was coming from the NY perspective.

But it didn't take long for the Source to act right, especially once it became an even bigger topic once both Pac's and Death Row's mystique grew, and it was clear that it wasn't something that would disappear overnight, even when Pac died and Death Row was more or less in suspended animation.

The Makaveli album, as complete as it seemed to be musically, was rushed as far as its development from a finished album to a retail release.  Suge and Death Row struck while the iron was hot... which was the smart thing to do, though it didn't give them a lot of time to give it the proper attention it would deserve, as projects like Doggystyle and All Eyez on Me were highly anticipated with a ton of marketing.  So they likely didn't have the time to communicate with magazine publications to have advertisements ready to go (as in many cases, unless it's a last minute breaking news type of story like Pac's death, a lot of what makes it into the magazine is done a couple of months in advance, which is why the Letters to the Editor section contains things about issues from two or three months prior).  Remember that the main reason Makaveli wasn't reviewed by them was because they didn't have enough time to get the finished product to them in time to put out a review to coincide with the release date.  So Death Row probably said fuck it.

But as mentioned earlier, they gave them their due props.  In the 100th issue of the Source (with LL on the cover holding five mics), I can recall three Pac albums (MATW, AEOM, Makaveli) making it on their top 100 hip-hop albums, and at the very least The Chronic and Doggystyle were on there as well.  They had a lot of top fives, and Pac was #4 as far as greatest emcees go (behind Rakim, then some arrangement of KRS, Biggie and maybe LL), #1 as far as most influential emcees go, and then #1 (shared with Biggie) as far as most important moments in hip-hop were ranked (as it cited their murders), though I think they also listed I Ain't Mad at Cha as #2 when they talked about dopest verses (I think an EPMD song was #1).  And in a later issue, they also had the Makaveli album as having the #1 artwork album cover (meaning it was drawn/animated, and I think ATLiens and one of the Tribe Called Quest albums were behind it).  VIBE warmed up a little bit but never quite gave real love, in my opinion, other than just featuring Pac shit on the cover because it sells.  But their issue with Pac and Big on the cover was actually nice.

[Hack Wilson - real]

good scans, thanks

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

Like VIBE, the Source was more on the critical side regarding Pac while on Death Row, so a lot of that comes as no surprise.  Death Row and its artists got a lot of attention from 1995-1996, because that's what was the hot topic, and they figured there's no reason to ignore them, so they sold their magazines, even if they weren't generally praising everyone.  But a lot of that was coming from the NY perspective.

But it didn't take long for the Source to act right, especially once it became an even bigger topic once both Pac's and Death Row's mystique grew, and it was clear that it wasn't something that would disappear overnight, even when Pac died and Death Row was more or less in suspended animation.

The Makaveli album, as complete as it seemed to be musically, was rushed as far as its development from a finished album to a retail release.  Suge and Death Row struck while the iron was hot... which was the smart thing to do, though it didn't give them a lot of time to give it the proper attention it would deserve, as projects like Doggystyle and All Eyez on Me were highly anticipated with a ton of marketing.  So they likely didn't have the time to communicate with magazine publications to have advertisements ready to go (as in many cases, unless it's a last minute breaking news type of story like Pac's death, a lot of what makes it into the magazine is done a couple of months in advance, which is why the Letters to the Editor section contains things about issues from two or three months prior).  Remember that the main reason Makaveli wasn't reviewed by them was because they didn't have enough time to get the finished product to them in time to put out a review to coincide with the release date.  So Death Row probably said fuck it.

But as mentioned earlier, they gave them their due props.  In the 100th issue of the Source (with LL on the cover holding five mics), I can recall three Pac albums (MATW, AEOM, Makaveli) making it on their top 100 hip-hop albums, and at the very least The Chronic and Doggystyle were on there as well.  They had a lot of top fives, and Pac was #4 as far as greatest emcees go (behind Rakim, then some arrangement of KRS, Biggie and maybe LL), #1 as far as most influential emcees go, and then #1 (shared with Biggie) as far as most important moments in hip-hop were ranked (as it cited their murders), though I think they also listed I Ain't Mad at Cha as #2 when they talked about dopest verses (I think an EPMD song was #1).  And in a later issue, they also had the Makaveli album as having the #1 artwork album cover (meaning it was drawn/animated, and I think ATLiens and one of the Tribe Called Quest albums were behind it).  VIBE warmed up a little bit but never quite gave real love, in my opinion, other than just featuring Pac shit on the cover because it sells.  But their issue with Pac and Big on the cover was actually nice.

I really wasn't criticizing the Source, because in spite of the East Coast bias, their magazine was HIGH quality journalism in the 80's and 90's.  Until the Eminem beef it truly was the Hip-Hop Bible.

The bias against Death Row and the West Coast was a result of many of the journalists being from a slightly older generation.  They were looking at hip-hop through the lens of the 88' Rakim/Public Enemy righteous era of hip-hop.  So to them, Death Row was a bunch of thugs..... but still they recognized the talent that was there, and often gave considerable praise to balance out their hate... I would prefer this form of highly critical journalism to the kind of celebrity ass-kissing gossip-style journalism that goes on today.

...As for the 7 Day Theory talk. I read some more of the magazine (I'm taking my time with it) and it says in the Pac article something like "Pac leaves the world with two gems.  7 Day Theory album under the alias Mackeveli and One Nation Project featuring East Coast acts like Boot Camp Click".  Of course it didn't end up exactly like this.  I think the One Nation Project kind of ended up being the Still I Rise album, and we never really heard the joints with Boot Camp, did we?  And they also didn't realize at the time that Pac had made enough material for another high quality album like Until The End of Time and to lesser extent Better Dayz.

...As for Vibe, they were pretty supportive of Pac, I think.  They were more of an R&B, fashion kind of magazine so the hip-hop coverage and journalism wasn't nearly as nice as the Source, but remember Pac was gonna be Quincy Jones son in law, and Quincy owned Vibe.  They also produced a whole book on Pac that came out very nice.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

VIBE gave Pac shine (and interviewed him numerous times) but they usually kind of shot down his albums during reviews, particularly AEOM and Makaveli.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

VIBE gave Pac shine (and interviewed him numerous times) but they usually kind of shot down his albums during reviews, particularly AEOM and Makaveli.

They also shot down the thug life album, but again I would prefer that kind of critical journalism—as long as it's good—over the ass-kissing gossip type journalism of today.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

I agree.  But I'm just saying they brushed off the vast majority of Pac's Death Row tracks, many of which are classic tracks.  Maybe not top picks for the hip-hop head, but definitely songs that stood the test of time and will still excite a room of people if it comes on.

Time Magazine didn't have a ton of praise for All Eyez on Me (aside from Only God Can Judge Me and I Ain't Mad at Cha), but they at least did it from a far less biased standpoint, even if they aren't a hip-hop publication, though they referenced past songs from Me Against the World.  But it wasn't dismissive the way VIBE was.  I might still have the Time article somewhere.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

I agree.  But I'm just saying they brushed off the vast majority of Pac's Death Row tracks, many of which are classic tracks.  Maybe not top picks for the hip-hop head, but definitely songs that stood the test of time and will still excite a room of people if it comes on.

Time Magazine didn't have a ton of praise for All Eyez on Me (aside from Only God Can Judge Me and I Ain't Mad at Cha), but they at least did it from a far less biased standpoint, even if they aren't a hip-hop publication, though they referenced past songs from Me Against the World.  But it wasn't dismissive the way VIBE was.  I might still have the Time article somewhere.

Agreed... Death Row was putting out so many classics in the mid-90's and they brushed off many of them... but at the end of the day nearly half the cover issues in 96' were Death Row features.  So all things considered, I still think the Source did good work.  Just open up any of their magazines from that era and compare it to the trash today

[DeeezNuuuts83]

That's partially due to ownership and the direction those owners pushed the magazine.  Fucking Benzino, of all people.  It's annoying when people think that just because they signed a contract at one point means that they are qualified to run that industry... just like when legendary basketball players think that they can run teams better than those who actually went to business school.

On the flipside, I always felt like XXL got a lot better at some point, contrasting to the Source quickly become toilet paper.

[⠀]

I remember when Benzino started hoeing the Source for his Made Men project with 3 page spreads and stuff, had me thinking "Who are these guys?" till I realized.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

I remember when Benzino started hoeing the Source for his Made Men project with 3 page spreads and stuff, had me thinking "Who are these guys?" till I realized.

Lol... yeah... even this 96' issue contains many advertisements for RSO.  They even had a piece of the 2pac article where various people got to sound off on what 2pac's death meant to hip-hop—and of course Ray Benzino was one of those people.  His name was something different then like RayRay or something...but it was definitely him, had his picture and said something like RayRay of RSO.

...It wasn't enough in those days for you to really notice.  Your right, that once there started being the 3 page spreads advertising their album and all these big name album features like Master P and Snoop—I remember thinking—Holy shit, these guys got a lot of money to pay for all these ads and big name guest features!  Then once I saw them getting 4 and a half mics and shit like that it started to become painfully obvious that something wasn't right...