Boy oh boy, that was some shit now wasn’t it? The Source got their panties pulled down, and I was right in the middle of it. The ironic thing is that at one time I was the guy at the magazine stand waiting for that very mag to hit the shelves. Then again, maybe it isn’t ironic since my partner in crime was one of the gentlemen responsible for making the bible for those few golden years. Since a lot of you have asked me how this all came about, allow me to give you a brief rundown, the story behind the story if you will:
I had reviewed the highly controversial and unreleased Beef II DVD, and Reginald contacted me shortly after to see a copy. I knew he hadn’t gone public with his story (or at least it hadn’t been published), so I figured he just didn’t want to do interviews about all that shit. But hey, why not ask? The worst he could say is no. He didn’t.
Given the detail of the story, he figured it would be best to do the interview by email. So I sent off about 10 questions. A couple days later about 2am (I have to be up for work at 7am), I get an email from Reg with an attachment. 33 pages. I got 2 hours of sleep.
I read it 3 times immediately, I had no choice really. Then my head was just too active to sleep, plus I had to take a break after “The Chronic” stories. The kid just needed to reflect on the madness you know? Maybe not, let me explain.
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I started listening to hip-hop when I was 7, which would just happen to be 1988. As I got older and had the means to get my hands on more and more, I just loved it. 1992, “The Chronic,” the obsession begins. The moment I heard the album I went from enjoying the music to being consumed by it. Given that you’re reading this, it obviously stuck. So you can imagine the light in which I hold Dre’s solo debut. Hearing that there was an alternate promo version of it was tantamount to telling a devote Christian that there is another version of the 10 commandments (and no I’m not comparing Dre to Jesus). I like to think I have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of hip-hop, I mean you don’t get a nickname like ‘the hip-hop google’ for no reason. How could I not have known that? Well I didn’t, and it blew my mind. It wasn’t just that though, it was hearing about the G funk pouring through the speakers of a van and having a crowd of people losing their collective minds. It was hearing that a legend like Fab 5 Freddy was trying to climb his way into the van just to get closer to speaker.
Back to the lecture at hand, after some follow up questions (bringing the piece to 37 pages), I edited it down to 33 pages and we decided to run it all at once. I know many of you didn’t understand why we would do that, but let’s just say we didn’t want to be prevented from putting up parts 2 and 3 once the first hit. The bully on the block doesn’t like anything but praise, and this bully has screamed on me for far less. Funny that they really had nothing to say, then again, what can you say?
Ohhh I know. You can whine, throw juvenile insults, dodge questions, and flat-out lie. If Reg painted a picture of Dave as a whiny little girl, Davey boy autographed that shit and sealed it with a lipstick smeared kiss. But like Reg said to me after he read Mays’ retort, “now that everything is all cleared up, I’m sure Dave’s life will be smooth sailing from here on out.” If Reginald is all wrong then that is just great for Dave, but if Mays is lying about what a superhero tandem “Dave & Ray” are…well, he has to live with the lie, not the rest of us. On the real though, shouldn’t someone with a Harvard education speak a little more intelligently? That shit was on some GED slash ‘can I take your order please’ tip. Fuck it though, cause Dave and Ray are best friends and Ray is crazy respected and is like Martin, Malcolm, Gandhi, and Mandela rolled into one. Plus he eats stone crabs, lots of’em.
On that note, another former employee in Jeff Chang painted the same, albeit less detailed, picture of The Sauce in his new book “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.” That isn’t the issue though, the issue is the book. I’m gonna have to go ahead and call it the greatest book ever written about the hip-hop generation. Never has the social, economical and political landscape that created hip-hop been examined like this. The 500 pages contain far more detail regarding the surrounding environment that shaped hip-hop than the music itself. To me that is really the best part. Aside from that you hear about that side the least; I think it really separates the true heads from the culture vultures. I can bet a lot of kids who pick this up will just skip to the parts that discuss the artists they know. Then again, can those ingrates read? Hopefully Jeff’s wonderfully penned book will turn some of these same cats into dedicated hip-hoppas.
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Oh yeah, it ain’t over muthafuckas. Next we’ll be hittin’ ya over the head with the truth behind the East/West beef, chop full of all sorts of dirty little secrets. Stay tuned kiddies.
