Recent Articles
Related Articles

Recent Articles By Dean C. Minderman

  • B.B. King
    7:30 p.m. Wednesday February 13. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St. Charles.
  • Chris Botti
    8 p.m. Friday January 18 and Saturday January 19. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, One University Boulevard.
  • Smooth Operators
    Schoolhouse Rock's songwriter celebrates a few special birthdays in St. Louis while we pit Kenny G vs. Trans-Siberian Orchestra in a fight to the holiday death.
  • Preservation Blues

    Local niche labels keep the music coming.

  • Backstoppers Benefit
    7 p.m. Sunday November 4. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

Recent Articles By Eric K. Arnold

Recent Articles By Rich Sharp

  • Eight Is Not Enough
    Head of Femur discover that bigger is better
  • The Morning After
    My Morning Jacket soldiers through changes with its new CD
  • The Mae Shi
    Thursday, November 17; the Hi-Pointe (1001 McCausland Avenue)
  • Whoa, Nelly!
    We make a shopping list for GWAR's anniversary, talk to Men, Women and Children's Lou ex-pat and chronicle a day in the life of our town's most famous rapper
  • Jem
    Saturday, October 29; Mississippi Nights (914 North First Street)

National Features

  • Phoenix New Times
    Canine Crusaders

    That drug-sniffing dog up ahead? He may not be your best friend.

    By Ray Stern
  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times
    The Muscle Men

    Thanks to a string of Florida "anti-aging clinics," baseball's steroid scandal isn't limited to superstars.

    By Michael J. Mooney
  • Miami New Times
    Picked On

    Farm workers earn nada in America's green-bean capital.

    By Janine Zeitlin
  • Village Voice
    "Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal"

    An election-season essay from one of America's greatest playwrights.

    By David Mamet

Source of the Problem
By now, we've all endlessly heard the N-word and the B-word in rap music, but we haven't enjoyed nearly enough of the A-word: accountability.

Specifically, accountability for racial insensitivity, glorification of violence and allegations of widespread sexism by major media outlets such as longstanding hip-hop mag The Source. Last month The Source was hit with a sexual-discrimination claim brought by former vice president Michelle Joyce and ex-editor-in-chief Kim Osorio, specifically targeting Source co-owners Dave Mays and Raymond "Benzino" Scott.

While Osorio's allegations of "blatant gender discrimination and harassment" come as no great surprise to industry observers, the incidents detailed in the complaint are nothing short of startling. It's recounted that Benzino regularly stalked and harassed female employees, calling one woman up to 50 times a day.

But the kicker was Mays' Neanderthal-like response to his ex-employees' claims. In a press statement, he alleged that Osorio had "sexual relations with a number of high-profile rap artists" during her tenure at The Source. Evidently, the publisher considered that a sufficient rebuttal to the lawsuit, and he declined to address the larger questions raised about the apparently anti-woman climate at the magazine.

The Source has been around since 1990 and at one time was considered the Bible of hip-hop. But the mag has sabotaged its own hard-earned credibility under Benzino's reign of error, which began around 2001, when it was suddenly revealed that he co-owned the magazine with Mays. Since then, he has advanced his dubious, Eminem-bashing rap career as the public face of The Source while the low-key Mays has played the background, and Benz's well-known distaste for journalists has resulted in a perpetual editorial revolving door. He and Mays have also had a contentious relationship with numerous disgruntled ex-writers, such as one freelancer who took the magazine -- whose circulation hovers around 500,000, and reportedly remains profitable despite its mounting debts -- to small-claims court over a paltry $600. (Full disclosure: This author has also had difficult financial dealings with The Source.)

To make matters worse, the mag has encouraged violent beef on numerous occasions, whether it's between the Game and 50 Cent or Suge Knight and P. Diddy.

The recent trend of attacks on hip-hop's gender and race offenders has been strikingly effective on a grassroots level, filling in the accountability gap left by commercial media outlets and showing a willingness to go after the culture's sacred cows. That's good news for the true heads, proving once again that the court of public opinion must be respected. And while the A-word isn't nearly as popular as the N- or B-word yet, as hip-hop culture continues to mature, at least we're starting to hear it bandied about with increasing frequency. -- Eric K. Arnold

About Us | Work for Riverfront Times | Esubscribe | Free St. Louis Classifieds | National Advertising | Privacy Policy
Problem With the Site? | RSS | Site Map
©2008 Village Voice Media All rights reserved.

Riverfront Times Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff

buy, sell, trade (3,688)
musician (452)
rentals (4,329)
jobs (2,357)
adult entertainment (1,102)
NOW CLICK THIS