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Posted by Robert
Rap News Network
8/1/2003 5:32:54 AM
CNN did an article with Source founder and CEO, David Mays. The reason? The Source celebrates its 15th anniversary with a special issue on stands now.
Founder and CEO Mays discussed his curious hip-hop roots with CNN.com. He also talked about the direction from which hip-hop has come and where it is going as well as artists, including Notorious B.I.G. and Eminem, who were discovered from inside the pages of his top-selling magazine...
CNN: Is The Source responsible for pushing any one artist that the public may not have otherwise been made aware of?
Mays: "I wasn't the typical Harvard student."
 I think now we're at a critical point in the evolution of hip-hop where it has reached an incredible level of commercial acceptance.  |
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-- David Mays | | |
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MAYS: The Source has discovered some of hip-hop's biggest acts and literally helped them get record deals before any of them did. We have a column called "Unsigned Hype" that's appeared every month for over 10 years in the magazine. Through that column we discovered Notorious B.I.G. and literally brought his demo tape to Puffy who signed him. We discovered Eminem, Mobb Deep, DMX, Common [and] several others before they had record deals. [They] were featured in The Source. It helped launch their careers. Also in the fashion world the model Tyson Beckford -- we found him 10 years ago on a basketball court here in [New York] City. We featured him in his first modeling job. And of course he's gone on to become one of the biggest male supermodels ever.
CNN: What bothers you the most about mainstream media coverage of hip-hop?
MAYS: What bothers me the most is they consistently misrepresent the music and culture. They consistently promote all kinds of negative and false stereotypes about it. They assign people to write about it in television who don't understand it, don't respect it. It's kind of like a vicious cycle. The media continues to fuel these inaccurate, negative perceptions. It's so obvious in the coverage done by the mainstream. It's very bothersome that much of the mainstream media operates in that way.
Click the source link below for CNN.com to read the entire article.
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