Hip-hop magazines a source of controversy

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec 15, 1994 by Steve Wilson

The urban rage that fuels so much of today's rap music is spilling over to the magazines that cover the hip-hop industry. The latest example of life imitating art came when the publisher of The Source, David Mays, secretly slipped a laudatory article about The Almighty RSO--a rap group whose members are friendly with him--into pages he had originally marked as ad space for the magazine's November issue.

The incident prompted a walkout by the editorial staff, led by co-editors James Bernard and Jon Shecter, and a letter to music journalists and record company executives from 51 hip-hop writers supporting them.

Another letter, written by Bernard and faxed to 750 music-industry types, questioned the ethics of what Mays had done, particularly given that two staff members at The Source claim to have been threatened by RSO's leader. Threats of violence from rappers and their producers is a growing concern among many hip-hop journalists--and, ironically enough, a topic that was explored by Bernard in his November editor's note.

The December issue of The Source was produced by freelancers, according to the magazine's spokesman, Paul Freundlich. Mays and associate publisher Ed Young, majority owners of the five-year-old title, are reviewing resumes to replace the staff. The consequences of the walkout are far from clear, however. Bernard and Shecter also own part of the magazine and do not appear ready to give up without a fight. Both sides say they are seeking legal counsel.

Identity crisis

Whatever the outcome, The Source's problems probably won't hurt Time Inc. Ventures' two-year-old Vibe, a title still trying to recover from an identity crisis that has plagued it since birth. The whole thing came to a head this past summer when editor in chief Jonathan Van Meter left the magazine after clashing with co-founder and industry legend Quincy Jones over Van Meter's decision to put Madonna on the cover. Van Meter had already encountered resistance as the gay white editor of a magazine about black-inspired music. His vision of Vibe--which included an expanded look at other types of "urban music" (reggae, R&B, dance) and related cultures--met with criticism both inside and outside the office.

New editor Alan Light, who served as Vibe's music editor under Van Meter, says he plans to focus more on music while keeping the scope of that coverage broad. He suggests that the publication has always been misperceived as an exclusively hip-hop title, more like The Source.

"The hardest fight for us," Light notes, "is a terminology fight. There isn't a word to describe what we do here. 'Urban music' is just a marketing term."

Clearly, Vibe wants to separate itself from The Source. You wouldn't know that, though, from its latest promotion. The Vibe Ride--a trailer that visits colleges, converting into a music stage--sounds suspiciously like The Source's Sourcevan, which has toured campuses and cities since 1992. Then again, The Source was hardly the first to come up with the idea of a traveling road show. Vibe publisher John Rollins cites similar promotions in the past by Spin and Rolling Stone--magazines he would rather be associated with. "I'm competing with Details, Spin and Rolling Stone," he says. "The Source is smaller, it's specifically for rap and hip-hop enthusiasts. We're more horizontal."

Vibe's audience (six out of 10 readers are male) is a multicultural mix of 18- to 29-year-olds--50 percent are white, 50 percent are black. According to Rollins, the magazine has picked up several new major accounts in the second half of 1994, including Aiwa, Pioneer and Apple. Ad pages for the year total 572 for 10 issues, compared with 220 for four issues last year. In January, Vibe's ratebase will jump from 100,000 to 250,000--evidence of white America's growing consumption of hip-hop culture, says Rollins.

Industry critic--or shill?

It was that growing interest that had people like Bernard excited about the future of The Source before The Almighty RSO affair. Bernard says the 140,000-circulation magazine was "growing up" from its early role as a lone defender of hip-hop into a publication that could afford to be more critical as the music itself gained greater mainstream acceptance. The Source, he believes, was gaining the integrity needed to become more marketable. (The monthly title totaled 500 ad pages for 1994, compared with 430 last year.) Whether it can sustain that momentum now, however, remains to be seen.

"We have to do more than just put photos of people's favorite stars on the page," says Bernard. "Otherwise, all it takes is a good-looking fanzine to take us out. [Mays and Young] aren't backing off the notion that The Source is nothing but a shill for the record labels."

The RSO incident has attracted wide-spread exposure. But Freundlich says Mays has no intention of stepping down. Ad pages for the December issue were at an all-time high of 55, he notes, and the publication has received more than 100 resumes from people interested in filling the vacant editorial positions.