'Is this what it had to be?'

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/ [login to see] /is-this-what-it-had-to-be
While the current media landscape makes it hard to imagine a single publication — printed or otherwise — holding sway over an entire culture, for more than a decade, no rapper, label, show or network, was bigger than The Source.

Starting out in 1988 as a newsletter out of a college dorm room, hip-hop's longest-running periodical built its following by writing about rap with respect, and an air of prestige. By the turn of the century, the name had weight of its own to throw around. Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, it helped launch the careers of The Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z, Nas, Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown and more. It shipped regional sounds across the country to a national readership and the viewers of its very own, sometimes-televised awards show. For rap nerds, there was a high that came from the pages: the smooth artifice of the ads, the bluntness of the op-eds, the iconic cover stories and the reviews section that made "5 mics in The Source" one of the most coveted cosigns. The power held by The Source represented one of those rare occasions in rap when the pen is just as mighty as the tongue.