Letter to Source Advertisers, Other Essential Reading

NEW PREDICTION:
I'm sure one of the new ventures at The Source won't be blogging.

Very enlightening interview. After reading the whole thing, I think Dave Mayes comes off the worst. He seems like a little insecure white kid looking to fit in. Ray Scott seems like the bully the rode Dave's insecurities to the top. Thans for the link...
PS--Does anyone know what Jon Shecter is doing now days?

Its funny how they stayed sending issues 3 months late and told me it was a computer virus when I called to complain. Eventually that number was disconnected. Anyway, its sad that they have to act like everything is gravy when the Post reported that they defaulted on a huge loan. Its a sad story. Reg's story was on point and its a shame the source has declined . The sad part is benzino on allhiphop talkin about source is getting better.

"PS--Does anyone know what Jon Shecter is doing now days?"

funny that someone asked 'this' question about Jon Schecter, but no one seems to be asking what Reginald Dennis (the guy gave the interview) is doing. Since he obviously left the source very bitter and then lost his XXL position, I'm really curious to know what "he" is doing now. It would make his words a little more credible I think.

tanika,
are you Dave Mays' secret wife or something? These are stories that have been around for a Loooooooong time. This mans credibility is not in question. look at all of the people, including but not just former employees, whove come after the source. this has been coming for a long time. PS. In addtion to the Suge knight story, I have it quoted from a noted hot97 dj (not FLEX) that biggie once slapped puffy, in his presence, over financial misdealings. hiphopmusic.com, I hope one day saomeone will deal with the false 'puffy and biggie were best friends' stuff.Personal rant!!!!lol

uh, no bigboi, I am not, but thanks for the insult regarding my polite post. are you reginald dennis' gay lover?? geez. yes those stories and allegations have been around for a long time, but the former editor says that guns were pressed against the head of the publisher and the publisher was slapped, but never says he saw these things himself. so as far as anyone knows, what he is saying remains hearsay and rumor. my point is, if we are simply to take him at his word about those two very important incidents, it would help his credibility if he were not cloaked in the shadows. it makes him look like he just a bitter guy who got fired and shafted by the music business and now he's piling on as he sees the source going down the tubes. I think it's a perfectly valid question to ask what the man is doing for work now, especially after someone asked about jon schector (notice that I took the trouble to answer the question about jon schector and posted a link).

Shecky Green (aka Jon Shecter) is the man behind (the now defunct) Game recordings and the Hip Hop Honeys DVD series.

Funny that the debate is playing out this way, since David Mays once asked me "what the f**k are you, James Bernard's boyfriend?" during a similar argument back in 94.

"Cloaked in the shadows"? I'm not sure what that means, and I must say I find this standard of "credibility" slightly odd, coming from someone who is posting anonymously in a blog without even giving an email address. But regardless, I think Reggie's history speaks for itself, as does his reportage here.

I've hung out with Reggie several times this year, so I can assure you he's not some sort of hip-hop Keyzer Soze, hiding in a basement with evil schemes to defame Benzino, lol.. he's just a regular dude. And more than that, he is a man whose career is defined by his commitment to putting principles and integrity over profit and careerism..

In fact let's be clear, since you are implying otherwise: Reginald Dennis did not get fired from either The Source or XXL. He chose to leave, in both cases, because he didn't feel the situation was proper. When he could have easily kept his mouth shut and stayed around for the money, he chose instead to walk away, and stay true to his principles.

So I can't imagine anyone whose "credibility" is stronger than his, and I only wish other folks at the Source could match it. We might not be in the sad place we are today.

Okay, jay smooth, this is your site, I don't intend to argue with you on your own site. I like this site too much. But regardless of 'why' I asked, please tell me: what is so wrong about simply asking what they guy is doing now? Is that a secret or something? I didn't think the question was a big deal and I was really just adding to the question people asked about Shector. We know what shector is going now, so why not tell us what Dennis is doing now? What does he do now? Where does he work? What his is professional position now?

*p.s. to be clear, I agree that the source sucks, dave mays and ray suck, and they are hurting hip hop. there, I said it. so enough with the posts as though I'm on their side or something. I just asked a question, and now ya'll don't even answer a sister's question. wow, the testosterone is heavy in here.

Tanika, hey feel free to argue :) but I'm saying.. if you call someone's character into question as you did here, chances are you will get a vigorous response from those who know them.. and that has nothing whatsoever to do with testosterone.

It's not asking the question that I find problematic, I can understand being curious about it. It's the way you seem to be using that question to put his "credibility" in doubt, when as far as i can see the question has no bearing on his credibility.

I mean, which professions would have more credibility than which others? Would finding out that he's a CEO give him more credibility than finding out he's dentist? Would he have more credibility as a freelance writer than he would as a plumber? :) Seriously, I'm not trying to be facetious or dismissive here, but I really don't see how the answer could possibly be relevant, unless he was secretly working for The Source's competition.

Otherwise if he wants to keep his private life private that's his business, isn't it? After all, you don't know what I do for a living either, nor do I know for you, and that doesn't keep any of us from having a conversation here.. because our words can usually speak for themselves.

From what I hear, Jay, he actually is a plumber, at least part time. ;-)

Peace. Jon Shecter, or Shecky Green as he's often known, is now the purveyor of softcore "hip hop" porn. His company is called Game, used to do records with folks like Royce the 5' 9", Thirstin Howl III (the Polorican), and others under Game Records. I think they're now based in Las Vegas, and the Game Girls are the primary ASSet of the company, with the series of DVDs entitled "Hip Hop Honeyz". I won't offer my opinion. But he's a cool cat and I kept in touch with him before, during, and after my bid at The Sauce.

Nuff Said.

MJ
http://pyramids2projects.blogspot.com
http://www.blogcritics.org
http://www.intermediaarts.org/bgirlbe.html

Also re: Reginald Dennis, he, along with my former Rap Pages editor Allen Scott Gordon (the Commissioner) and a few other Black editors/writers had come together some years back to do a men's publication entitled MANIFEST, for the Hip Hop generation. They had the illest "mock issue" of any magazine I've seen, their demo was better than most published mags. This was pre-King, pre-Complex (which I helped to create, research, develop, and print until it got too much "Men's" and not enough "Hip Hop" for me).

Obviously, MANIFEST was destined to fail because there was no mays-type character involved to be the white boy/jewish face of the magazine. They couldn't get funded. The idea died a quite death. Then it was bit hard by many (see above).

No disrespect to Datwon Thomas, EIC of King, whom I respect and admire more than any other EIC I have on the tip of my tongue right now.

More later...>

MJ

LOL!! I started a firestorm. You know I have never followed the politics of hip hop journalism, so I knew very little about much of this. Dennis's interview was enlightening. Ironically, I quit reading the source around 1994 (I was a loyal reader from 91-93). Something had changed. I felt it had become much more commercial, and I was more focused on getting through college. In 1999 I decided to get back to it, and took out a subscription, but it had become a radically different magazine. By that point, it was more commercials than anything else. I just couldn't get into it, and quite frankly I feel the same way about the other over the counter Hip Hop mags I have read. The old Source had something that made it stand out, but I guess partly because of politics and partly because of commercialization (or the intersection of the two) it fell off.

In fact, I was beginning to really turn away from keeping up with hip hop news. This blog has really brough me back into it. You know like so many people in the Hip Hop generation, I am obessed with "keepin it real." I want to know that things are given to me straight, and the egalitarian nature of blogs and the internet seems to be helping fill the void. (I know I'm ranting. LOL!!) Forums like this have renewed my commitment to Hip Hop.

thanks MJ for the clarification. That wasn't so hard, was it?

I don't know Reginald Dennis, yet when I also wondered out loud about his credibility, some people were like, "Are you some kind of Source lover? His credibility is tighter than Mays and Benzino!"

Um...yeah.

There's more emotion involved in this issue than people think. I hope the people writing about this situation pause, realize the emotion they have, and how it might cloud their objectivity, then be clear about that with their audience.

Hashim said,

"There's more emotion involved in this issue than people think. I hope the people writing about this situation pause, realize the emotion they have, and how it might cloud their objectivity, then be clear about that with their audience."



THANK YOU. I çompletely agree.



Jay said,

"It's the way you seem to be using that question to put his 'credibility' in doubt"



I didn't think I was "using" anything, I just asked a question. Just because we don't agree with your personal positive view of the man doesn't mean we hate him or have anything against him. No one freaked out when someone asked what Schetor is doing now. It was a question. Whatever the motivation, it remains a normal and valid question, whether you trust his credibility or not, the question itself is valid on its own.



"Would finding out that he's a CEO give him more credibility than finding out he's dentist?"



Actually, YES.



"Otherwise if he wants to keep his private life private that's his business, isn't it?"



Um, no. He wrote the interview talking about what he says is a lot of "private information" that he's revealing about himself, and other people in the public eye. You did not do that, and I didn't do that, HE engaged in putting out private information about himself and others. So asking to now know an additional, rather non-personal fact about him now seems only fair.



Interesting, we still don't have an answer to the question. What's the big secret, Dennis "said" he was revealing all, but that hasn't happened yet.

To Jay,
Let me put my thoughts in a different way to you. I love your show on wbai, and I have been listening to the station since I was in high school. What if, five years from now, Utrice Leid came out and made a lot of statements against Pacifica and claimed to be revealing many secrets about Pacifica and wbai. Whether you liked Utrice Leid, or agreed more with Bernard White and Amy Goodman, if such a situation happened where she was "telling all", everyone would ask, "Okay, but what is she doing now, given that she is saying all these controversial things. If she's going to reveal secrets, she should tell us what her professional role is now."

I'm sure Utrice Leid will one day tell her story to the world, and when that time comes, everyone will be asking what she's been up to. It is a normal question to ask her, and quite relevant.

Tanika: We should probably agree to disagree at this point, but real quick..

No doubt, I agreed that there's nothing wrong with asking the question.. but if you go back and compare, you asked your question with a very different tone than the Shecter post did, and I think it was that tone that dictated the differing tone of the responses..

"Would finding out that he's a CEO give him more credibility than finding out he's dentist?"

Actually, YES.

How so?

Incidentally, I believe Utrice is running a small newspaper in florida nowadays..

"but if you go back and compare, you asked your question with a very different tone than the Shecter post did"

Okay. We understand you don't like the tone of the original question. You don't like the way the question was phrased. We understand. But does that mean answering the question is now prohibited for some reason? Regardless of why it was asked, for the 100th time, it's a relevant question.
Are you Dennis' good friend or something? If so, please just say so and I'll ask someone more objective. Why is this so hard to get answer for. Everyone is so interested in all the facts, I'm just asking for another fact about the person with the revelations.

Jay said,
"How so?"

As a CEO, it would speak to how he as trancended the negative events of the past and built a new life for himself professionally. If he's 'not' in the entertainment/media business anymore, then one is led more to believe that this sudden "tell all" could be more unresolved bitterness talking than objective honesty. The bottom line is, when you write a tell-all as he did on hiphopdx, you should also be able to handle the scrutiny of the public eye when attention is turned to you. So a simple question like "what is his job now?" seems very tame and a normal question to ask.

By the way, one source person who has left the sinking ship to 'better' themselves is Jeremy Miller. He makes some controversial statements, but also tells us what he's doing (Down Magazine), I like this kind of consistency and openness. This is from SOHH (link to site)

p.s. Okay, this is truly weird. We found out what john shector is doing. we found out what jeremy miller is doing. we even found out what utrice leid is doing. but for some reason, certain people must have their professions kept secret even as they make very controversial public statements? this makes no sense mr. jay smooth. I'll keep reading your site and bobbing my head to your great show, but this logic isn't making sense. the only assumption now is that he's either still unemployed (and bitter), or doing something not flattering were it to be mentioned publicly next to rest of his resume. I guess (at least on this site) we'll never know. thanks anyway hon.

xoxo,
t

Hashim, I agree there is a lot of emotion and passion around this issue.. for anyone who's been around to see it all go down, The Source was a big part of all our lives, and its downfall is one of the great tragedies of the culture. I apologize to Tanika if people came on a little strong with her. She has every right to ask the question, though I disagree with her assessment of the question's relevance.. accusing her of being somebody's wife etc. was not necessary.

But as far as emotion clouding people's objectivity I havent seen people's passion get in the way of getting the facts straight.. for example in the post where you expressed your doubts, it looks to me like people were quite on point in setting the record straight.

Again Tanika, we both agree that there's nothing wrong with asking the question, we just disagree as to how the question is relevant. I'm not saying the question shouldn't be answered, just that I don't think it needs to be answered for the reasons that you do. Personally I didn't answer simply because I don't know.. (since again, it's not relevant to me).

If Utrice Leid published her side of the story, what she's doing now would not affect how I assess her credibility either, because I already know who she is and what her involvement was in the events she's discussing.. so making wild guesses about her motives based on her current occupation wouldn't serve any purpose or make any sense to me.

I could go on another lengthy point by point reply here but I think we'd be going in circles.. Basically it boils down to this: you and I just disagree on what sort of assumptions can be drawn from this information. Like, the assumptions you'd make based on the CEO/dentist thing do not strike me as sound assumptions at all.. but like I said we can agree to disagree, and I apologize for any undue forcefulness in expressing my disagreement. :)

Interesting as this conversation is going... I have to say this. I agree with Tanika on her asking a pretty harmless question, though I don’t understand her logic of being a CEO being more credible than a plumber, as I see CEOs all day who would slit their favorite uncle's neck if it would further their careers.

I would like to know what he is up to at the moment, if only because I have been brainwashed by VH1 and that "Where Are They Now" mentality.

P.S. Jay ... Why didn't you just say you din't know from the jump? LMAO

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