1995 source awards download

By the s, Atlanta had become a powerhouse in southern Hip Hop, with OutKast being the first Southern artists to sell albums like the major acts on the East and West coasts. The group then went on to dominate, and let everyone know Hip Hop was alive everywhere, and still is. West Coast-East Coast rivalry existed long before , but the awards show brought it right to the TV screen. Dre and Snoop Dogg? Diddy still congratulated his opponent that night, and a triumphant Notorious B. But the beef was further cemented.

Lyricist of the Year: Notorious B. Producer of the Year: Dr. DM: First and foremost it was excitement about something that was authentic. By that time, it became a more formalized process. The first few years we had The Source staff involved, these meetings to develop the nominations, some balloting we used with different people in the industry.

It became a real bona fide thing. Nothing like it had ever been done. Who got ballots? DM: At that time, DJs, some of them at radio and others who were just influential. The mom-and-pop retailers were influential in those days, because they were in the trenches in the community. So, retailers and DJs. That might have been it. Even at that early stage, were labels jockeying for nominations like the movie studios do with the Oscars? DM: It was definitely taken seriously, and people definitely wanted to be a part of it.

Labels supported it. The Source had become influential enough. That made it valuable to the record labels, artists, managers, and everyone else. That just shows you the kind of commitment people had to the show and what we were doing. We were able to secure that kind of venue. Money talks! He had a bunch of guys with him. I think he was anxious to perform, and at some point he went backstage to the soundman and gave him his DAT tape or whatever he was performing to. And it happened that the tape started and he ran on stage at the same time that Q-Tip and some other folks were I guess either accepting an award or giving out an award.

The music just blared on and he ran out on stage with his guys and started performing. There was not any conflict that took place. But 2Pac was in jail for the awards. So what were you thinking heading into that night? DM: I knew Suge was coming and he had a whole bunch of people coming. I had Puffy coming and Biggie coming. So there was certainly tension when Suge went up there and said what he said.

It was direct. He was standing there on stage, and Puffy and Biggie were seated in the front row, off to his right. And Suge and his people were seated to the left, off the center section. It was a pretty direct jab at Puffy, and Puffy had his people there too. It was later when Snoop came out with his whole love for Death Row rant. It was a night like the one from the first event, but now times 10, because it was being televised and it was bigger. The awards took place in New York. What role did the city itself have in what transpired?

Because New York people were sort of snobbish about hip-hop. And they looked down on hip-hop from other regions. So that particular year, it was in New York. The artists all come and the labels all come, but we were selling thousands of tickets to the public, and these are people from New York.

So the overwhelming majority of people in the crowd are pro-New York. DM: Yeah, absolutely. They performed later on. Everybody had calmed down. There was all this tension, but no fists were thrown and everybody got back to business. He was in New York and I guess he had to save face, do something, say something.

But I believe that was a direct response to what had been said earlier in the evening. When Snoop came on and did his rant, what was the mood in the theater? DM: There was some back and forth. As passionate and demonstrative as Snoop was, I think that was a reaction to the energy he was getting from the crowd.

People booing, people talking shit. Whatever he felt out there. For these artists, this was like a dream come true, to be a part of something like this. All that you see, the emotion of the moment, is real. When OutKast won they got booed.

Hard to believe, considering their icon status today. A was and that whole movement out in L. So it was kind of out in the open already. Talk to me about that. I started working with him on his music and his group. I was managing their career. He was helping me in different ways as I was building The Source up.

That relationship and that dynamic just grew further over the years. He had a record deal. He was signed to RCA Records. A lot of the stuff that has been made of this, the root of it, comes from just the kind of dynamic and challenge that he and I had over the years dealing with an editorial staff that took a lot of things personally.

They did leave under some circumstances, and only their version or their side of things has been told. James Bernard, people like that, years later are reaching out to kind of apologize to me and let me know that they understand. So, I just think, for whatever reason, Ray was a sort of like a scapegoat, because he was an easy target for people, people in the journalism community that developed a negative perception of me, The Source , and him.