With February marking the 83rd year since Carter G. Woodson “invented” the celebration of Black History Month, The Source, the once undisputed Bible of Hip Hop has dedicating its latest issue to the accomplishments of Black contributors. 

While at first there might seem like nothing is wrong with that, its an indicator of a major paradigm shift at the historic magazine.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re well aware  of leadership turmoil, bankruptcy and ownership musical chairs at the magazine.  Its all been well documented so I won’t elaborate.

The most recent ownership group championed by L. Londell McMillan, a media and entertainment lawyer and investment banker Jeffery Scott representing Black Enterprise Magazine’s interest took over the reigns in the summer of 2008.  Together they helped The Source to emerge from bankruptcy  essentially erase millions of dollars of debt, several lawsuits and other liabilities.  While clearly very stable, McMillan and Scott’s vision has been a major cause for concern.

Two weeks ago we reported on the fact that the new owners would no longer accept so-called “booty ads” in the magazine.  The move raised eyebrows not only because it limited their base of prospects from which to sell to but also was an indicator of the more mature standard they hoped to maintain for the magazine a standard upon which Hip Hop has never been held to except by CRITICS.

Now while honoring Black History has probably been a theme in February dating back to the magazine’s onset, The tone with which it’s addressed this time around is very suspect.  Its almost as if the magazine is playing historian swooping in to teach the mindless under-educated, under motivated natives readers how to behave and what example to follow.  While I might not be an advocate of much of what I see in hip hop today, I’ll still defend her especially when I see wolves in sheep’s clothing like the ones The Source has become under its new leadership.

“I’m on a mission to restore [The Source] to the community that gave birth to it and open the door to those that currently enjoy and influence that hip-hop culture,” Millan recently told the Huffington Post  “It’s exciting because we believe that we can do it.”

While The Source at its pinnacle may have at times been immature and rebellious, so is the culture of Hip Hop and hence why its readers loved it so much.  It was street and honest and at times vulgar but it encapsulated the essence of hip hop.  The direction that Scott and McMillian hope to take the magazine is a reflection of what the older black generations hope or wished hip hop would always become and not what it needs to be in order to survive.

So while we respect the W.E.B. Dubois and Thurgood Marshalls of the world as Black History staples, the heroes of the Hip Hop culture are a much smaller, more radical subset who speak in slang and tend to wear their gear a little different.  Hip Hop has never been the most sophisticated but its not stupid either.  They’ll read through the new stuffy aristocratic focus of the revamped Source and they won’t buy in.  If they’re smart enough to stop reading the magazine years ago, they’re smart enough to not pick it up this time.  I for one won’t.