The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Jonathan Shecter Part 2

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

In Part 2 of this special QLS, Jonathan Shecter, aka Shecky Green, looks back at his later years at The Source. The magazine's co-founder and Editor-in-Chief recalls assembling a "mind squad" of legendary writers, editors, and photographers. He details his role in recognizing Nas' incredible talent and Illmatic as a 5-mic classic, as well as experiences with Biggie Smalls, Tupac, and KRS-One. Shecky Green also speaks candidly about his abrupt 1994 exit from the magazine he launched and how he remains in the music curation space today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media.

Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clivert Show on the I-Hard Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode.

Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say, you know, trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel funny,

anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcon. And this is my friend. This is much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far. But I'm John Green. Co-hosted the podcast The Away End with my old friend Daniel on our podcast the away end. We'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup.

Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to the away end with Daniel Auerkone and John Green on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. All right, y'all, welcome to Questlove Supreme. This summer we sat down with Jonathan's show. Shekner, who is the co-founder and the first editor-in-chief of The Source magazine, the hip-hop Bible, The Source.

That's right. The Car Part 1, welcome if you haven't. Make sure you check it out before you listen to this one. And, you know, Shecky spoke about growing up in Philly working at Power 99 in the early 80s and his days at The Source back when it was just a pamphlet at Harvard. Oh, I got to answer. Oh, it's Jonathan Schechter. He's telling me to wrap it up. All right, guys.

Listen to part two right now of Jonathan Schechter, the source. Peace. Okay, so what happened was we had halftime and live with the barbecue. Okay. Two Reck Naz's first two appearances. Live of the barbecue, everyone knows the main source. I should mention also because you brought up something about the ratings, and I think it's important to note that those four and a half mics.

The ratings were the number one thing that people spoke. There was two things that people cared about. who's on the cover and what rating did they get? Those are the things that we hear the most feedback on. That was what every just general person on the street cared about. The other thing they cared about is like seeing what the rappers were like in real life, like, you know, like what cars they drive and things like that. So there was layers to it.

But basically, so we actually gave, if I take one more step back, there was a brief period of time when we were reviewing singles as well. those albums, I'll give them ratings to singles. We always reviewed singles, but for a short period of time, we actually gave the mic ratings to singles. Looking out the front door, got five mics, as it should. It's a hip-hop classic, no doubt, right? I loved, I love large professor. I love main source. I think a lot of us love that record. That was the only time in the history of the source that anyone ever thanked us for a review. We did hundreds and hundreds of reviews. One only the surscratch and k cutt's mother showed up at the source office they were canadian remember they're

from toronto i think they're from khanadians they're so polite right those canadians right they're so nice they're so nice and they showed and and this was literally the all we ever got was negative feedback from people that were mad right one time i can ever recall somebody who's like thank you so much that review meant so much to us here's and she gave me a bottle of like like like Canadian whiskey or something. And I kept it like on my desk for years. But that was the only time that anyone ever thanked us for a review. The feedback was only either nothing, silence, or negative.

The only positive feedback we ever got was from main sources, Sir Scratch and Cake Cut, they were brothers, their mother. Wow. Yeah. Shout out to manners. That's right. That's right. Totally. In polite goes a long way. I appreciated it that she did that.

I was very nice of her. But before you tell this story, and I'm glad you mentioned main source, let me ask your opinion. It was actually that main source issue that was my, not North Star, but I believe that getting a 4.5, getting four and a half mics in the source was better than getting five mics in the source. why?

Because everyone has their whole golden era thing. You say yours is 84 to 94. The period in which we would have critical thinking Friday discussions of an album, like religiously, like, and I miss that so much about hip hop now, it's definitely between like 88 and kind of 90, maybe we stopped in 96, 97. because then it became like, well, they said this was classic. We don't think this is classic. Like we became like Waldorf and Stadler and the Muppets.

Yeah, exactly. Thones down. Yeah. Right. But I will say that for me, I was like, okay, when something gets five mics, because someone in my crew didn't get why De La Sol is dead got a perfect five. And I was like, dog, this is the best sequence records, the samples I never heard before. the rhyme stuff like everything about this album is pitch perfect and they were like yeah but you know you know

and he said you know I'm a little biased because they you know in his mind it was like they're just always giving out fives and I'm like no it's quite the opposite like I think the source is really hard to please and this is an example of it but that stuck with me and I realized that people don't criticize you as much if you have a four and a half it's almost like four and a half it's almost like four four and a half is the same effect as a five, but it doesn't make you that threatening where you got to be like, man, fuck. I don't know, that's my theory.

I always thought four and a half was better than a five. The way of the ratings worked as we got more mature now, if we're moving into like the early 90s, is that we would, Reggie became the music editor, as I mentioned, and we would assign out the reviews to people. sometimes I would write a couple, but for the most part, that was kind of, the reviews were kind of a place for the newer writers for the most part. You know, it was kind of like a way for someone to break into the source.

Really? Yeah. You would trust a newbie to that instead of like a well-tested album or something. I mean, you know, not for like the big marquee names, but for like, you know, for like a new artist. You know, like somebody new, we would give it to like somebody new because that was a chance for them to kind of prove themselves, you know. but the rating, but the rating, okay, so there was like a separate thing. The review would get written, but we would have a separate meeting every month with all the main people there, the people I mentioned, and we would discuss the ratings. And that was when...

Would you thoroughly review it? Like thoroughly listen to it or just like... Well, you would defer to the person kind of who had, you know, if you hadn't, if I hadn't personally listened to the whole album, I would try to be, you know, cognizant of that and not over, not just, just, just. just give opinions on what I knew, you know, like, but there were only a handful of times that I, like, forced the issue and, like, put my foot down and, like, we got to give this a five. Illmatic was one of those only times. You thought it was classic material. Who was like, eh, it might be a four.

Or Reggie. Reggie was like, eh, you know, it's not, we don't know if it's going to be a class. I mean, it was easy to say, listen, five was called a hip-hop classic. So it was easy to say in the course of this meeting, which we had. every month where we would discuss the ratings. Is that really a hip hop classic? Is this going to be remembered 20 years from now as like a very important?

And it was a hard question, you know? You're like, here we are ahead of even it coming out. We're like months ahead of even be, we're like among like maybe a dozen people that I've even heard this record. And now we have to decide, is it going to be a hip hop classic? It's kind of hard, you know?

It's like it's not easy. In the case of Iomatic, okay, so what happened was we had heard halftime. Mm-hmm. We loved it. Loved it. That movie Zebrahead, remember? I think that came up on another one of your episodes I saw.

Yeah, with Clark Kent. Right, that's correct, right, with Clark Kent. I worked at Roughhouse, and we had the premiere Zebrahead, and Clark Kent starts spinning, invokes, hold on, and Nas gets up in freestyle, and I think maybe I was like the six in line, so that's my cleaning. Oh, that's right. That's when you wrapped. I remember, yes, that's right. Okay, cool. So, no, so I was, so we loved halftime and live with the barbecue. This kid, Nas, incredible. You know, he was shocking, you know, I'm waving automatic guns and nuns and, you know, hell for snuffing Jesus and all that stuff. So it was shocking. It was like shocking rap, but it was obviously really good. And it was really literate. And it was, it sounded great. And we were very, very hungry to hear more from this kid, Nas. So I had a trip booked to Philly.

and on the agenda was to visit Chris Schwartz and to go to Roughhouse Records. So I went, it might have been in early 93, 94. I guess when was that release? I can't remember. Summer of 92 was Zebrahead, but yeah, 93-ish, yeah. So it was late 92. It was after Zebrahead.

It was probably late 92. I go to Philly and I sat in that rough house. When Rough House was in the suburbs, it was like he had this office in the, It was no longer in the city. It was in the suburb somewhere, I remember. And Chris Schwartz was at the desk, and, you know, we talked about a few different things. And then, you know, Ruff House had some great records.

You know, they had some great stuff. So, but my real agenda for being there was I wanted to hear more Nass. I didn't tell him that, but that was my true agenda for going there. So I go there and Chris Schwartz, as you recall, had kind of like the air of like a messy person sort of, like his hair. was kind of messy. Uncut Jim's, the original version? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

It was a very hectic, noisy, just sort of like disheveled atmosphere, right? And so there was like a desk with like coffee cups and piles of tapes and records and all that. And so I go in and he's like, I'm like, hey man, you know, so we talked about other stuff. And then I'm like, so listen, about this guy, Nas,

he's like, Nas, you know who that is? And I was like, yeah, of course we know who that is. halftime, live with the barbecue. He's like, oh, man, I mean, I'm surprised you guys know about him. And I'm like, oh, we love him. We love Nas. We're really curious to hear more stuff. And he searches through his desk, moves some stuff around.

He picks up a cassette. And he hands it to me. He said, you can check this out. I was like, I can keep it. He's like, yeah, yeah, you can keep it. Put it in my pocket. I leave the meeting. I go back to 30th Street Station.

I get back on the train, Amtrak, back to New York City. I take out my walkman. so using Walkman back then Hopping the Walkman Hit play And what I have In my hands, in my Walkman Is the entire

Illmatic album Like six, seven months Before it came out, okay? It was like So long in advance It was the first draft of it There was like multiple mixes Were different

I still have this cassette by the way It's still it's sitting in my office right now Yeah I have it here right now So basically I'm sitting here on this Amtrak train listening to represent you know

one love, you know, all these like unbelievable songs. And by the time I get to New York, I am like floating in the air with the realization that I have like the Holy Grail in my pocket. I have maybe like the greatest album I've ever heard in my life like sitting and no one

it's like this feeling of and no one knows no one knows about it no one's heard it it was it was like literally like I don't know why I to this day I have no idea why Chris Schwartz

I mean obviously he wants to promote his music but it was way too early to give that cassette to the source they didn't know what they had which is why I think why I went back to Columbia and not on because we had Nause

for the longest and then suddenly it was like shrug Columbia took him back that's right and Faith Newman and so forth, right, right. And so that's what happened.

I think he just didn't realize that he had this, you know, legendary, you know, ground, earth-shattering record here. So I get back to New York. I immediately, it's already now, it's like 10, 11 o'clock at night. I go back to the source office downtown. I knew that some people were going to be there. I walk in, it's Maddie C., Reef, Chris Wilder,

Scott Free later on Loud Records A&R was there I remember and I walk in and we had like a mediocre like you know system like you know some kind of like off the shelf stereo system we hit play I hit play and I play the entire album for this assembled heads the mind squad and literally every single person is just like you know like I remember Scott Free was literally laying on the floor like he was so blown away like he you know when people like fall down out of like mock you know shock you know like he was just the entire room was just what the this is insane this is so good especially yeah because the thing was when i had those moments they were chaotic bomb squad moments yeah i never had that moment with a regular meat and potatoes perfect beat

Like a boom-back type. Perfect rhyme. Just, you know, there's no novelty to it. It's not like, oh, yeah, it was a classic because they're using childhood records or they're using 95 trillion samples. Like, I'd never heard just a perfect beat, rhyme, perfection record. And so because it didn't come with bells and whistles, the same bells and whistles that three feet high rising was or nation of millions was or Americans' most wanted was. you know, he wasn't hyper. For me, it was like such a risk.

Because when I heard it, again, there was that Gangstar issue. I read the review first. And then I was like, I got it. And I was like, well, so normal. One, it's only 10 songs. Like rap records back then were like 27 songs. I was like, there's no skits. There's no, no, no.

And my manager finally brought me down to earth. He's like, yo, man, this is what Intervision's, but Stevie Wonder was. Like, it was just nine perfect songs. Like, this is nine perfect songs. And I actually had to grapple with that. Like, I wasn't in touch with how I felt. I still had to follow what you guys said. And I had so many questions about a nine bells and whistles record getting that much,

much acclaim to it. But you guys instantly felt you got goosebumps from the gate. You knew. Yeah. I mean, I remember just I loved every song. I liked every single song, especially. one love. That was the one that pushed me over the top. Like, you know, it's just so deep, you know, it just sounds so, and his lyrics are so good on it, you know, it's just, so that was

like something like, you know, six or eight months before the album ended up coming out. So we have this holy grail now sitting in our possession. What do we do with it? And I think you're right. It was that issue with Gangstar on the cover. Yep. And I went and I took on the job of because I had this experience, you know, I went and took on the job of writing the feature about Nas, introducing Nas to the world. It was called the Second Coming. And it was a reference to, obviously, Raq Kim, because that was, you know, the God MC. That's who everyone viewed as pretty much the greatest rapper of all time, almost universally. And Nas was viewed as, you know, the next in line for that kind of a title just by us. I mean, I don't know. The world didn't know yet.

but that was how we were looking at it. And we went, and then Matt went, Maddie C. went and interviewed all the producers that were involved. You know, Pete Rock, Premier, Q-Tip, and large professor. And so it was like this dream team. So we put together the story. And then we still had to do the review part of it. So we assigned it in one of these cases, again, to a newer writer. And her name was Minya O.

Yeah. later known to the world as Miss Info. Miss Info, right. Yes. But she called herself Shorty. She called herself Shorty, right, because she was an incredibly hip, uptown New York chick, you know, came in and was just like, just new shit. Way ahead. I mean, but this was still very early in her evolution, I think, and we assigned her the job.

I'm really glad it was her, because, you know, Was it risky for you to not see this through? Like, were you not allowed to touch your own reviews? Or would that have been seen as a conflict of interest? Like, well, you can't be the editor-chief in? No, that wasn't really, I mean, like, in this case, I think the reasoning was that I had already written, like, I was obviously the main champion of it inside the building. But you saw the feature story more important than his album review? In my mind, that's more journalistic to me.

This feature story is where you tell the whole story. And like, that's where... No offense. I don't remember that story, but I remember that. I get it. Yeah, yeah. That's okay. I understand. That's the case because, listen, as I said earlier, what most people did, just like yourself, is they looked and see, oh, who's on the cover? Okay, it's so-and-so. And then they'd flip right to the back and say, what rating did everything get? Like, that was the normal way people consume the source.

Absolutely, I get. it. Why didn't you put the record reviews in the front of the magazine then? You know what? Again, I think it was earlier. Like I said, I was following that Rolling Stones like structure. And they had the reviews in the back. So by the way, I did read everything. But yes, I did read the thing backwards. So I know. I get it. I get it. It's all good. So yeah, we should do the review. But then again, we had now this is where we had the big meeting. And I was pounding. This is one case where I use my authority to force the issue. And I was like, Reggie, it's a five, man. What did he want? I think he wanted either a four or maybe a four point five. The others in the room, everyone agree with,

I mean, the majority of people agreed with me. There was a few maybe, I don't remember exactly who didn't. I know Reggie was the main voice of the opposition. In this case, he lost the debate and he got a five. And I think he would admit that we were correct about giving it a five. I mean, obviously, it's pretty much the iconic hip-hop album or among among the iconic legendary, all-time classic hip-hop albums. I think everyone agrees with that. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that

excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends.

I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no.

I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network.

It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah.

He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that.

There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest, the director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports

Slice Podcasts on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in someone, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.

I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap.

Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice has served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For me, crafting albums, of course, it was always, does someone see the vision inside my head the same way that I see it, you know, when they review it? And so the obsessive amount of headaches I gave my publicist, Amy Morris, just daily about like, okay, when do we give this to the source? When do we get this to the source?

When do we get this to the source? You know, we're not going to get to that part of the story yet of what happened that day in October of 94. However, you know, it was to the point where I saw it as me getting up at five of the morning to get on a train to. And the thing was, Amy is like, you cannot go to the source of me. Like, that's, that's, you know, there were still rules of like, you know, not crossing the line as an artist. and that sort of thing. And literally me going to the source to get the issue because you guys would not reveal to her what the rating was,

she did tell me like, yes, you guys got to leave review. But for me to get up in another state at five in the morning, to get on a train, to go to New York, to go outside that building, and for her to hand me that issue, and for me to look and read the review, first before I see the mics and I'm going through each mic like okay one mic two mic three mic four mic okay four mic I'll take four it was literally of that obsessive level like at what point

did you realize that the artists are obsessed with that like I'm certain was not even like what the source give me or yeah I mean like I said it's we knew like there was a sense that the ratings were important because we, you know, you could, you could hear it in the in the feedback we got that everybody, we knew that the ratings were one of the main things that people looked at. Um, but we spent most of our time on the rest of the magazine, you know what I mean? Like we were filling the magazine with features and, and photo shoots and then we got into fashion and electronics and movies and TV and film and, you know, and all that stuff. So, so in other words, there was, the answer to your question is we always knew that people were watching and that

the artist cared, but we didn't get a lot of feedback, you know, like we, from the artist, it wasn't commonplace for people, I mean, they might have been angry or they might have been happy, and we didn't hear it usually. I mean, you know, of course, we would talk to the label people, and I guess maybe you would hear secondhand, oh, you know, Questlove was very happy with a review or whatever, you know what I mean? Like, I might have read something like that, but like, it wasn't, it wasn't, It wasn't a lot of direct artists interaction. I mean, there was interaction, but just not feedback necessarily. As a fan, I only have one question.

Go ahead. And that is, I wish you guys would have reconsidered all of your Gangstar reviews. Listen, let's talk about Gang. They were straight three and a half. I mean, eventually, long after you left, of course, you know. They revaluated that, yeah. Yeah, there was revalvated. And moment of truth, God, it's just due with the four and a half review.

But that's long after you guys had left the building. But this is one thing I wanted to ask also is there's a point where, you know, the way that the stories are presented, you know, more importantly, like, would you consider the Hellraiser Tupac issue? Like, if anything, I feel as though the Hellraiser issue really built whom we know as Tupac. Before that issue, you might have had a clue of who Tupac was if you watched MTV News or, you know. Was that after Juice or? Nah, this is, Hellraiser is like possibly right before he gets shot in the, uh, yeah. So this is like early 94. But it was such.

No, that's after juice. City. Oh, it's way after juice. Yeah, yeah, after juice. It's Bishop came to life. So. Right. Exactly. Okay, so let's talk about Tupac because I was going to talk about Gangstar, but

Tupac, I got some interesting perspective. So, I mean, I didn't really love Tupac as a rapper for a long time. When he came out, you know what, clown around, when I rolled around with the underground. Like, it wasn't necessarily earth-shattering. It was just- We were comparing everyone to rock him. Basically, and KRS. If you're not Rock him or Keras, I get it. The Mount Rushmore was KRS, Rakim, and Chuck D. And then you could argue for the fourth one being Big Daddy Kane, Gucci rap, or a number of others, LL, there's other potentials.

But anyway, so when Tupac came out with that, I didn't like it. I didn't like him. I didn't like his early albums. I thought that it was okay, but it just didn't really move me. And then I got a visit from Hollywood. producers who came into the source, which is rare. We were still basically broke. I mean, we didn't make any money for most of this time anyway.

And having someone from Hollywood, you feel like, oh, someone important is here. Wait, Tomlin. You're not making money? Like, in terms of, like, what we see, like, the Billboard charts or whatever, how do you know, like, what you guys are selling in terms of? Oh, like magazines, like how many, we were doing well. Like, where the magazine was doing very well on the newsstands. I mean, it was we, eventually it got to the point we were selling hundreds of thousands of magazines every month.

But throughout most of my time there, there wasn't a huge profit. I mean, we were making a small, modest salary. You know, the business was profitable, but it wasn't like making a killing. Granted, this is before anyone knew anything about startups, the internet, you know, VC funding, we had none of that. Although I, although if you want me, I can tell the story when Quincy Jones tried to buy the source. People may or may not know that. Before vibe? Before vibe, yes.

What happened? Okay. So in that case, what happened was we got contacted by Russell Simmons, who was friends with Quincy. He told us that Quincy Jones is interested in talking to us along with Time Warner. And Quincy was working on a deal with Time Warner. So the four core founders of the source, myself, Dave Mays, James Bernard, and Ed Young, get on a plane. We go to L.A. We go to Quincy Jones's house in Beverly Hills. We're sitting there with that beautiful mansion, starstruck, you know, right away like, holy shit. We're in Quincy Jones's house. We walk into the room. There is a room of suits. There's about six, seven guys, white guys in suits. There's a woman named Jane Pratt, who at that point was an editor working for Time Life. and there was Quincy Jones and Russell Simmons.

So there was like 10 people in the room. We walk in. Four of us, we sit and talk. They're interested in the source. I remember it was very early. It was 91. So we walk in. We have a whole meeting where we talk about,

they start ripping apart, not in a mean-spirited way, but they're kind of like, you know, you guys could do this better. Like the artwork isn't that great? The photos aren't that great. But we love what you're doing. you guys are doing it great but we feel like we can help you do it better and and we were open to it we

were so naive we didn't know shit but we were just in there having the meeting and thinking maybe we'll we'll all get rich you know who knows what's going to happen right and so we we have the whole meeting and um we end up getting a very low ball offer from them it was like insulting it was like ridiculously bad. I forget the number, but it was like something like $50,000 for the whole magazine. It was like ridiculous. Yeah, it was like, it was like pathetic. And they wanted us to come work for them. And I remember in the in the letter where they sent us, they offered them, they spelled like several of our name. My name always gets spelled wrong. So I was used to it. But they spelled like multiple people's names wrong. And it was just very disrespectful. The whole, the whole thing that once we got the letter, we felt,

very disrespected. So we just, we didn't respond and we just decided like, we're not going to do it. And then they ended up starting Vibe, like a few months later. And then there was a brief period of time when the editor of Vibe was a guy named Jonathan Van Meter and I'm Jonathan Schechter. And so there was two Jonathan's running these two rap magazines. So anyway, that's the story. So that was it. So they wanted to buy the source. They ended up not doing it. But long story short, what ended up happening. We were very concerned. We knew that there was going to be this other magazine. Vibe comes out. It is beautiful. It has treacher on the cover looking all, you know, incredible and the photos and it was all like very fashion forward and it was like beautifully designed with

amazing photography and all that stuff. And we were concerned, but it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to us. Why? Because suddenly all these legit, advertisers are interested in the category because Time Warner had like Pepsi and Ford and Sony and like, I mean, Sony electronics and like things like that. So we were like getting by on just just industry ads basically. But now for the first time, we had this new market of huge companies that are, they're interested in rap music. And, you know, it didn't take long for them to see that we were actually the leaders in the in the space. Even though Vibe, you know, had a bigger slash.

Yeah, you know, but we were the actual like on the street, you know, newsstand leaders. So it helped us. It ended up helping us. It took a long time for that arc to all kind of play out. But in the end, it was actually a positive for the source that they started. Okay. So back to your Tupac thing.

Okay. So back to Tupac. So the guys come to my office and they say, so we're casting for this movie and we're looking at artists and we're looking to you. We want to ask you, like, who is, you know, want to get a sense of like who's who in this rap world. So they started talking about rappers. I don't remember everyone they said, but they said, Tupac.

And I said, oh, you mean that guy from the digital underground? I was like, eh, he's okay. He's not that great. I mean, no one really knows who that is, you know? Right. And they were like, oh, okay. And like, we have the meeting. And then it shows how much I know because they casted him.

It was juice. They were making juice. They cast him in juice. obviously he you know he knocked it out of the park it was like an incredible movie incredible performance and it really made him you know a star um and i remember i was watching that movie screening with russell simmons was in the awe it was in a private screening and russell happened to be there and i remember russell saying if they throw this motherfucker off the roof this movie's going to be a hit i i don't remember there's a scene where they throw someone off the roof

yeah it was him it was him last scene right exactly they say if they throw him off the roof this movie is going to be a hit and they threw him off the roof. Russell goes insane. He's right. The movie's a hit. A little bit later, I go to the first How Can I Be Down event in Miami, which was a very bootleg homemade event. It was like at somebody's house.

What were those events like? It was kind of like what you'd think. It was nice. I mean, look, it was a nice house, but it was very like bootleg. It was like there was like a lot, you know, that particular one. I remember that Tupac was there. Dr. Drey and Ed Lauer from YomTV Raps were filming an episode there. Puffy was there, a bunch of other artists.

And I was there with a photographer. We interviewed a bunch of people. But I remember seeing Tupac, and now I start paying attention to him, because now his star is starting to rise. And he always had like a joint or a cigarette in his hands. He was drinking, but all the girls were all over him. and like he he was like a charisma output you know off the star. He was a star, right.

So I still don't really love his rapping. And I'm still like kind of the jury is still out. I didn't really like his record. I just didn't really think like Brenda's got a baby. It was kind of boring. I just didn't really love it. And so then a little bit later, I remember I went to a party in Brooklyn. It was Lord Jamar's birthday party that I was.

invited to. I remember I walk into this party in Brooklyn. It was in an outdoor courtyard. And there was a lot of people there. There's a lot of beautiful girls there. It was like a nice party. I walk in and I'm having a good time and I see a lot of artists around and stuff. And then I noticed this kid in the corner. And I see Tupac is there. I see Tupac is in this party. And this is right when he's hanging out with Biggie. Biggie wasn't there. But it was during the time when he was like, you know, starting to hang out with Biggie and that period of time. Right. He's in Brooklyn.

So he, Tupac is there and I look in the corner of my eye and I see this guy dressed exactly like Tupac. Like literally he has the bandana wrapped around the bald head. He has his shirt open. He looks exactly. He's modeled after Tupac-en-Juced like image. Like he has the exact look of Tupac. Mm-hmm.

And he's eyeing him. I'm like, that's weird. like, whoa, I kind of see it happen from afar. And this guy has like a fire in his eyes. Like he's angry. And he walks across the space up to Tupac and basically challenges him to a battle in this party. A guy that looks exactly like Tupac, challenges Tupac to a rhyme battle inside this party. And this is a 100% true story.

And so then people start gathering around. Like you could tell there's about to be something. happening, right? Right. And so the guy starts rapping and he's, uh, he's not good. He's not great. He's okay, but he's not really good. And I'm like, it's pretty clear, pretty early on that he's not really a good rapper,

but he's trying. He's like, yo, man, I'm going to fuck you up. I'll do this. I'll do that. And everyone's kind of like, I'm looking around going like, where's like somebody to jump in? Like, where's like one of the brand new being guys or, you know, where's Buckshot shorty?

Like, we need somebody here to, like, represent New York. Right. Because I knew Pac was more of, like, a California, even though he's from New York. He's a California guy. So the guy finishes and then Pac steps up and destroys him. Just gives this, like, virtuoso performance where he's, like, breaking down. He's like, you even look like me. You got your bandana like me.

You got this like me. And then he looks over and he goes, I'm going to even murder you in front of my dude from the source. And he, like, points at me. and it's like this whole moment and I was like that was my, that was the moment when I realized that he really actually could rap and that he was actually like a really good

MC. You know, I didn't it wasn't until that live you know, like impromptu thing that I realized that he's a great rapper and then I kind of changed my take on him. It took that experience for me to really get it, you know, and then of course that years later he, you know,

became a huge, even bigger star. At this moment, are you guys, even remotely concerned about like you know like there was an era of deaf jam where it was just like ye old general store and then suddenly you go to deaf jam and then now you got security clearance and all that stuff and yeah like at any point did the source come to that or you know we had our share of threats and stuff like that i mean it wasn't it never thankfully spilled over into anything major. You know, there was, to your point, I get it, that's, I think that was one of Chi Modus, great skills. Because she did that, that Snoop one, you know, what you're referring to with that

snoop is that she had this ability to walk into any hood in the entire world and people would like him. He was a very warm, friendly dude. And, you know, I believe he had like Nigerian roots or he He was African, but he had like a very friendly demeanor. There was something about him who smiled all the time. He was very calm and positive energy. And so that was one of our secrets, I guess, was that we could walk into a situation where other journalists maybe wouldn't want to. And I did this myself a few times, but anyone, any of the many writers that work for the source who got sent on an assignment to go to Houston. or to go to LA, you know, I once went on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a,

on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, fat show and the Bronx tat crew. Um, and I went to like, the straight, you know, like the graffiti like, you know, four in the morning, like, climbing, breaking into the, into the train yard, all that shit. Like, right, we all had those moments when we basically, um, penetrated what a normal, like, journalists would do. And I think, you know, thank God, like, we never had any. major problems. Like there was always, you know, I think everyone had an interest in making sure things went well. Like there was the artist at the center of whatever rethink we were doing, would do everything on their power to make sure that the situation was, was, was good.

You know, everyone wants like a good story. Everyone wants the pictures to look good. Everyone wants good reviews, you know. So there was, we kind of like coasted through on that. And again, it was like, you know, it was with guys like Chi, I think, who were, kind of like on the front lines of a lot of these going to like certain hoods and, you know, he photographed, you know, everyone in every hood. And never had a problem. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the Fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast. The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, This is right where you need to be.

Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either.

We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands.

I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the Girlfriends. Trust me, babe. on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live,

and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the ground. I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet.

Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know. The cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be.

Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits, teams look for, to the director. the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar.

This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in someone, correct?

I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfectant. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Alespian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown.

I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whose idea was it to do the crack issue?

Great, great question. That was, I think Reggie and James Bernard were the primary drivers behind that one. Okay. I know you know this, but, you know, for trivia buffs, you know, Biggie's 10 Crack Commandments is actually from a source article. Wait, I did not know that. You didn't know that? Okay. Didn't the actual, was that the cover story or?

was, I'm trying my hardest to remember. Was the cover story or was it a main feature? I think it was just a big feature. I don't think we put crack on the cover. I think we still put a wrapper on the cover. But I think it was the two times that we did very political things that I remember was obviously the L.A. riots. That was a huge, huge monumental source moment

because we covered the L.A. riots very extensively from the point of view of the rioters, really. And then the crack issue was another, you know, we devoted a lot of pages to the crack epidemic, but not from a, oh, my God, what's going on, but more so from like what's really going on. Right. I got it. And one of the articles was the 10 crack commandments. That was literally one of it was like a sidebar. It was like, it wasn't the main feature. The 10 Crack Commandments were, was in that crack issue?

Yes. Oh, my God. Yes. And if you go back in Biggie, it's almost word for word. I mean, it's not literally word for it, but it's like 80% word for word. It's like he got that from the source. Yeah. I did not know that.

I do remember that issue and thought like, whoa, like they're going to places that no periodical as dared go. Should we touch on Biggie real quick? because if anything, that's the biggest artists that ever came out of the source. I mean, let's be real, you know, like as far as being christened an artist because of something that happened in the source magazine, we had a column called Unsigned Hype. Everybody knows, you know, the idea was that we would review cassettes from regular people, regular artists who were trying to make it. And every month, we'd pick one cassette.

Maddie C., who later on, you know, became A&R for Loud and became a legendary ear, you know, was kind of the... the main point person. And so Matt would get, we literally had like a plastic trash bag filled with cassettes. I mean, we would get hundreds of cassettes a month.

I mean, maybe 200 every month. I mean, it was endless. Like every... Who would go through those? So Maddie's job was, one of Maddie's job was to go through all these cassettes now. What really ended up happening

is maybe the first month he listened to a bunch of them. But as we all know, when it comes to demos, you know, unfortunately, most of them are not good. So you kind of get burned out very quick. And then he started putting in the, I remember he added to the text of the description, put your best cut first.

I remember you put that in there. Smart. Because he didn't want to have to, like, sit through, like, you know. Search for it. Right. Search for it. So one day, you know, after doing this and the truth was that that bag got bigger and bigger. And we would get like literally like five a day.

So it would be like 150 a month, okay? and it would be like a bag of cassettes and it was it was you know no one wants to really go through that but slowly you know we would once in a while oh that one looks look at that's a that's a weird pink cassette let me listen to that one we would just randomly like pick him out and then one day he comes into my office and he's like yo we got one we got one listen to this

and he sits down he gets play and I hear the original for ain't no half stepping which is, who is it again? Blind Alley, Blind Alley. Yeah, Blind Alley. Emotions. I hear the emotions, blind alley. And what's up, Source? My name is Biggie Smalls.

I want to say thank you for giving me this opportunity. Thank you so much. I really respect y'all. I want to thank you. He gave us like a nice intro where he like thanked us for the opportunity to rap for us. And then the bee kicks in and he starts rapping. And it's amazing. It's phenomenal.

It's basically like Biggie, you know, it's like it's all the personality that we all came to know and love. So Maddie had gotten this tape, not from the mail, but from Mr. C. Mr. C had gotten the tape from 50 grand, who was Biggie's guy, who gave the tape to Mr. C, we played the tape for Maddie. Maddie gives it shows at us. We're like, oh, this is incredible. So we go and we decide he's going to be the unsigned hype. We send Chimo due to his. house. He takes those first pictures of Biggie where he's like, you know, like on the street, I think,

he's outside and we run it and it comes out. And then this rarely happened, but we got a call from Puffy. Maddie got a call from Puffy. This almost never happened. He's like, yo, I'm interested in that. And this was happening right at the time, obviously, Jodacy, Andre Harell, and like the whole breakup was happening. It was right at that time when like he was leaving um Andre Harrow. So it was right when bad boy was starting. It was just timing. And so he's like, um, you know, I'm interested in this guy. And so Maddie goes and takes the meeting. Wait, y'all introduce. Yeah. Maddie C introduced Puffy to Biggie. Yes. That I did not know. Yep. Yeah. And oh. So we go to take the meeting and Maddie go, I didn't go. Maddie went to the meeting and Puffy is like,

Like, so yeah, like, tell me, tell me, let me hear the tape. He plays the tape. He's like, yo, it is incredible. And he's like, what does he look like? And then Maddie's like trying to describe what Biggie looks like. You know, he's like, well, he's kind of a big dude, you know. So Biggie and Puffy Meat. And very shortly after that, we get party and bullshit.

Party and Bullshit was like, I don't know, like a month or two, like not long after that. Like that record got made. and obviously we're like going insane loving it and then you know long story short I got to meet Biggie a couple of times he came to the office he was I remember one particular time we went to the staircase to smoke weed

he we smoke a blunt about six people Biggie's there and he's uh he's he's at this point he is still unsure and this is depicted in all of the documentaries and the movies that have been made when remember he still wanted to be a drug dealer he didn't really want to be a rap star

so right when that moment was happening that was like real real time I saw and he didn't say drug dealer but he's sitting there going man I got shit going on I don't know if I have time for this shit. He's like I don't have time for this shit man I'm doing well like I don't really have time for this shit and like the rest of us are trying to encourage him

like yo man like this is a real opportunity like you should really do this party and bullshit it was already out. So I didn't, I thought it was like a, it was already a done deal. Like, he was going to be huge, but he didn't really see it that way yet. Right. And then, um, not long after, I think I've told you this story before. I, I remember sitting on the step near Washington Square Park. And that's when I heard the demo from the night before of Juicy. And I, Maddie hits play and I hear, you know, M. Tume come out of the speakers. And then I hear Biggie, you know, doing these rhymes.

And then he says, smiles every time my face is open the source. And I'm like, over the moon. Like, this is amazing. Right. And that was it. And then, you know, then we got peace to Mateo and all that other stuff. A star is born. The star is born.

Okay. I'm going to ask you the question, man. Go ahead. So part two of that story I told of me, leaving Philly, get on a train at 6 in the morning. just to come to the West Village just so I can be the first person to read what my rating was

you know we talk about this all the time you have to say this is very important I don't know how much you listen to the show we talk about the roots and the microphones all the time this is a big moment I've heard a little bit yeah I've heard a little bit of it and the thing was you know I was elated

I was nervous because you know we were so left the center and taking a risk on this new uncharted live instrumentation territory thing. But yeah, yeah, we got the leave review. We got four mics. I'm happy. I want to go up and say, thank you. I would have been the second person to thank you guys for my four mics.

But I can't do that right now because I don't know that all hell is breaking loose inside. At the exact same moment, there's a crisis happening at the source. So the story that I got was that your partner, Dave Mase, took it upon himself to insert a three and a half page feature on one of his acts from Boston without the knowledge of you guys knowing it. Basically, as I'm discovering my four mics in the magazine, you guys are also subsequently discovering, hey, there's an article here about almighty RSO. And this is when I first heard the term called conflict of interest. You know, first I was like, well, what's that? People promote all the time and nepotism.

And, you know, Amy and Ursula trying to explain to me the newbie of the industry. Like, there's certain rules that you follow. And there's conflict of interest. And there's, you know, talking to your coworkers. That sort of thing. And of course, the way that this shit spread like wildfire, because the thing is, like, Amy is very connected to every publicist, every da-da-da-da. And there's no such thing as a phone thread or, you know, social media or whatever. So it was like the second we get back, it was like they were all on like a war council, like, yo, the source.

is over as we, they're all walking away. What happened that morning in October of 94? How did you find out that you guys have been compromised by one of your own and the subsequent aftermath of that? I never knew what happened on the inside of those walls that morning. And of course, I get the announcement that night. The source as I knew it is no more. I mean, it continues. And also, we saw each other around that time. If you remember, I went to the studio and I saw, I met with you. But anyway, to get to answer your question, just unrelated, I happened to see you shortly after that happened. But you're right. The way you framed it is exactly correct. We every month would have a sort of a layout, not just editorial, but the whole sort of map of the whole magazine.

Dave and I would primarily just him and I would sit in a room and we'd have, okay, this month's issue. How many, how many ads did he get? How much editorial do we have? And like, where these things come together, there would be a physical sheet of paper that we would map out the whole issue. You have the Tetris the format of, okay, I get it. The whole magazine, right. So it's like we have, okay, here's the cover feature. Here's the secondary feature. Here's the record reviews. Here's the fashion shoot this month. Here's this, whatever. So those pages were marked as ads. So I thought they were ads. I didn't even think twice. about it. We often had ads that were sometimes people would buy like a two-page spread ad. That was

like a normal thing. So I just assumed that that's what it was. So we finished the issue. As you said, it had a Red Man on the cover. And I get a call, I think, from James Bernard, who's, you know, my partner on the editorial side and also a co-owner of the magazine. Yo, something really fucked up happened, man. You got to come in right now. You got to see this. I'm like, what? Just come here, come here and see. So I come in and it's the pages that we thought were ads were actually a whole article about this group that Dave had been working with separate from the magazine. He was managing them basically, but I don't know if that was his official title,

but that was basically what he was doing. He was getting them deals. He was cultivating them and trying to make them into stars. And they wanted to join. jump ahead and get in this, you know, we were approaching it the same way we approached every artist in that, let it unfold. Let's, you know, we got hundreds of artists every month, like, let's figure this out, whatever. Instead, this thing happened. And it was a very big violation of our ethics inside the magazine, our friendship.

You know, I felt very offended by that act because it was like, you know, taking away. I was the editor-in-chief. I was in charge of every article. Like, I didn't write every article, but I made sure I knew about every article that was going in, and this was the first time that I didn't. So it was very shocking. Everyone has a code.

I get and I understand that. To the public out there. Would they even know the difference? You're saying, why would they even know the difference at all? I know. I know. Okay, so here's what really happened. If you want to know the sequence of events, my inclination to be quite honest with you was the way I always am, which is to handle this

privately. I did not want to go public with this information. My instinct, even though it was really messed up and I was very angry, I would have handled it privately, but something happened that prevented me from doing that. What happened was James Bernard sent out a letter addressed to Dave using something we using a fax machine we used to have a fax newsletter called the weekly word and it was pre-internet and what it was was we had the fax number of literally everyone in the rap industry radio records etc so we would send out we would send out this a weekly and minya actually minya oh miss info her first job for us as far as a full-time job was that newsletter she would actually come in once a week and she would say what are the biggest

stories and we talk and then she'd go and type up that one page sort of like summary. It was kind of like a news headlines thing. Like this is what's happening so that people on rap shows would be like, this is from the source. We found out that so-and-so is happening. So we had this platform that was still very, you know, kind of like a really industry-oriented thing. Right.

What the source initially was. It was still along the lines of initially. And we even had at one point when we tried to do industry magazine separate from the source very quick. very briefly. But anyway, so we had this platform. So this crisis happens. Dave does this thing. I'm very angry. Everyone's angry. At this point, we had a pretty big staff. Our editorial side was probably about 10 or 12 people. And the business side was probably another 10 or 12 people. We probably had 25 people working there this time. And James does something that I thought was a bad

idea. I still think it was a bad idea. He goes and he writes this letter to Dave and he puts it through that weekly word fax machine so that in one minute the entire rap industry knows, Dave, how could you do this? Like, you know, you put this article about these guys. We had nothing to do with it. We knew nothing about it. Da-da-da-da-da. And all hell breaks loose. I mean, it's like everyone in the industry was calling me. I got the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, like all these people, media reporters, you know, like what happened? Like this, it's kind of like, it's two things. It's a hip-hop story. It's also a media story. It's a story about turmoil, about media ethics, as you, as you alluded to. You know, it's about all of these things. And now that James has

unfortunately made it public, which again, had I, I would never have done that. I would have, handled it privately because that was what my instinct was telling me. But now that can no longer be done. Now everyone knows that this thing happened. So what's going to happen next? It's a very tough moment for me and for everyone around at those days at that time. What really happened was all of the editorial staff had a meeting. I think I went to one of the meetings, but then I think there was another meeting without me because I was more like did you guys have an HR at all no we I mean we had yeah we did have somebody but it was it wasn't really a real HR it was you know it was a very you know we were like it's like maze in the office as you guys are like Julie

Caesar style like it was like there was like a giant split and like half the company went one way and half the company went the other way and got it when it came down to it I had to make a very difficult decision, which was, given that now this information was out there, on top of it, the entire editorial staff had voluntarily left their jobs. So now that means there was other people there. There was a guy named Rob Marriott, Carter Harris, Kieran Mayo, Chris Calloway, was the art director, Chimo Do, Maddie C. There's a whole lot of people, Reggie Dennis. All of them had said, you know what, we're not even going to work here anymore because Dave needs to go. And I'm like, I hear you, but he's like, he owns a big chunk of this magazine, dude.

Like, I mean, you know, what are we going to do about it? And they were like, that's your problem. You figure that out, you know, kind of thing. So I was really isolated. So they put the pressure on you to, well, you don't have a staff or anything to vote him out or anything, do you? Exactly. I was left in a very isolated position because the staff had already decided, we're done, fuck this. We don't care about, you know, we're not going to work in a place that does this.

And I agreed with them. I understood their anger. I was angry too. But also, I was a co-owner, as was James and Ed Young. We were all co-owners. So I had two hats on. I had my editorial, you know, hat, which was, and my friendship with him after all these years. Like, how could you do this?

And I don't think Dave even realized, like, how serious, like, what he had done. Like, I don't think he even knew the effect. He definitely did not anticipate the, of the, the, reaction and I was left in a very difficult position of what do I do. So after thinking about it for quite a long time, a few weeks, you know, a couple of very stressful weeks, I decided I want to get bought out. I'm done. It was a hard decision, but once I made it, I made it. And I was like, okay, I'm not going to be able to go back to work and pretend everything's okay. I'm going to have to, if I were to go back to work, I'd have to hire a bunch of new people. I'd have to still work under this

now, you know, potentially corrupted, you know, structure now and this and that. And I just made the decision I wanted to get bought out. It took a long time for that deal to get done. It took maybe a year for that whole process to unfold. I remember seeing you around the time that I made this decision. And I, you were in a studio somewhere. Do you remember this? We're probably in battery studios, I think.

You were. It was battery. Yes. Yes. Correct. And I remember, I can't remember why I was sitting with you, but I went up in the studio and you and I think your engineer were very curious, as was everybody. And I got it. I understood.

You were like, what happened? Like, dude, what happened? And I probably told some version of the same story, you know, and. Yeah, the source was my illmatic. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. It's, I mean, look, it's not the way that I would want, would have wanted to leave the source. But if I'm being totally honest, you know, as I.

I think back on those years, I had already begun to feel a sense that I wanted to maybe move on. You know, it wasn't necessarily definitely not under that circumstance. But there was a period of time about a year before that when I did actually take like a two-month hiatus. And I went to Philly and tried to write other stuff. I was interested in writing screenplays and other things. So I went and pursued that for a while. Was there ever a thought that you guys would just collectively start another magazine? That was a thought.

You know, James and Reggie ended up starting XXL about like a few months after that. And then they lasted about a month. And then they didn't. They had a falling out with that publisher. And then I actually am the one that recommended Elliot Wilson for the job because those, the people from Harris publications who were also friends of acquaintances or friends of mine were like, hey, man, do you want to come? I was offered the job to go run XXL.

And I didn't want to do it, but I proposed that Elliot Wilson would be the best candidate, and he ended up being a great person to do it, obviously. But yeah, that was it, man. I decided to get bought out. Again, I wasn't, you know, I didn't anticipate that that would happen, but, you know, it was, that's what happened. And I accepted that. And we eventually reached a deal for a small seven-figure sum, and that was it.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford, TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinnfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific. bit con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers, Anchorman. Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day.

And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. Which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. and he's like, just give it a shot.

He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Sliced podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects, from hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. to the Sports Slice podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Sondland's, correct? the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Gregal Westby and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. and breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Were you part of the first, never spoken about, but the first source awards? Correct. I was part of the first, but not the second. So I was there for the first.

The first was a little crazy too, y'all. The first was insane also. People don't, yes, people, the first was, it was late 93. Were you there for that Tupac Tribe moment? Yes, I was there for the, I was, that was at, I think it was, where, what theater was that in? It was at Madison Square Garden. Right, right, that's right.

I went there as a spectator. And, yeah, I think I've told this story before. Like, there wasn't a Tupac tribe thing. What I believe happened was that as tribe was coming up to accept their award for midnight Marauders. Right. Someone accidentally queued up

Tupac's song. Yeah. And he did whatever. I don't give a fuck song, whatever. But from the audience point of view,

it looked, and you know, this is like after the, the legend of the Karras 1 PM Dawn situation, whatever, which I still don't, I've heard variations

of that story that it wasn't as, you know, it was like they were both booked on the show. I don't know. But it seemed like, Tupac was just like, yo, fuck that.

And the music came on cue. It was like, Bishop had come to life. And then, you know, the Zulu Nation had some words. And then, nah, nah, nah. But at the time in the audience, I thought someone was about to pop off between, you know, Tupac and Tribe. But it wasn't the case of it.

Yeah, that whole, you're right. That whole show was very chaotic. We didn't know what we were doing. Again, we were like, I think I had written the scripts for what they were saying. and like I remember like as soon as the thing started I realized they were all too wordy like it wasn't until like the show wasn't until the show actually begun and the audience was there that I realized that all the writing I had done was like three X too long like I was made for a mirror only I was like I messed up and like and up there is like like cool herk is

trying to like get through like some sentences that I wrote and it's all frustrated and like you know But there was, I just remember being very uncomfortable, but it wasn't quite as extremely bad as the next one. But it was a similar, similar, very chaotic event. What were your thoughts of 1995? I've probably gone on record stating that it's kind of been joking, but as the years go by, sort of serious, where if I were to mark the time or the sand and the... Yeah. Where I felt the hip-hop that I once love was now like. out of my reach, even though, you know, 95 was still a dope-ass year.

And, you know, Lord knows I thrived. But first of all, were you there at all without me knowing? At that point, I was, it was really right in the aftermath of this whole breakup that was going on. I remember getting a zillion phone calls. I was not there, but I got a million phone calls from people who were telling me all the crazy stuff. They're fighting. They're frightened. Yeah, all that stuff.

But yeah, I wasn't there for that. But yeah, it was, I remember thinking, you know, not being super surprised because of knowing how bad the first one was, that it was kind of like more the same. Not how bad, but how chaotic it was. And yeah, I, you know, it wasn't that much of a shock, but I definitely remember, like, reacting to that. As I also remember from the PM Dawn incident, too. I wasn't there for that. Were you there? No, but I was very close with KRS.

I was like KRS was kind of my hero, and he still is. KRS was, you know, my most important rapper in my life. He's the guy that I always looked up to. And so I interviewed him actually 24 hours later. After that incident, I was the first person to interview KRS, and I wrote a story that became a cover story where he was on fire. He was going after everybody. Oh, I remember that shit.

I remember. He was going after X-Klan. He was going after poor righteous teachers. He was going after, you know, of course, PM Dawn. He went after everybody, and he had these, he had like a stack of beefs. And he just was like, just one after the next after the next. And yeah, I mean, that was when KRS was the king of rap. I mean, he was definitely the all of hip-hop embodied to one person.

Before I rap, and one, I really want to think you're being super generous. I love the fact that Bill, you didn't even remind me that we're almost getting into Jimmy Jam territory. I was going to say, like, this is like a 10-parter now. This is like the, you know, the almanac of the source history. I'm happy to have watched it. I purposely did not look at the clock. One, I'm shocked that either Jake, Steve is walking around the city. Wait, I'm sorry.

I'm seeing. I'm at work right now. I should have known that this was going to go. Like, Steve is. walking to work. They're like expecting me on the floor. This is an act of rebellion I'm doing right now. It's perfect.

It's perfect source material. Dog, I've been waiting for this conversation for at least 30 years, yo. Like this is important. I got two guys here in my office with me. They've been patient the whole time too. For those who are still awake and still listening, I thank you for them as far.

Trust me. There's an audience for this. Before I wrap, though, just in quick retrospect, if you name like three magic moments that we probably don't know about. I don't know if you're there for the sequencing of a classic album or

you were there to witness an incredible show or just in your prime source memories. I'll come up with at least one, which is we're talking about KRS and I remember this was a really important moment for me is while we were

still at Harvard. The source was born but it was still in its very early stages. and I had got a call from Layla Turkin. Oh, Layla. Yeah. Yes, who had one of the publicity companies you mentioned earlier. And she was like, hey, you know, is there any chance that you could help KRS come to Harvard? And I was like, of course.

Like, I would want nothing more in my entire life than to do that. And that incident became something I think about as a pivotal moment. moment in my life. Basically, I went to the black student organization of Harvard and tried to get them to endorse a Keroswan speaking engagement. This is the undergraduate black students of Harvard. And I had a friend who was part of that committee. So he brought me in and I presented the opportunity. I was like, you know, there's, at that point, the source had maybe like a year under its belt or something. It had about eight issues or something like that. And, and And I said, you know, I said, I have a chance to bring this, you know, everyone knew who KRS was, this, the leader of hip hop, the most important artist.

He's going to come to Harvard. And they were like, okay, okay, that sounds great. We'll get back to you. And then they talked about it. And the guy got back to me and he said, hey, man, I got bad news. They're not going to do it. I'm like, what? They said, yeah, they're worried about violence and getting a bad name on the, you know, for the student organization.

And I'm like, this was during the time when, you know, everybody thought if you have a rapper, it means like you're going to get violence and all the, you know, it was back in the stereotype of, you know, some of it, and maybe there's some truth to it, but they didn't want to do it. So I'm like, what am I going to do? And so I, I meet somebody who says, oh, no, there's another organization you can go to. It's the Kennedy School of Government, which is one of Harvard's graduate schools. And they have a black studio organization, which this other friend of mine was part of. So he's like, come into that one. So I come into that one and they said, yes, we'll do it. So the night happens. They set up the event. It is packed. There's like every seat is full. It is absolutely like 1,000, 2,000 people there.

And what year is this? I believe this is 1989. All right, blueprint time. Okay. Yep, yep. And they have like placards for everyone on the panel. And there's a whole panel. And literally, it's Cornell West, Henry Lewis Gates,

It's every black intellectual professor like legend lined up on the stage. And there's a slot for KRS and he's not there. He's missing. The entire room is filled. All the other people are on stage and KRS is missing. And I am the only link to KRS. So you can imagine how I was feeling stress level through the roof. And this is the days before the internet, before cell phones.

Okay. So I basically was stressing my ass off. Okay, I had put this whole thing together. I was, you know, the main reason they were doing this, and he's not even there. So I'm standing in front of this building and like the time comes, the start time comes, he's not there, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes. I'm like, I am dead. I can never, like, I have to like, what's going to happen? And then after like 50 minutes, I look in the distance and I see a cluster of people.

And I realize that's him. It's like the Pied Piper. Like he's walking through the streets and all these kids are following him. And it's like, KRS, KRS. And he walks in and I'm like, Chris, what's up, man? Where were you? He's like, what? I got on the plane.

I'm here now. Like, what's the big deal? It's all good. You know, I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like, there's a crowd. Come on right now. Right now. So he says, here, take this.

And he hands me. and this shows you the time period, a giant VHS video recorder, like with literally a VHS popped in, like over the shoulder, giant heavy-ass camera. So he hands it to me. What?

Because he's like, hey, tape me, tape me, tape this for me, please. He hands it to me. We walk into the building. The event has already been now 45 minutes underway, but they get the first glimpse of KRS and the whole crowd just roar, standing ovation.

It was almost like better. because he was late, it made it even more impactful. He gets up there and he gives this amazing, like, monologue about hip hop and black history and America and politics and everything. Does this wind up being the interstitials that will wind up on edutainment? No, but it was similar time frame. So I'm sure it was what was on his mind around that time, okay? And then what happens is he gives this amazing speech. And then there's some questions and a little back and forth.

And it's going very well. And then a black woman in the crowd stands up and asks a question. And she says, we got two white boys on campus running a rap magazine. We're not happy about that. I want to know what you think about that. And it was like this very, it was like, after all this shit had happened. Now, okay, this like pivotal moment in my life, man, I had already devoted my, I had already, as we told him this story, been already devoted to hip hop for years now.

And KRS looks at me and he sees, he knows me, you know, and he looks at the crowd, he looks at the girl and he says, I know who you're talking about. He's like, I know those guys. And I have a question for you. Instead of asking, why are they doing it? Why don't you ask, why aren't I doing it. Those guys work their ass off. I know those guys. They love hip hop. They work their ass off every day, you know, to do this magazine. And I beg you, please outdo them. Please, if you can do a better job, I beg you, please do a better job. We need more voices. We need more magazines. We need more hip hop in the world, you know? And it was like this pivotal moment for me. It validated what we had been doing. It gave me the confidence to move on, to keep going. And then later,

after the whole event had done, I was sitting alone with KRS in like a diner in Harvard Square. And again, the source was very young. We were all still very new. And I said to him, man, listen, like, you know, how much it meant to me that you said those things and that, you know, you're here. And that kind of, and then I said, would you be willing to like be our spokesperson? And there was a period of time when he agreed and he actually did, he became almost like the spokesperson for the source. That was only for like a period, a short period. But that whole experience obviously had a huge impact on the rest of my career. Are there any retrospect regrets in terms of your contributions to the source that you wish you could have corrected?

I don't know, the TLC cover or the. that's a good one yeah yeah yeah no problem with that but i'm just sitting like just in general like is there like ah man i wish i did a souls of mischief issue before i left or like is are there any like well you know it's the problem with the tlc cover was that they were green their skin was green because it was a bad printing job that was that was the problem the printer did a terrible job and for some reason their skin was like green but the real reason there was obviously that was the first R&B group that we put on the cover. So we did get a lot of plaque.

But I don't regret that. I don't regret that because that was, you know, that was how hip hop was moving at the time. And it was a normal evolution. You know, like I guess as I alluded to earlier, you know, I do wish that the ending had been more graceful or more, you know, positive. What is your status with Mays now today? Like, have you spoken?

Are you civil? We're civil. We're civil. We've spoken a few times. He made an effort in recent years to be more, I think, appropriate in terms of his perspective on things. I think he kind of came around and realized that, you know, mistakes have been made. And he was kind of more conciliatory in recent years than he had been in the past. But obviously, I mean, we're not going to get into it all today.

But I've gone on to do a lot of other things in the music industry. I don't know. I didn't know it's going to be a nine hour. It's all good. Another time we can talk about it. It's all good. It's power 99's fault, man. I'm sorry.

I thought I was going to go dive right in. Yeah, I do. But I mean, you know, real quick, I do music for businesses now. I have a company called Playback Prodigy, which is background music for businesses. We have thousands of, I mean, hundreds and even over a thousand locations around the world. So, but anyway, I work with a ton of DJs. You technically mean when I hear background music in the, uh, supermarket or that sort of thing or like mostly high-end hospitality places so we do the music

for win resorts we do the music for mgm resorts we do the music for soho house so when i check into a hotel when you're in a hotel we that's the tons of fancy restaurants new york lydia the enia soundtrack that i hear yo i'm secretly obsessed with that world man like i figured you'd be curious about that yeah because it's it's it's a great perspective on like music and it forces me to stay current and also to be able to go back. Because there's some people that want yacht rock and soul. And some people want, you know, cutting edge hip hop. And some people want pop.

And some people want house music and whatever it is. So you're a professional curation. Correct. Music curated. Is there licensing that has to happen with that? Or is it just like you, this restaurant says, hey, I need that a, da, da, da, music for three hours in a loop.

And you guys know. We, we pay all of the appropriate agencies, you know, pay the PROs, ASCAP, BMI, CSAC. You know, we pay everybody that we have to pay to license the music. That's one of our expenses, you know, running this business. But for the most part, it's, you know, it's hardware, software content. So we do the whole thing. But in the end, it's about having good taste of music and picking what's appropriate for a certain setting.

I didn't know that one could actually monetize all that because the amount of restaurants that I frequent that are just like, Amir, you send me one of your playlist that I hear about so much. And I'll be like, yeah, sure. And I'll make them a five-hour playlist. And they'll be playing it. I didn't realize that that is a business. Yeah, I've been doing this for about eight years, eight, nine years. I can get a job with you.

Please, I would love nothing more than be able to say playlist by Amir Questlove Thompson. That would be our greatest feature ever if we were able to say that. But yeah, for sure, man. It's kind of like being a DJ behind the curtain. It's like being, it's like Wizard of Oz. Like you get to be the DJ, but no one sees you. You're like, it's kind of fun. Wow.

Okay. No, I'm excited about that. You think I'm joking. I'm not. I love, I'm, all I love is curating. Now as you open that door, I have so many more questions about that, but I technically have to get to work right now. Okay.

It's the longest four-hour lunch break. I have it, but very much well worth it. This is epic. I knew it was going to be epic. Like, now that I'm in the space that I'm in, I'm really hoping that perhaps you two can come to some sort of agreement in terms of at least setting the legacy right. You know, this is the time where everything that you described, I would love to see this told Madman style. I believe that this is almost a sixth season episodic series that you've told. And I'm certain the stuff you didn't tell me was even, you know, worth it.

But no, just in general, man, I want to thank you for your contribution to that magazine. And, you know, that magazine, especially being a pivotal moment in my life in terms of what I wanted to do for a living and something to look forward to and to aspire to be. And the shit literally has me here right now interviewing you, man. I want to thank you for that. And that's kind of why this was a lengthy interview, not just a 45 minutes. Well, tell me where you started. Thanks, man. I'm great.

Thank you. I appreciate all you guys for having me on. And also in particular, Amir, for representing, you know, what I think Philly does represent, which is a love of music, a knowledge of music, a respect for music, you know, like growing up in Philly, we, that's what's in our, it's in the water, as we say, W-A-R-T-E-R. Water. Yes. in the water. It's basically, you know, we love music in Philly. And if you go back to Philly today, we're still playing the classics, you know, you walk into store that you're here like

Luther Vandross or It Takes 2 or Bruce Springsteen or whatever, you know what I mean? It's going to be like we just love the classics in Philly and it's in the water. And I am grateful for all the things that you and your colleagues have done to be a positive force in the world of music. So thank you. So, Jonathan, how many mics would you give the source as a magazine? Wow. In your time period and overall. Great question, man. I mean, it was worth a four-hour wait for that one.

Okay, you know, I really, I often say that my golden era is the source's golden era. So I think that 19, from, I did an issue called the decade of rap. which came out in 1990. It was a look back. 80 to 1990, right? 1980 to 1990. That was my senior thesis at Harvard, was that issue of the source. So I would say from that issue until the time I left, five mics, because we did everything.

Now, I have no comment on what happened after I left because I had nothing to do with it, thank God. But basically, you know, I think that our time period, four and a half to five, you know, Amir said of four and a half is cool. But, you know, I mean, I do think that that time period in my life is a five-mic time period. And it's like, you know, what I look back is my golden era. So I'm very grateful for it. Is there a place where I can collectively get, like my one dream is to see the entire source canon as a volume set or do you own every issue? Like, do you have boxes and?

Yes, I have boxes. And as my colleagues here in Vegas see, I have all kinds of shit, man. I got boxes of pictures, records, autographed by everybody, gold records, you know, promo material, but and also all the issues and also all the internal stuff. I have a whole lot of internal documents about when we were making the issues and all that stuff. And I would like to, the source has a new owner, a guy named Landell McMillan. And he is. Oh, I'm familiar with Landau.

You know who Landel is. So Londell, I would like to say, right? No prints by document in his land. He pretends priests very, very assiduously. Yeah. But, but yes, I will say that Londell, you heard what Questlove just said, let's put every issue. I'm only talking about mine. So the first, let's just say the first.

So he owns the IP right now? The first 50 issues of the source, which is roughly my time period, a little bit more than that. I think I did like 54, 55 issues, something like that. So the first 50 whatever issues, from that 1980 to the one that had cool, her, bam, and flash on the cover, which is the hip hop history issue. Between those two, I would like to put all those online for free. I don't want to make money from it. I just want the world to have it. I want to put them online for free.

The only person that can give me the green light is Landel. So Landel, let's do it for the sake of history. Let's do it for the sake of the legacy and also let's do it. Let's make it searchable so that people can, you know, if you want to look up like large professor, you can type in large professor and you see all the pages he's on, you know. But yeah, that's what we need to do. Your mouth of God's ears. All right, Landell, you heard it here first.

What the hell? This show's still going on? Get out of here. All right, y'all. We got to sign off. John, thank you on behalf of Bill. And I'm Pete Steve. That sounds about right.

This is Questlove. We'll see on next week. This is Sugar Steve. Thank you for listening to Questlove Supreme. This podcast is hosted by Amir Questlove Thompson, Laia St. Clair, Sugar Steve Mandel, and Unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are Amir Questlove Thompson, Sean G, and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittany Benjamin, Jake Payne, and Laia St. Clair.

Edited by Alex Conroy. Produced for IHeart by Noel Brown. West Love Supreme is a production of Eyeheart. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. from hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes

franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcasts on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12

and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. They take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves.

We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. That's up, everyone. I'm Ego Wood. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell.

My dad gave me the best. advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Daniel Alarcon, and this is my friend. He's much more famous than I am.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'm John Green, co-host of the podcast The Away End, with my old friend Daniel. On our podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcon and John Green on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.