Returning to The Source, en Diaspora: Hip Hop in France

Abstract

In August of 1988, a Harvard undergraduate, David Mays, began putting out a one-page newsletter about Hip-Hop culture to promote his on-campus radio show, “Street Beat.” Within a couple years, circulation of his newsletter went from 1,000 to 10,000, as it eventually began being distributed by record retailers around the country. After graduating in 1990, Mays opened a New York office and, within a few years, The Source: The Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics had become the nation’s number one selling music magazine, with a paid circulation of over 500,000 and a readership of 9 million. Despite recent (and even older) debates concerning the magazine’s legitimacy, it has nonetheless become widely recognized as a staple of the Hip-Hop Cultural Movement (HHCM).