The little-known history of how the iconic hip-hop publication The Source started in Cambridge. A discussion with the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive and Dart Adams
In taking on the task of selecting great moments from the history of Cambridge publishing to highlight in our programming at the KiOSK in Harvard Square this summer, we started with some obvious required picks like The Real Paper and The Phoenix. But in addition to the storied alternative press, we also featured publications that are less well known for their connection to the area—including the early and iconic rap industry news sheet The Source.
In order to help revisit that often overlooked past, we asked Pacey Foster, Ph.D. of the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive at UMass Boston to speak at the KiOSK in June. Since its launch in 2016, the archive “has become one of the largest regional hip-hop archives in the world and has partnered with a diverse network of institutional and community partners to host world class events and exhibitions that collect and celebrate the local history of hip-hop arts and culture in Massachusetts.”
For our event, Foster invited Smoke, his colleague from the archive, as well as Massachusetts writer and historian almighty Dart Adams, both of whom offered deep personal insights as well as details to situate the region’s critical place in hip-hop culture. More on that background from Foster below …
“The importance of The Source magazine to the history of hip-hop culture (and journalism in particular) cannot be overstated. What started as a photocopied newsletter to promote a student hip-hop radio show on Harvard’s student run station WHRB (95.3 FM) would go on to help found the business of hip-hop journalism and at one point become the top selling music publication on American newsstands. Although the history of the magazine in New York has been well reported, its foundational years in Cambridge, when it was still a photocopied magazine being run out of the Harvard dorms by two white college students and their partners in the local rap group The Almighty RSO, remains an untold hip-hop origin story.”
Specifically relevant to our program, “in 2024, the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive (MHHA) at UMass Boston took in a large collection of The Source and Street Beat radio show tapes that represent the largest publicly available collection of the magazine and its origin story.” Thanks to all the friends and readers who showed up on one of the hottest evenings of the year to celebrate this important trove with a discussion about all of the above and more.
