A Classic...

I Got 5 On It
written by JusHH

2Pac never got it. It took Jay-Z six tries to get it. A Tribe Called Quest got two, and Nas built his entire career on his first one. It was the single greatest accolade that an album could receive at one point – 5 Mics. Every month, The Source magazine would use the back pages of its issue to rate albums. Rather than stars, The Source awarded an album Microphones or “Mics” on a scale of 1 to 5. Getting 5 Mics meant that your album was a certified classic and gave that emcee unbridled bragging rights. With Hip-Hop being relatively ignored by the mainstream award shows, getting a high rating in The Source became a rapper’s Grammy. These ratings were the most captivating part of the magazine. I personally grabbed a new issue and immediately flipped to the back to see if anyone’s album was good enough to get a 5. At the time, a 5 Mic album was as rare as a UFO sighting and it kept rappers hungry. You can find many rappers referencing their own Mic ratings, often griping about not getting the extra Mic that would have made them classic:

“F**k five mics/ I don’t need no mics!” – Sticky Fingaz

“I gotta hit The Source, I need my other half a mic/ because that Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was a classic” – Big Boi of Outkast

Who got how many Mics was always a hot topic and everyone had an opinion. Before the downloading era, we often relied on The Source to tell us who was bringing it and which albums we should spend our $15 on. Then something happened. Rappers who we all knew couldn’t really spit suddenly got 4 Mics and underground rappers who used to find love within the pages of The Source couldn’t seem to get high ratings, if they were even mentioned at all. Our collective skepticism came to a head when the Made Men, a Boston trio who could be considered mediocre at best, received 4.5 Mics for their album. Combine that with countless advertisements that pushed an album no one cared about, and all kinds of red flags went up. It was at that point where we learned that one of the co-owners of the Source was none other than Raymond “Benzino” Scott. Benzino who was an aspiring rapper (his skills left much to be desired) himself, was a member of the Made Men. This fact gave the credibility of the 4.5 Mic rating a black eye. The Source was forced to put out a press release saying that it would no longer rate any albums affiliated with its owner.

However the damage was already done and it got worse. Benzino stepped out of his silent partner role and decided to use his magazine to self-promote. He would publicly take sides in rapper beefs and turned the advertising pages into his personal commercials. In 2005, the Editor-in-Chief, quit his job at The Source when his 5 Mic rating of Little Brother’s The Minstrel Show, got reduced to a 4.5 by the owners because they had planned to give Lil’ Kim’s new album a 5 and they didn’t want to take attention away from the larger star. The Mic rating system was no longer worth the paper it was printed on. You simply couldn’t trust it. Rappers stopped caring what they received and fans put down the magazine in favor of XXL and internet websites.

Facing extinction, The Source’s board of directors, in 2007, forced Benzino and others to step down. The Source continues to award Mics and some levels of credibility have been restored, however, it’s far from where it used to be. Other magazines and publications have tried to fill the void with their own ratings but it’ll never be quite like it was. Although I won’t pick up The Source any more, I’ll still ask my boys, “Yo, you think Lupe new joint is a 5?”