Hip-Hop Bible's Unfinished Business
Jan. 30 2008, Published 8:04 a.m. ET
For months, staffers and visitors to the West 23rd Street offices of hip-hop bible The Source have had to step gingerly through a construction site. Now, it appears that the mag, whose masthead mingles in the same elevator as RadarOnline.com's, situated a few floors above, is having trouble coming up with the rent--reportedly overdue to the tune of $156,000. All in all, it's been rough going lately for our friendly neighbors; last Wednesday, Source Editor-in-Chief Dasun Allah turned himself in to police after he was caught tagging a Jehovah's Witness Assembly Hall in Harlem. But even more troubling to the monthly's loyalists must be seeing November cover-target G-Unit's fashion label open up posh new offices in the same building. Produced in partnership with Marc Ecko's Ecko Unlimited street-style empire, the outfit's sleek headquarters are chock full of chrome, black leather Barcelona chairs and flat-screen TVs.
The temperature in the building has dropped noticeably since the latest issue of The Source hit stands with a cover story headlined "G-Unot!"--a shout-out to 50-Cent rival The Game's t-shirt campaign that, according to the mag, is burning up the streets of Queens. A no-holds-barred attack on 50, his rhyming crew, and the "plantation owners" at Interscope, the article claims that "corporate rap's top unit" is "fading fast."
A rep for The Source did not return calls for comment, and a spokeswoman for G-Unit declined to discuss the article or our fellow tenants.