Little Brother still gets 4.5 mics in The Source, The Minstrel Show banned from Virgin Megastore

Hold up.  Wasn't the whole Source controversy over Little Brother's The Minstrel Show getting only 4 mics instead of the intended 4.5? I just got back from my local Barnes & Noble where I peeped the album review and, low and behold, LB still got their 4.5 mics.  So what's really going on here? 

- Did Joshua "Fahiym" Ratcliffe resign in vein? 
- Did Benzino and Dave Mays pull an editorial coup using LB as bait?
- Was it too late in the production process to pull the extra half mic?
- Did 'zino and Mays Google search Little Brother and realize that they had the internet going nuts and therefore retract their re-rating?
- Was I looking at a misprinted edition of The Source?

Someone fill me in, cause if its the latter I'm going to buy all the copies on the rack and sell them on eBay.  In other news, The Minstrel Show was inexplicably pulled from Virgin Megastore:

I hopped over to the giant 3-story Virgin Megastore in San Francisco, the one right across from the giant Apple store, on September 13th.  I searched for a copy of The Minstrel Show and quickly realized it wasn't there.  So I asked a few of the staff what was up and these were the responses I got:

"We don't usually carry stuff by new artists"
There was an entire rack of "breaking new artist" CDs from the likes of Lyfe Jennings, Trey Songz, Tierra Marie, etc.

"We try and cater to the local population when it comes to hip hop"
I checked and didn't see many- if any- prominent Bay Area artists represented in the hip hop aisles.  Virgin Megastore is definitely not hyphy.

"I thought I saw it on the release schedule a few weeks back, but it was apparently pulled off the list.  Sorry, I can't help you there. Check Rasputins down the street"
You should have seen the look on my face when the "customer service manager" told me that.  Is this just bad distribution by Atlantic, or part of the continuing conspiracy, as it may seem, against Little Brother?

I walked out of the store and up a few blocks to Rasputins (independent record shop in the Bay), where I finally made my purchase.  I don't buy many CDs. I copped The Minstrel Show purely out of principle and to support a group that I believe will help restore balance to the game.  Lets hope Soundscan recorded my purchase...

Comments

[Hashim]

Important question- did you follow my advice when you opened the cd case?

As I understand it, Little Brother was slated to get 5 Mics in The Source, not just 4.5.

[dj mirateck]

Nah, it was originally supposed to be 4.5 mics, Mays and Scott disagreed and wanted it to be a 4, so Fahiym quit. Google "Little Brother + The Source" to verify.

And YES- I have followed your CD opening advice, although not on The Minstrel Show- that one's staying shrinkwrapped.

[nastack]

its seems as if theres some kind of backlash or something against them

[Rizoh]

Hashim already hit the nail on the head. They were supposed to get their full just due - 5 mics but it was reverted to 4.5 a la Buckshot's Monkey Barz in XXL. I bypassed a bootleg copy that was circulating on the net and went out and copped Minstrel Show just like I did The Listening.

[dj mirateck]

Damn guys... no one hit a nail on anyone's head= Minstrel Show was supposed to receive a 4.5, not a 5. It was supposed to be downgraded to a 4 not a 4.5. Do your homework:

http://www.hiphopmusic.com/archives/001105.html

AND

http://www.sohh.com/thewire/read.php?contentID=7458

QUOTE: "According to reports, former Source Editor-In-Chief, Joshua "Fahiym" Ratcliffe resigned when his 4.5 mics rating for The Minstrel Show was changed to a 4 mics rating by Chief Brand Executive Raymond "Benzino" Scott and CEO Dave Mays."

I just want to know if the whole drama was resolved before going to print. The issue is NOT how many mics they were supposed to get. They were supposed to get 4.5, and they still got 4.5 in despite the dramatics pulled off by 'zino and dem...

[Trent]

According to this article in HipHopDX
[ http://hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.3507 ],

Wack-zino and Dave Mays never intended to changed Little Brother's 4.5 mic rating. So Fahiym's resignation could have been in vein. Or those two guys did an editorial coup to get Fahiym out and bring Dasun Allah in.
Here's an excerpt of Wack-zino's explanation of what happened with LB's controversial mic rating:

"Fahiym had mentioned that he wanted to give Little Brother 4½, and I said that was all right. But at the same time, I think that Fahiym and his music editor didn't give Young Jeezy justice, and that's what you're not hearing. They gave Young Jeezy a "Mic Check." I don't think he really understood the whole movement of Young Jeezy, and that's the whole paradox of the job. To be honest, I haven't even heard Little Brother.

"But as far as Fahiym wanting to give him 4½, I have no problem with that. And they're still getting 4½. It's just that when you're paying attention to Little Brother, you also have to pay attention to what Young Jeezy is bringing to the table with his movement, and to me, that's where the conflict started. It really wasn't so much of Little Brother getting 4½, because when the next issue comes out, they're still getting 4½. We never changed it. It was just an issue where we felt that he probably didn't look at the Young Jeezy situation as thorough as he should have, and I just think there was a conflict up there where he didn't feel comfortable with the decisions being made up there."

Boy, the Source is a sad state of affairs. The only reason why Wack-zino is talking about Young Jeezy is because he hangs out with the dude. There's no question that the Jeezy movement is thick but that should hold no bearing on whether this particularly rapper gets more or less coverage in the magazine.

I don't know how any music editor at the Source can function effectively when it is clear that you have the publishers (and possibly other editors) hanging out with the very same rappers and rap moguls this publication is trying to cover. There's a conflict of interest here and its seeping into the editorials.
It messes with the intergrity of the magazine.

It's a goddamn shame.

[Tego]

Damn. Benzino been explained that on HHG.

[P-Matik]

WHAT movement is Young Jeezy bringing? I don't get it...I'm not one of those "backpack, keep it real hiphop" dudes either but I'll never understand what the deal is with why Young Jeezy is so popular. He's not a good lyricist, he promotes coke sales calling himself "snowman". When I first saw the "Icy" video, I laughed and him and Gucci Mane because they were so horrible. Plus, he has to collab with everyone just to shore up sales. I mean he could never be a 50 Cent, as much as I dislike him too these days...

[dj mirateck]

Agreed.

As Jim Jones would say, "I put Jeezy and Gucci in my goofy category. For real."

[P-Matik]

Uhh..that's "kufi category", my man.

[IssaTheGreat]

I am from Durham and I know how the group came to be. Their music is the best thing out right now. What Little Brother and the Justus League is a movement, Not Young Jeezy. I am not hating, but there are hundreds of rappers better than Jeezy in North Carolina. We need to take Hip Hop back from all these "minstrel" ass niggas.