For many reasons, the night of the 1995 Source Awards is one of the most iconic nights in hip-hop history. It was the night of André 3000’s famous “The South Got Something to Say” speech, and iconic performances from Craig Mack and Method Man took place. More importantly, this night is believed to be the spark that ignited the flame of the West vs East battle. While tensions were already high between the coasts at the time of the awards, acceptance speeches riddled with subliminal insults and a rowdy New York crowd fanned the uncontrollable forest fire of this battle of hip-hop titans.
What started as an average award show was quickly dismantled. Death Row Records founder Suge Knight fired shots at Bad Boy Records and Diddy while accepting his Motion Picture Soundtrack of The Year award. In his speech, Knight said, “Any artist out there wanna be an artist, and wanna stay a star, and don’t wanna – and won’t have to worry about the executive producer tryna be all in the video, all on the record, dancin’ – come to Death Row!” This was a direct shot at Diddy, who positioned himself as a star rather than an executive. While both label owners have tarnished their legacies in the years since their feud fueled one of the biggest battles in hip-hop history.
The rest of the night was filled with the audience firing shots at West Coast artists and the Death Row crew firing right back. With all the controversy surrounding the event, some fantastic performances were lost in the mix. For this Golden Age Thursday, we look back at the Death Row Records showcase at the 1995 Source Awards. The performance brought out a string of artists, including Dr. Dre, DJ Quick, and Tha Dogg Pound, as they performed a medley of classics from the label’s catalog. You can tell this was before things began to get heated, as you can hear the crowd cheering and going along with the stellar production quality of the performance.
