Kim Osorio, 'The Source' and hip-hop's overdue reckoning with misogynoir

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4.3 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

In this episode of Louder Than A Riot, we ask what it means to speak up in a culture where it's always been safer to keep quiet. In 2006, Kim Osorio, then editor-in-chief of The Source, sued the magazine and its owners for workplace sexual harassment. Nearly two decades later, hip-hop still has not had a true reckoning around sexual misconduct. The Louder team talks with former Source writers who take us behind the scenes at the hip-hop bible and the circumstances that led to the suit. Activist Tarana Burke, creator of "Me Too," also reflects on how this case could have put hip-hop ahead of the curve on reckoning with misogynoir.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone from NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton with the latest episode from Season 2 of Our
0:04.7	Louder Than a Riot Podcast.
0:06.8	On this episode, ladder examines a groundbreaking lawsuit in hip hop.
0:11.2	The 2006 gender discrimination, sexual harassment and hostile work environment, retaliation,
0:17.9	and defamation case of Kimisorio versus the source magazine.
0:22.0	It's a case that predates the 2017 Me Too movement and serves as a reminder of why the
0:27.7	hip hop industry was never really part of that movement and still hasn't been.
0:32.0	You'll hear from former source writers like Alia King, activist and Me Too creator
0:35.9	Tarana Burke, and many others who saw the case go down first hand.
0:40.2	You'll also hear how Louder navigated the evolution of this story as their main voice
0:45.7	in this episode, Kimisorio herself, requested to be pulled out of the story after receiving
0:51.8	a cease and desist from one of the former co-owners of the source earlier this year.
0:57.1	Lastly, the team asks what will it really take to have a sexual harassment reckoning in
1:02.2	hip hop.
1:03.6	Also a warning, this episode discusses sexual harassment and assault.
1:09.1	A warning before we begin, this podcast is explicit in every way, and this episode covers allegations
1:16.2	of sexual harassment.
1:18.8	For more than a year, Louder was working on a story about an almost 20 year old lawsuit
1:23.6	in hip hop.
1:25.0	A lawsuit that alleged sexual harassment and workplace discrimination at a place that
1:29.4	was the pinnacle of hip hop journalism at the time, the source magazine.
1:34.4	A story that centered on the plaintiff in the case, the former editor in chief of the source,
	...

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