The battle between The Source and its former co-owners David Mays and Ray "Benzino" Scott continues, as the new owners of The Source have sent a cease and desist notice to the pair's new venture, Hip Hop Weekly...

The Source accuses the recently launched Hip-Hop tabloid of trademark infringement and unfair competition. At issue is Hip Hop Weekly's header in bold above the magazine's title which exclaims "brought to you by the founders of The Source."

"The concern for The Source is that the masthead of Hip Hop Weekly is a problem because it creates some confusion as to whether or not the magazine has an affiliation with The Source," The Source's attorney Andy I. Corea told AllHipHop.com. "If you saw a restaurant and it had on the sign 'from the creators of the Big Mac, you would have every reason to think the company had an affiliation with McDonald's...We are open to other options, we just want people to know Hip Hop Weekly is not affiliated with The Source."

They don't have to worry about that, as anyone who's read HHW knows that it's barely even affiliated with literacy. anyway, you can read the C&D letter here; the saddest part is that the legal papers were sent to an anonymous Gmail account. Ah, the big-time glossy-magazine life.

The Source Sends Cease & Desist Letter To Hip Hop Weekly [Allhiphop.com]

Remember Hip-Hop Weekly? It's the David Mays-founded rap rag that's one part tabloid, one part fanzine, and all parts asinine (especially when you consider that, despite its title, it's not actually published weekly). Now Complex magazine is accusing HHW of jacking some of its quotes. From the Complex blog:

In Issue 4 of their piss poor-cheapest paper to ever be printed on-rumor rag, they straight jacked a whole page of quotes and didn't give any credit or ask for permission to reprint it. They lifted the now infamous Lil Wayne interview we did in our last issue for their 'Word On the Street' section (pg. 16). Word for word they reprinted quotes with no credits and definitely no green light from us.

So we started checking the other quotes they had juxtaposed next to various rappers on the page and quickly realized we weren't the only ones getting robbed. The Jeezy comment about Nas was from this infamous Monie Love show. The Nas comment at the top of the page was stolen from MTV news and they didn't even quote him accurately. And it doesn't stop there. Jay Z's words are actually the lyrics to "Kingdom Come," and Kay Slay's words were from a radio clip he did. So basically the whole page consisted of shitty Wire Image photos with ill-gotten quotes from various sources with absolutely no credit to anyone.

We were gonna call them to straighten all this shit out but guess what? They don't even have a phone number or email on their masthead. So, fuck it, let's hit their website and email 'em. No dice either, these dudes aren't even online yet.

Granted, magazines run quote round-ups all the time—but they almost always give credit where it's due. That said, Complex shouldn't bother launching an email campaign aimed at the guys from Hip-Hop Weekly, as none of them have demonstrated the ability to read. And besides, they're not the only ones who have been ripped off by these pinheads.

Biting Sources [Complexmag.com, via Nah Right]

Buried inside the press release touting the actual launch of Hip Hop Weekly, the David Mays/Benzino magazine that is really, seriously, going to be in stores this week (although not, alas, with the cover treatment we graciously offered them):

SPECIAL NOTE: "Diddy Apology"
The staff of Hip Hop Weekly would like to apologize to Sean "Diddy" Combs for the mistake made in the rating of his new album, "Press Play." Unfortunately the HHW staff stayed up for 72 hours straight to complete their first issue on time, and all of the record ratings were printed incorrectly. The correct rating will be printed in the next issue.

Aww, isn't that cute? The magazine's not even on shelves yet, and it's already trying to suck up to the hip-hop A-list. Too bad their sweet-talking ways don't always seem to work.

Hip Hop Weekly Arrives At National Newsstands And Supermarkets This Week! [Press release via Yahoo! Finance]
Parent company Hiphopdirectory.com decides not to sell Hiphopweekly.com web site to new Hip Hop Weekly publication owned by David Mays and Benzino Scott. [hiphopweekly.com]

Earlier: Idolator Called It: The Greatest Day Of Our Nearly One-Month-Old Existence

As you may have heard, next Monday is the launch date for Hip Hop Weekly, a new rap magazine from David Mays and Benzino, the charmless knuckleheads who helped bring you The Source. Idolator scored an exclusive first look at the magazine's debut issue—which, as Mays promised, certainly brings "the realness."

(Big up, as the kids say, to Jim at www.jimcookeillustration.com for the artwork.)