According to www.thesmokinggun.com, The Source magazine, has been ordered to write the most unpalatable of all checks, a six-figure one payable to Mr. Marshall Mathers(Eminem), the hip-hop publication's archenemy.
Federal Judge Gerard Lynch last month ordered the magazine to pay Em $131,388 to cover legal fees incurred in connection with a copyright lawsuit filed last December by the music superstar.
The hefty judgment came two months after Lynch ruled that The Source had violated a court order barring the magazine from publishing the complete lyrics to unreleased songs recorded by the 31-year-old Eminem when he was a teenager. One of those ancient raps stated that "black girls are dumb, and white girls are good chicks"--proof, The Source claimed, that the rapper was racist.
Lynch's order is a major victory for Eminem in his lengthy feud with The Source and owners David Mays and Raymond "Benzino" Scott. Of course, things could have been worse for The Source, since Eminem's Shady Records had been seeking about $175,000 in legal fees, a figure Lynch reduced by a quarter.
Eminem recently shot the video to his first single in Los Angeles last week (September 6th) for his anticipated fourth album, Encore , due out on November 16th.
Eminem's conflict with Ray Benzino and The Source magazine may finally have reached it’s end, as both emcees have expressed their desire to make peace after intense feuds on both paper and in music.
Eminem has stated that record labels profit when artists battle, as the disputes tend to generate more publicity.
"A lot of times when rappers have beefs, their sales go up so meanwhile the record labels and the heads of record labels benefit from this," Eminem recently told MTV. "They go home and they can sleep, they rest their heads knowing that they're selling records. Meanwhile, we're really out here."
Benzino responded to Eminem's bid to end their ongoing conflict, stating "It's all good. Time moves on, but if Eminem said that, I can only embrace that because he's a huge influence out there on the machine. My whole thing was really about the machine and if he's kind of speaking against the machine right now, then I'm all for a sit down and if it's going to be for the betterment of Hip-Hop and everybody, then I'm all for it."
The highly publicized beef has been because of race. The heat reached an all time high when Benzino and his Source constituents presented a tape of Eminem using the N word about an African-American woman when he was younger, in the infamous "Foolish Pride" recording.
Since then Eminem has addressed the recording and has attempted to move on while The Source still targeted the blonde emcee and his music.
The Boston-bred Benzino told Hot 97's Angie Martinez, "It's like a whole bunch of different emotions so I actually let my guys tell me what they thought and they kind of thought that he sounded like he was kind of reaching out."
The beef, Benzino said, has affected the business aspects of The Source, since Interscope has refused to advertise with the magazine or feature their artists.
"If you look in The Source, there are no Russell Simmons Phat Farm advertisements. It's crazy and that was because we went at Eminem and Russell took Jimmy [Iovine] and Eminem's side and there you have it," Benzino said. "The Source magazine went through some tough times, but at the end of the day it's a business and we survived because we're true to [ourselves] and we're true to Hip-Hop."
"We all have to come together and really stop trying to hurt each other because no other genre of music does this to each other," Benzino insisted. "At some point we can change it and if Eminem said that, I'm willing to sit down and definitely talk to him because whatever is the past is the past. We gotta work to make it better and make it better for our kids."
The question remains how sincere are both parties in resolving this heated conflict.
Rap superstar Eminem is suing music magazine The Source after it attempted to release a song he recorded as a teenager, which contains racist lyrics.
Music fans were outraged when the lyrics were first printed in the magazine in 2003. They include the lines, "Blacks and whites, they sometimes mix / But black girls only want your money, 'cause they dumb chicks."
In his defense, Eminem claimed he wrote the song "out of anger, stupidity and frustration. I'd just broken up with my girlfriend, who was African American, and I reacted like the angry, stupid kid I was."
The hitmaker was originally granted an injunction to prevent the magazine from releasing the song on CD, but The Source bosses got it lifted and a sample of the song was released.
A New York judge this week granted permission to Eminem to pursue his copyright infringement lawsuit.
Consequently, The Source's co-owner Dave Mays has accused Eminem and his record company Shady Records of using their money and power to fight the freedom of the press.
He says, "This case is about freedom of the press ... and the way that Eminem and Shady have tried to suppress those freedoms. These guys are trying to use the courts and their finances to stop us from doing what every other press outlet does on a daily basis."
It seems that there is no resolution in sight in the ongoing verbal feud between rapper Eminem and The Source. On Tuesday evening in Detroit, Em and Source co-owner David Mays got into an off-air verbal confrontation at radio station WDTJ-FM.
Reports are still coming in, but according to sources close to the altercation, Mays was being interviewed at the station for an evening radio program. Some of Mays' words were directed toward the Motor City SoundScan king.
Shortly thereafter, Eminem arrived at the station with approximately 10 men. While sources say that no violence took place, there was plenty of shouting and four-letter words being flung.
Last week, the long-running beef heated up in the wake of a song and video made by Source co-owner Benzino (see "Eminem 'Never Wanted To Squash The Beef,' Benzino Says; Fires Back In New Video").
Neither Eminem, his reps, nor spokespeople for WDTJ would comment on the matter. Mays could not be reached for comment at press time, but he did show up on the radio again Wednesday. This time he was on New York's Hot 97, telling that station's Angie Martinez what a happened from his perspective.
"[Eminem] starts yelling at the program director, 'You're a punk for letting this guy come up to the station.' The show basically ended, and I left and came to New York," he said.
Eminem still isn't getting any love from Ray Benzino.
The beef goes on between rival rappers Eminem and Ray Benzino.
"[Eminem] is a coward and p--," says Benzino, co-owner of The Source magazine, who has a new video mocking Slim Shady. "If he and I are ever face to face, I'm going to smack the s-- out of him."
On his recent track, "Like Toy Soldiers," Eminem claimed he wanted to put an end to hip-hop hostilities. The song's video depicted the fictional murder of his buddy Proof by a masked gunman.
Benzino claims the shooter in that video "is supposed to be me." He also takes offense at Eminem's referring to him as "a 'receptionist.' He's still being a disrespectful little f--."
In retaliation, Ragin' Ray uses his own rap, "Look Into My Eyes," to return the fire. The track's video has someone named "Jimmy" - Benzino confirms he means Jimmy Iovine, the head of Eminem's label, Interscope Records - arrange for Benzino to be killed.
Benzino also alleges Interscope has pressured BET not to air his video.
"BET says it doesn't want to get in the middle," says Benzino. "But they play Eminem's video every day. Eminem can do a parody of Michael Jackson, but as soon as someone makes a little parody of him, he can't take it."
An ally of Eminem denies the "Toy Soldiers" video was about Benzino.
"It's about beefs in general," he says. "Benzino is trying to us use Eminem's CD to push his own."
09-16-2004 07:33 AM
