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Benzino vs. Eminem: More Than Idle Words

The lower right corner of The Source�s latest cover featured a caricature of Benzino holding Eminem�s head, spine still attached.

Another beef is brewing in the rap world, and this one is a little more than a few idle words and disses. Raymond �Benzino� Scott, co-owner of The Source magazine and one-third of the rap group Made Men, has declared war on Eminem. He has sparked an explosive exchange of words that has the music industry buzzing.

The Source�s February issue had Ja Rule on the cover, but the lower right hand corner featured a caricature of Benzino holding Eminem�s head, with his spine still attached, an image that would give Mortal Kombat fans cause for a double take. The question is: Of all rappers, why is Benzino calling out Eminem?

The beef started from an out-of-nowhere Benzino diss song titled �Pull Your Skirt Up.� In it, Benzino had many unfavorable things to say about Eminem. One line stated, � . . . this 2003 Vanilla Ice/ how is you playing it?/ If you ask me/ you really ain�t that nice/ you�re overrated.� He also asks the rap world to �go back to the streets,� and realize that Em is playing by a �different set of rules.� Benzino also took jabs at Eminem�s new protegees 50 Cent, Obie Trice and his crew, D-12.

Eminem questioned The Source's credibility in judging rap records.

Not wasting time, Eminem went into the studio and crafted two response records, �The Sauce� and �Nail in the Coffin.� �The Sauce� questioned The Source�s credibility in judging rap records. Benzino has been accused of advertising more for some rap records and less for others, making the magazine�s coveted �Record Report� and �Mic Rating� columns questionable.

One of Eminem�s lyrics stated, �No more Source for street cred/them days is dead/Ray�s got AK�s pointed at Dave Mayz head/every issue there�s an eight-page Made Men spread,� a reference to Source co-founder David Mays. Eminem said that when he was trying to start his career, he couldn�t get a record because he was white. Now, he said, the irony is that he is being criticized for becoming successful.

The song �Nail in the Coffin� hit Benzino twice as hard, stating, �I would never claim to be no/Ray Benzino/an 83-year-old fake Pacino,� and �What you know about being bullied all your life/oh, that�s right, you�re half-white.� Yet, the line that made Em shine was, �If you were really selling coke/what did you stop for?/Dummy, if you stew some crack/you�ll make a lot more money than you do from rap.� Benzino wrote the final installment of the diss-series with a song called �Die Another Day,� that begins with a taped conversation between him and Eminem�s manager, Paul Rosenberg, who seemed to call for a resolution of the conflict. But Benzino clung to his position to �bring hip-hop back to the streets,� calling Eminem �the rap David Duke, the rap Hitler,� and himself �the rap Huey, the rap Malcolm, the rap Martin.�

These remarks, along with the February issue of The Source, show that Benzino is not backing down. In that issue, an article aimed at Eminem, �The Unbearable Whiteness of Emceeing,� claimed that Eminem is �the refinement of white supremacy.�

From the other side, Em spoke to WQHT-FM New York�s Angie Martinez about the Benzino situation, saying, �You can�t play two sides of the fence. You can�t be a rapper and own half of a magazine, because then what happens is you call rappers that you like and you want to make guest appearances on your album, and they don�t want to do it because you suck . . . he gonna take you out his magazine.�

So the battle between Ray Benzino and Eminem has been raised to a higher plateau. Benzino is playing the race card. Em, on the other hand, is trying to trump as �an underground emcee that rose on rap skills, not color.� We�ll have to wait and see how Eminem replies in the February issue of XXL magazine. This battle is far from over.

D.M. Becton is a student at Xavier University who writes for The Xavier Herald.



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