Eminem’s conflict with Ray Benzino and The Source magazine
may finally come to rest, as both emcees have expressed their desire to make
peace after intense feuds and lyrical assaults.
Eminem contended
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 Em’s bid to end their ongoing conflict, saying "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."
Much of Benzino’s
angst toward Eminem has been rooted in race. He 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.
But Eminem owned
up to his remarks on his latest album Encore, with the track "Yellow
Brick Road" where he raps, "I’ve heard people say they heard the tape
and it ain’t that bad / But it was, I singled out a whole race / And for that
I apologize / I was wrong."
The Detroit native
also addressed the sizzling beef with The Source, Benzino and Ja Rule on "Toy
Soldiers," a track Benzino said he was uncertain about at times.
The Boston-bred
emcee 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."
Benzino further
explained that he didn’t expected or intend the verbal quarrels with Eminem
to erupt. "I think he’s a huge influence and I think things got kind of
crazy and it’s a situation where maybe if he wouldn’t have gotten so much on
the defensive and tried to really understand what myself and The Source was
standing for, we could have came to the table a while ago," Benzino said.
He added that he
attempted to smooth over the incident with Eminem’s record label Interscope
before the "Foolish Pride" tape came into play.
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."
Benzino added that
The Source will remain a staple in Hip-Hop and that artists need to end their
conflict for the sake of 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."
