Benzino (born Raymond Scott) is an American rapper as well as the CEO and co-owner of The Source, the top-selling hip-hop magazine in the United States. Raised in Boston, Benzino met Source founder and co-owner Dave Mays while Mays was a student at Harvard University; from 1988 to 2001 Benzino served as a silent partner, finally acknowledging his ownership of the magazine in 2001. Benzino's rapping career has been relatively unsuccessful, compared to many of the star hip-hop recording artists featured in his magazine. Although infamous for his run-ins with the police, and his role at The Source, he is most famous for his battle with multi-platinum rapper Eminem.

Biography

Made Men and The Source

He started his rap career with a group called the Almighty RSO. The RSO were known for their anti-police song "One In The Chamba" off the Forever Doomsday album released through Tommy Boy Records. The single and album were considered controversial for the tone of the rap group using references to envoking murder on local law enforcement. In 1994 The Boston Police and the Fraternal Order of Police union had placed the group on high priority at the time forcing RSO to be dropped from the label. After being dropped from the label, his friend David Mays, the founder of The Source slipped a four page article about the RSO in the magazine forcing a major walkout of the writers.

Benzino went on to record under the guise of the Made Men. Former editors claimed that Benzino (then known as Ray Dogg) and his associates would frequently visit the magazine, threatening journalists. He was considered the muscle of the magazine. Benzino's impact was known through secretly inserting favorable coverage and advertising featuring him and members of the Made Men. The Source offered most of the group's promotion during his time with them.

The Made Men were nominated for the magazine's annual awards even though their music was rarely seen or heard in the media. Benzino somehow managed to overthrow the original founders of The Source and then took over. Therefore his role as the "five-mic giver" has been well recognized in the pages of the publication. Back in 1999, Dave Mays changed the rating of Made Men's album in The Source forcing Selwyn Hinds, the editor to resign in protest of Benzino's influence. Often critics blast the magazine for not addressing the issues in the urban communities. The Source still garnishes the title stories that address the concerns of hip-hop.

Benzino officially began his reign at The Source in 2001. After the RSO/Made Men fiasco, he managed to record his own solo album. Benzino was once signed to Motown Records and he was slated to release his album The Benzino Project. His album debut featured many A-list rappers. Even pop artist Pink was contributing vocals on the album. This album sold poorly forcing Motown to drop him from their label. What was left of his album was done into a poor remix album featuring the same artists and a few different beats. After the fiasco at Motown, he released his sophomore album under Elektra Records.

Benzino vs. Eminem

Although it not clear why Benzino decided to air out his concerns with White multi-platinum MC Eminem, but he claims that Eminem's success was hurting Blacks and Latino artists. He believes that the corporations are controlling and supporting Eminem. Benzino stated that Eminem can talk about dark moody expressions, while Black rappers are forced to talk about bling-bling (materialistic things).

One possible contributing factor for Benzino's concerns was Eminem's rating of his critically acclaimed album The Marshall Mathers LP. The Source gave him a two-star rating for his album, while Benzino's Made Men were rated four-and-a-half stars. Eminem was upset and he blasted the magazine on his follow-up album The Eminem Show.

Benzino also placed the blame on MTV. He claims that the MTV Video Music Awards allowed Eminem to show up with over 100 blonde clones dressed like him marching on stage for their 2000 awards show. Benzino also blames Interscope for Eminem's rise to stardom. The thing that bugged Benzino the most was the little comment Eminem made on one of his singles from The Eminem Show: “Though I'm not the first king of controversy/ I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley/ To do Black music so selfishly/ and use it to make myself wealthy" (although in the context of the song, it's not a comment likely intended to be taken seriously). Benzino considered this the last straw.

Before Benzino released his album, he recorded a diss mixtape devoted to Eminem. In some of his interviews he states that Eminem was a part of the corporate "machine" and it was destroying hip-hop. Eminem caught wind of Benzino’s disses and decided to respond. Eminem recorded two vicious disses, practically destroying the credibility of The Source and the rap career of Benzino.

Not to be outdone by Eminem, Benzino threw out the claims of a corporate takeover and started to diss Eminem personally. He recorded a response to Eminem’s diss by threatening his daughter and dubbing him the “2003 Vanilla Ice” and “Rap Hitler.” Eminem was fed up with The Source; he decides to air it out on radio. DJ personality Angie Martinez allowed Eminem to air out his concerns with The Source. He branded Benzino as the “worst rapper in the world”. Benzino phoned in later, threatening to fight Eminem if they crossed paths. During that time Elektra Records dropped the rapper, even before his sophomore album was ever released. Benzino's album Redemption sold 14,000 units, a major disappointment compared to his rival's album, The Eminem Show, selling over 4 million copies.

Benzino has been the subject of journalistic scrunity for using his magazine as a personal promotional platform as well as a tool against his enemies. In 2003, The Source released recordings of Eminem which included derrogatory references to African Americans and women. The recordings, made in 1988, were the subject of a lawsuit by Eminem.

In 2004, Benzino and The Source urged video stations to ban Eminem's video, "Just Lose It", and urged to have the song removed from Eminem's album, because of the video's depiction of Michael Jackson. As a result of their efforts, BET has banned the video.

Currently Eminem and Benzino continue to feud on albums, despite Eminem's plead to end the beef with The Source (through the single "Like Toy Soldiers" off of Encore) . Benzino responded with his diss record "Look Into My Eyes". The song's video parodies Eminem for being scared of Benzino, and for being willing to give up the rap game in order not to see the death of Eminem's friend Proof.

At a time, the two were willing to sit down together and eventually settle their differences. All of that was halted after a confrontation between Eminem and co-founder David Mays. They got into a heated dispute, forcing Benzino to reignite the beef. On March 4, 2004, Eminem withdrew his lawsuit against The Source. During that time, the staff at The Source had another walk-out, as Benzino had filmed a video in the Dominican Republic while The Source's staff received non-clearing paychecks, with no response from upper management. Benzino's latest album, Arch-Nemesis, was released quietly on February 22, 2005, and has sold 10,000 units to date.

Is Benzino Leaving The Source?

According to Allhiphop.com, Benzino resigned from his position as co-owner of The Source. The rapper decided to exit the magazine due to the controversy surrounding his involvement and citing that a dispute between the publishers of Black Enterprises, the company that distributes the magazine alongside Eminem among many things were reasons for him to step down. Benzino may eventually start his own franchise magazine that opposite of his The Source Magazine. Contary to the website that broke the story, SOHH.coman online hip-hop magazine claims that insiders from The Source has uncovered a blantant publicity stunt to encourage advertising in the magazine. Former editor-in-chief Kim Osorio, and many female workers filed a multi-million lawsuit against Benzino and The Source over sexual harrasment and gender discrimination. Insiders at The Source state that Benzino and Mays wanted information to be leaked out so they can ease the advertisers worries about associating with The Source. As of April 10, 2005, Benzino returned to his position of The Source citing that his reason for leaving was to prevent the firing of L.A. Reid. He also cited that Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine was threatening Reid so he felt it was his duty to ease Def Jam from firing him. Benzino is currently facing numerous lawsuits from unpaid expenses after the 2004 Source Awards.

External links

• The Source magazine official website