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.
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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.”
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The question remains how sincere are both parties in resolving this heated conflict.
