While multiple media outlets have limited their coverage of Kim Osorio’s upcoming book to her sexual exploits with 50 Cent and Nas, the former Editor-In-Chief of The Source has a much more compelling story to tell. As the release of Osorio’s book draws near, more excerpts have been leaked to HipHopDX. The latest gives some insight in the beef between Eminem and The Source.
“Eminem actually released two dis records in response to Benzino‘s attack on him, and as corny as it was for the two of them to be battling, at least Eminem could rap. We joked and laughed about it, but inside I knew it was going to make my job a lot harder. The more Eminem kept playing into this beef, the more Ray would use the magazine against him,” she says in the book.
Osorio admits to Benzino’s lack of accepting constructive criticism and how saying something remotely negative could cost a Source employee their job. Osorio further explains how this beef consumed Benzino and ultimately affected how relationships were handled and business was ran.
“Ray never ever left the beef alone. The rest of my career at the Source was dedicated to the destruction of Eminem, Interscope, Shady/Aftermath, 50, whatever and whoever were affiliated. If Russell Simmons made a comment in support of Em, the mandate was to bash Russell Simmons. If someone had a problem or beef with 50 or Eminem, they automatically got to be on the cover. Everything was somehow connected to Marshall Mathers thereafter. But Dave (Mays) knew how to disguise it. After years of dealing with Ray, Dave had acquired a special talent. The art was to take Ray‘s self serving agenda and repackage it into a hip-hop emergency that the magazine needed to cover. This time, Dave defined it as destroying the “machine.” The machine that had taken hip-hop and turned it into a multi-billion dollar business, forgetting where it came from. The machine that capitalized off 50 Cent‘s thuggery and was poisoning our culture. The machine is what was keeping Eminem going. Machine, bad. Eminem, bad. 50, bad. Ja Rule, good. Benzino, good. Russell Simmons, uh, what did he say? He likes Eminem? Bad.”
Kim Osorio’s “Straight from the Source: An Expose from the Former Editor in Chief of the Hip-Hop Bible” hits the stands September 9th.
