"Racist" Eminem Tapes Proven Authentic, Still Sound Better Than Benzino's Album

Back when word of this tape first arose, I told my friend Irina that Eminem will ultimately go with the disgraced congressman's defense, writing it off as a youthful indiscretion.

Em will surely take a hit in the short term, and he'll have to put in a lot of work cleaning this one up. But in the long run I'm sure he can work past this. Though I would never trivialize his usage of the N word or disparaging Black women, this really does sound like a frustrated, ignorant little kid who is in a very different place mentally than Em is today. Although he often seems immature nowadays, I'm inclined to doubt that these lyrics reflect the mindset of Eminem in 2003.

The Source Digs Up Tape Of Eminem Using Racial Slurs

Eminem found himself on the defensive Tuesday (November 18) after The Source magazine owners Ray Benzino and Dave Mays held a press conference to play a recording of the MC delivering racial slurs.

On the first of two tracks purportedly recorded in 1993, an audibly young Slim Shady raps, "All the girls I like to bone have big butts/ No they don't, 'cause I don't like that n----- sh--/ I'm just here to make a bigger hit."

The second track featured Eminem rapping about a black girlfriend he broke up with. "Blacks and whites, they sometimes mix/ But black girls only want your money, 'cause they're dumb chicks," he rhymes. Later in the freestyle Em raps, "Never date a black girl, because blacks only want your money/ And that sh-- ain't funny."

The first track was only a few lines long, but the second track went on for several minutes with Em — seemingly rhyming off the top of his head — repeatedly saying he did not like black girls and that they were only out to get money. Both tracks sounded amateurish.

"Don't make this right now a double standard," Benzino said at the press conference. "We gotta treat this the same way you treat Mike Tyson, like you treat Kobe Bryant, like you treat R. Kelly, like you treat O.J. Simpson."

Eminem responded by insisting he isn't racist and explaining that the recording was made when he was young, foolish and angry.

"Ray Benzino, Dave Mays and The Source have had a vendetta against me, Shady Records and our artists for a long time," Eminem said in a statement. "The tape they played today was something I made out of anger, stupidity and frustration when I was a teenager. I'd just broken up with my girlfriend, who was African-American, and I reacted like the angry, stupid kid I was. I hope people will take it for the foolishness that it was, not for what somebody is trying to make it into today..."

Benzino's rant about about Tyson, Kobe, R Kelly and OJ is silly for numerous reasons. All those guys were accused of criminal acts against women, in incidents that occured at the height of their fame, very different from uncovering some offensive remarks made long before one's career began. A better comparison, though not dug up from his past, might be Jesse Jackson's Hymietown interview.

Not to mention that except for Mike Tyson, so far all those guys have more or less come out on top (we'll have to wait and see about Kobe). And just like those guys (and Jesse), I think Eminem will outlast this scandal. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out though.