Benzino - Definition and Overview

Benzino (a.k.a. Raymond Scott) is an American rapper as well as the CEO of The Source. Raised in Boston, he and David Mays founded the Source while Mays was a student at Harvard. Benzino is engaged in a rap battle with multi-platinum rapper Eminem.

Benzino, a fledging rapper from Boston, had been rapping for over 20 years and still hadn't achieved the success of many rappers known at the time he recorded with the group Almighty RSO in the 1980s. This did not lead to much success, and he soon tried again, this time as a member of Made Men. The Source, Benzino's magazine, 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 1994, Dave Mays slipped a four page article about the RSO in The Source forcing a major walkout of the writers. 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 has begun his secret reign at The Source. After the RSO/Made Men fiasco, he managed to record his own solo album. Benzino was 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 featured on the album. This album sold poorly, Motown to drop his work. What was left of his album was forced into a poorly done remix album featuring the same artists and a few different beats.

After the fiasco at Motown, he released his sophomore album under Elektra Records. Although it is still not clear why Benzino decided to air out his concerns with Eminem, but Benzino 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 the MTV Awards. Eminem brushed the critics by showing up with over 100 blonde clones dressed like him marching on stage. He blames MTV and Interscope for Eminem's rise to stardom. The thing that bugged Benzino the most was the little comment Eminem rhymed on one of his singles off The Eminem Show. Eminem quoted “To do Black music so selfishly, to make his self wealthy” in one of his songs and that was considered the last straw for Benzino. 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. What Benzino didn’t realize, he couldn't match up with Eminem, especially when it comes to freestyles. 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 throws 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 phones in later to threaten fight Eminem if they would happen to cross paths.

Benzino has been critisized for using his magizine 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 have also urged video stations to ban Eminem's video, "Just Lose It", as well as have the song removed from his album, because of the video's depiction of Michael Jackson. As a result of their efforts, BET has banned the video.