Benzino

Benzino
Birth name	Raymond Scott
Born	July 18, 1965 (1965-07-18) (age 46)
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	producer, record executive, Rapper
Years active	1984–present
Labels	7th Floor Music, Murder Inc., ZNO Records .
Associated acts	The Almighty RSO, Made Men, Hangmen 3

Raymond Scott (born July 18, 1965) from Boston Massachusetts, better known by his stage name Benzino is an American hip hop media executive, and record producer.^[1]

Along with David Mays, his partner for over 20 years, Benzino is known for being part of the Hip Hop magazine The Source, which was launched in 1988 as a single sheet newsletter out of Mays’s Harvard University dorm room. Benzino is also known for being involved in a widely publicized feud with rapper Eminem.^[2][3] He was also a founding member of several rap groups before finally becoming a solo artist.

Music and publishing career

Benzino started his career with a group called the The Almighty RSO. The group was known mainly for their anti-police song "One In The Chamba" from the Forever Doomsday album released through Tommy Boy Records. The single and album were considered controversial for the tone of the rap group and the open encouragement of murdering 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 RSO broke up, Benzino created a group called Made Men and went to record with Dave Mays who was a friend and manager of the group. Usually without the consent of editors and shareholders, he would frequently insert stories and reviews featuring Benzino into The Source. Editors claimed that Benzino and his associates visited the magazine, threatening journalists and stealing property.^{[citation needed]} In 1994 and 1999, Mays had severe friction with editors after he slipped in articles on Benzino's group, forcing a majority of the staff to walk out in protest. After the walkout, GQ Magazine criticized Mays' decision to work with Benzino. The result caused scrutiny on the rapper and the publication. When the publication held its annual award show, Benzino was nominated for awards even though his music was rarely seen or heard in the media. In 2001, after a taping of an award show, Benzino was arrested in a dispute with law enforcement in Miami. When arrested by the police, Benzino acknowledged himself to be co-owner of the publication. Allegedly,^{[by whom?]} Benzino forced out the original founders of The Source. When reviewing albums, the publication judged them by "mics" (a star rating). Insiders^[who?] believe that Benzino was involved in rating albums. Therefore his role as the "five-mic giver" has been well recognized in the pages of the publication.

After acknowledging his position as co-owner of The Source, he went forth to record a solo album. Benzino was signed to Motown Records and released The Benzino Project. The debut album featured many notable rappers, and also Pink. However, the album sold poorly, causing Motown to drop him from their label. The remains of the album were turned into a remix album featuring the same artists and a few different beats. Benzino released his second album under Elektra Records. It failed to chart, selling less than 26,000 copies. Benzino released his next two albums independently on his own label.

Benzino and his role at The Source

After the original editors resigned from the publication, the magazine experienced several years of success as it grew along with the exploding popularity of rap music and hip hop culture under the magazine's second editor-in-chief, Adario Strange. Several years later, with Selwyn Hinds in the editor's seat, it was suddenly announced that Raymond Scott—a rap artist known professionally as Benzino—had been made a co-owner of The Source.

Benzino's relationship with the magazine dated back to its early days. He was a member of the Boston-based group Almighty RSO when he first met David Mays while visiting Harvard. He needed support from Mays to get his group some credibility, and Mays soon became the Almighty RSO's manager. While Mays was gaining support from advertisers willing to invest in The Source, Benzino managed to broker a label deal at Tommy Boy Records to distribute his group. The Almighty RSO was known for their controversial song "One in the Chamba". In 1994, Benzino pressured Mays to slip a four page article about the group into the magazine against the will of the editors. The article forced a major walk-out among staff members.

The magazine had indeed inserted favorable coverage to Benzino on various occasions (including the reformed Almighty RSO, now known as the Made Men). Even at The Source Awards, Benzino, a relative unknown, performed at the show to the surprise of a stunned audience. When Benzino was arrested in Florida after taping The Source Awards, Mays rallied for an investigation of the Miami police department for their treatment of the rapper, and threatened a boycott against Miami.

Benzino also received a notorious reputation as co-owner of the publication. Benzino threatened many staffers after an issue was raised about his new group, Made Men, being shunned for other performers. This is an example of the things that provoked a number of editors at The Source to quit or walk out. In a 1999 issue, Made Men received a rating of four and-a-half mics for their album Classic Limited Edition. The author of that review, "J. J. Dillinger," did not exist, and was merely an alias used by Benzino to catapult his own album.

The feud with Eminem

In 2002, Benzino started a feud with rapper Eminem. Benzino claimed that Eminem was "a product of the machine that sought to discredit black and Latino artists contributions to hip-hop".^[4] Benzino released a diss record called "I Don't Wanna" where he claimed that Eminem was not real and true to the rap culture. Benzino then made another diss track with "Pull up ya Skirt" which featured on his 2003 album. Redemption. Although Benzino didn't expect Eminem to respond, Eminem did with a track named "The Sauce". After releasing this, Eminem released another diss track named "Nail in the Coffin". In "Nail in the Coffin" Eminem attacks the heart of The Source by revealing their tactics of "butt kissing, beggin' motherfuckers for guest appearances" and claiming "real lyricists don't even respect you or take you serious". Eminem continues to attack Benzino and his magazine. He mentions the fact that Benzino's older age makes him less competition and that he uses his son to help him financially as he suffers in the hip hop industry. Benzino then replied with the track "Die Another Day," to which Eminem did not respond. According to Eminem, the lyrical feud was no longer worth the effort; popular opinion had already placed him far in the lead. Eminem also felt that backing off would do more damage to his opponent, since Eminem's diss tracks had actually made Benzino more well-known than he had ever been in his rap career. The Source later unearthed an old tape in which a young Eminem was rapping racial slurs against Black women. The magazine devoted its entire coverage to the discovery of the tapes, and also the (allegedly) negative impact that Eminem has had on the hip-hop industry. For his part, Eminem did not deny making the tapes; he claimed that he made them after a bitter break up with a black girlfriend (a situation upon which he elaborates on "Yellow Brick Road" on his Encore album). He apologized for making the tapes but also exhorted the public to consider the origin of the allegations.

Nevertheless, Eminem sued The Source for defamation and copyright infringement. The federal courts allowed an injunction to limit the distribution of the tape's lyrics. The Source ignored the injunction and went forth to publish the entire lyrics on its website and in its magazine. By ignoring the injunction, The Source was found in contempt of court and were forced to pay Eminem and his label, Shady Records a considerable sum in compensation. In 2005, lawyers for Eminem were preparing for trial over copyright infringement but abruptly withdrew stating that the rapper no longer has any issue with The Source. Benzino still hasn't officially squashed the beef with Eminem. Mays and Benzino both countered the withdrawal of the lawsuit calling it a "cowardly" move. They both claimed they can finally expose the truth about Eminem and planned to eventually release the "racist tapes" in a future magazine. Nevertheless, The Source was satisfied with the results, and felt that the move was considered a win for both parties.

Benzino's firing

Benzino still continues to feud with Eminem and many others associated to him. Internet bloggers had rallied a petition for the removal of Benzino and Dave Mays. Under pressure, Benzino decided to step down from his post at The Source. In 2005, Benzino formally announced that he was resigning as chief operations officer and co-owner of The Source. Benzino stated that his battle with Eminem and the magazine's publishers were hurting the revenue of The Source. Within a few days Benzino announced that he returned to The Source as co-owner. Industry insiders believed that The Source staged a fake event in order to encourage advertisers to invest in the controversial magazine. The rapper refuted his claims about saving The Source, and instead blamed Interscope's chairman Jimmy Iovine. Benzino believed that Iovine was pressuring to fire rap mogul L.A. Reid if he didn't have Def Jam advertising removed from The Source. The reason why Benzino stepped down was to save Reid's position as president of Island Def Jam, or so he claimed. Last year, Benzino had been on radio denouncing Def Jam's founder Russell Simmons for not participating in his smear campaign to expose Eminem as a racist. He had used racial comments about Simmons in the past forcing Def Jam to pull a vast majority of their ads from The Source. As of today, Interscope, Def Jam, Tommy Boy, Virgin, Motown and Universal have pulled advertising from The Source. It is noted that Benzino was signed to each of these labels before the massive decrease in general advertising.

Joshua "Fahyim" Ratcliffe was appointed to the publication. Ratcliffe abruptly left after he was ordered to lower the rating of Little Brother's The Minstrel Show from four-and-a-half to four. Lil' Kim's release, The Naked Truth, received the five mic rating instead. Although critics speculated that Lil' Kim's manager was dating Dave Mays, this was the first time that a female rapper ever received the highest rating in the magazine.

Hip Hop Weekly

Benzino and Dave Mays, the founders of The Source, launched their new magazine Hip Hop Weekly on newsstands on October 16 2006. It is the world’s first weekly hip hop magazine. The magazine was launched in high glossy form in January 2007. Hip Hop Weekly has been so successful that it was recognized by the prominent MIN Awards as one of the 15 top new magazines of the year, beating out more than 700 new magazines. The magazine features major contributions from some of the best writers and radio hosts in hip hop,^{[says who?]} such as Wendy Williams and Star who both have their own weekly columns in the magazine. Hip Hop Weekly is sold mainly at super markets, airports and convenience stores, as well as traditional major newsstands and bookstores. Hip Hop Weekly today has become one of the most profitable Hip Hop publications, earning close $4 million in revenues in 2010 alone(according to article written about the Hip Hop Weekly in the 'New York Observer')

Solo discography

• 2001: The Benzino Project
• 2002: The Benzino Remix Project
• 2003: Redemption
• 2005: Arch Nemesis
• 2007: The Antidote
• 2011: Caezar

Group Discography

Made Men

• Classic Limited Edition

Hangmen 3

• No Skits Vol. 1

Mixtapes

• Benzino Presents: Die Another Day: Flawless Victory

References

1. ^ "MC BENZINO SAYS HIP-HOP IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION". Boston Globe. January 18, 2003. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F8A90EB4C50A029&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2009-01-21. 
2. ^ Adaso, henry. The Greatest Hip-Hop Battles (...and Their Winners). About.com. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
3. ^ "MAGAZINE IMPRESARIO BENZINO TALKS ABOUT HIS MUSIC, HIP-HOP'S FUTURE & HIS FEUD WITH EMINEM". Philadelphia Daily News. March 3, 2005. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DN&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI. Retrieved 2009-01-21. 
4. ^ "The Source Certifies Bun B's "Trill OG" As "Classic," Issues Rare 5-Mic Rating". http://www.sohh.com/2010/08/the_source_rates_bun_bs_trill_og_with_ic.html. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 

External links

• Hip Hop Weekly magazine official website

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