NEW YORK: When The Source first wrote about Eminem six years ago, it published a glowing endorsement heralding the then unknown rapper as the Next Big Thing.

“One can’t help but recognise this rapper of Caucasian persuasion has skills,” the magazine gushed in its ‘Unsigned Hype’ column. “This Motor City kid is a one-of-a-kind talent, and he’s about to blow past the competition, leaving many melted microphones in the dust.”

The Source is still hyping Eminem — but now he’s the enemy. For more than a year, Source co-owners David Mays and Ray ‘Benzino’ Scott have been waging war against their one-time poster boy, attempting to “expose” rap’s mainstream face and sales king as a racist interloper corrupting a black art form for the benefit of corporate America.

Late last year, The Source appeared to have its smoking gun — old tapes in which Eminem uses the n-word and derides black women. (In an apology, the rapper said the tapes were made in anger when he was 16 and dumped by a black girl; The Source claims he was in his early 20s when they were made.) — AP