After Eminem claimed The Source was given him unfair treatment during an interview on Hot 97, David Mays, co-owner of The Source issued this statement:

"While Eminem claims he's received unfair treatment in The Source, the truth is that he was not only discovered by our magazine's Unsigned Hype column, but has always received fair and impartial coverage, including several highly coveted covers."

Well, in the January 2003 edition of The Source Eminem received plenty of coverage. Co-owner of The Source / Rapper, Benzino, has once again crossed the line of professionalism and brought his personal 'campaign' with Eminem to the pages of The Source. First, Em is depicited as Elvis, along with a tirade by Harry Allen on comparing Em to Elvis and Tarzan. This is hardly a
big deal since Em himself has appeared as the Rock & Roll legend in his own 'Without Me' video. Then in-house cartoonist, Andre LeRoy Davis, illustrated a character wearing a Boston Celtics jersey and platnium "Wonder Woman" braclets smashing candy-coated M&M's, while a timid white M&M is hiding around the corner. The white M&M, which is not an official color of the M&Ms
candies, is wearing a marshalls badge. Finally, in Source-like fashion, Benzino was awarded the Hip-Hop Quotable of the Month for his lyrics to Die Another Day, a mixtape dis towards Eminem. Ironically, the lyrics directed towards Eminem's daughter, "...Tell Hailey it ain't safe no more / Daddy better watch your back at the candy store / you f#@$ed up; resort to playing beef / f#@$ around she'll end up like Joan Benet Ramsey" were removed.

Also in this issue is a dis directed at XXL. The picture is of a huge muscle bound dark-skinned African-American male sporting a Source wife-beater breaking the neck of an hispanic male wearing a XXS shirt. Underneath the picture is the caption, "Respect The Architect, Or Get Broken." The hispanic male looks 'similar' to real life XXL editor, Elliot Wilson. It has not been determined who the huge muscle bound dark-skinned African-American male is supposed to be since David Mays and Benzino are both light-skinned.

While The Source formally maintains it’s “unbiased, last independent voice of hip hop,” Benzino’s lyrics dissin’ Em have been featured in print and on their website, Benzino’s management team at Flava Unit somehow made the Power 30 of the most influential folks in hip hop list for 2001, while Eminem was absent from the list, and Benzino’s single from his last album “Bootee” is featured on the The Source’s Hip Hop Hits Vol. 6. (Was Bootee a hit?)