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Ex Source Editor Kimberly Osorio's Tell-All Opens Old Wounds

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HIP-HOP YOU DON'T STOP Osorio's latest
When Kimberly Osorio was ousted as editor in chief of the Source hip-hop magazine in 2005, it was the beginning of a long and amusing series of lawsuits and tabloid mudslinging. In the end, Osorio walked away with $8 million for having been defamed (by allegations that she'd had numerous sexual encounters with rappers she covered) and wrongly terminated (for having complained of a hostile, sexually aggressive work environment.) But more important was the promise that the matter was not fully settled between her and Source boss Raymond "Benzino" Scott: "I haven't had the chance to seal everything up and think of my next move, but there's a possibility of a book," Osorio later told the Daily News. And judging from an excerpt just posted on publisher Simon and Schuster's website, that book is primed to re-ignite one of hip-hop's greatest behind-the-scenes feuds.

In its opening pages, Straight from the Source: An Exposé from the Former Editor in Chief of the Hip-Hop Bible (slated for release September 9) dives into what some see as the misogynistic underpinnings of rap culture and the incestuousness of hip-hop politics, recounting an incident in which she was sandbagged during a radio interview by Sway, a DJ for New York's leading hip-hop station:

My mind was racing with questions that I anticipated they could ask. So I started to quickly jot down notes on the pad—points that I knew I had to hit and topics I knew I needed to avoid.

Benzino's beef with Eminem not connected to the magazine.... Stay neutral and don't say anything bad about Eminem ... or 50 [Cent] ... 50! Don't mention knowing 50 personally.

There was so much controversy involving the magazine's rivalry with XXL, Benzino's beef with Eminem, and Eminem's record label, Interscope, having pulled their advertising dollars from the magazine that I knew the real reason they'd agreed to have me on the show.

Of course, Sway did quickly dip into the muck:
"You were sucking off 50 Cent?"

"Huh?"

"Didn't Eminem say something about you sucking off 50 Cent?"

"Eminem never said that. No."

"Isn't there a song where Eminem said you were on your knees sucking off 50?"

"No, I think you got that wrong."

"So you were never sucking off 50 Cent?"

"No."

Osorio sees it as par for the course, however unsavory:
When you're in a position of power, you have to dust your shoulders off. You have to learn how to become immune to insults and expect the worst things to be said about you. Throughout my career at the Source, mud was slung so many times on my name, both inside and outside the office. Biggie said it best: "Mo' money, mo' problems." For me, though, once I became editor in chief, it was the problems that seemed to come a lot faster.
Though now this doesn't seem to be a problem. Until, if the rest of the book delivers as expected, she finds herself on the opposite side of the next round of lawsuits.

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