In two decades as a rapper, Ray "Benzino" Scott has remained a minor player - no gold records, no hit video on MTV or BET - which makes it all the more fascinating that he is the most aggressive provocateur in an ugly war that pits rap's biggest star, Eminem, against the genre's most successful journal, the Source.

Last week, Scott released an album that includes a track, titled "Lift Up Your Skirt," that portrays Eminem as a cultural carpetbagger, a white artist undermining a black art form. That attack escalates considerably in the February issue of the Source in a five-page interview with Scott and an accompanying cartoon poster that depicts Scott holding a gory trophy: the decapitated head of Eminem. At the top of the cover, Eminem and Scott are shown in facing photos with a challenging caption: "Step into the arena."

Issues of race, street credibility and success often roil the rap community, especially when Eminem has been considered, but how did a fairly anonymous Boston rhymer become the most prominent voice in the matter? Especially now, in 2003, when many of the most acclaimed black rappers have embraced Eminem as a talent whose urban background overrides many questions of color?

Part of the answer appears to be the curious relationship between Scott and the Source, a relationship that has given Scott a consistent presence in the publication, considered the Rolling Stone of hip-hop. Through the years, Scott has been reviewed, interviewed and even framed in a poster with his son, despite a recording career that has bounced him to six music labels and largely been ignored beyond the pages of the magazine.

On two occasions, in 1994 and 1999, the coverage given to Scott has led directly to the resignations of the magazine's senior editors and some staffers. At the time they protested that Scott, a longtime friend of the Source's publisher, David Mays, was getting behind-the-scenes career support at the cost of journalistic ethics. (A spokeswoman for the Source said Mays was not available for comment.)

Now Scott's relation to the magazine is official. The February issue identifies him in the masthead as "co-founder and visionary." The title does not jibe with the oft-told history of the magazine's being launched in 1988 as a one-page newsletter by then-Harvard student Mays. (In addition, Scott's new album, on Elektra Records, comes with a special offer: three free issues of the Source.)

The perception that Scott is using the magazine - and the Eminem attacks - to stir interest in his career is spreading in the hip-hop world, and Web sites brim with rumors, criticism and petitions calling for boycotts of the Source or Scott's resignation.

"It's ridiculous," Scott said of the notion that he uses the Source as a personal propaganda machine. "If anything, the Source has hurt my career."

That is disputed by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, former Source editor in chief. He said he quit in 1999 because a review of Scott's music was tweaked to make it more favorable.

"The Source has given preferential treatment to Benzino over the years, and he has a great deal of influence, and that's the reason I'm not there anymore," Hinds said. "Once it was done behind the scenes; now it's becoming a very transparent thing."

To Scott, the only issue of credibility that bears discussion is the matter of Eminem and his impact on hip-hop, music that sprang up in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods in New York.

"There is a double standard in the highest degree," said Scott, who believes that Eminem's success is a disgrace because it is driven by a white-dominated industry and white-dominated audience who want a "blue-eyed, blond" performer.

And what of race issues evoked by the success and power of Mays, a white businessman? Scott said Mays is part of authentic hip-hop culture and Eminem is not.

"This not a race thing," Scott said. "I'm talking about Eminem and what he does to hip-hop, what he stands for morally and what he doesn't stand for. [Black rappers] can't talk about our pain, we have to do songs that fit on the radio. And he can get away with anything. Nobody else is selling. He isn't the best rapper, but he's the only one selling."

The Eminem Show was the best-selling U.S. album in 2002 and is nominated for a best-album Grammy. The rapper also starred in a semi-autobiographical film, 8 Mile, about a kid from an impoverished white community who finds his defining art and friendships in urban black culture. Eminem has acknowledged the vagaries of race and success in songs such as "White America."

Against that backdrop, observers are scratching their heads at the February issue of the Source. Among them is Steve Stoute, vice president of Interscope Records and executive producer of 8 Mile, who was (with Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine) named No. 1 last month on the Source's annual list of industry power players.

"It's important because what the magazine has stood for has been the most pure vision on hip-hop and lifestyle that exists, and when you walk around with that badge, it's a thing that is watched keenly by all," Stoute said. "This thing with Eminem is raising a lot of eyebrows."

Eminem weighed in by saying: "It's kind of sad. Because it's the magazine I grew up loving when I was younger. It was like the bible of hip-hop."

He was less wistful in a rebuttal rap lyric he fired at Scott that suggested the publisher of the Source had a gun to his head when it publicized Scott's rap group, the Made Men: "Ray's got AKs to Dave Mays' head / Every issue there's an 8-page Made Men spread."

Made Men is also the title of Scott's film that, under the banner of the Source Films, was intended to push the magazine into film production with major theatrical release. The magazine gave the project a steady drumbeat of advertising for months, but its 1999 release date has come and gone quietly. The movie was just one of many projects that the Source has powered for Scott.

In interviews with a dozen music industry insiders and former and current staffers at the Source, Scott is described as a forceful personality who has wrangled a career out of his friendship with Mays, along with considerable funds for recording music, videos and living the life of a recording star.

Several also said part of Scott's early role at the Source was as a "sergeant of arms" of sorts, whose friends could shield the magazine's leadership when hard-edged rappers disagreed with coverage. Scott says he joined Mays as a formal business partner in the Source in 1995, although that was not acknowledged in the magazine until the past few months. Scott did not detail his investments, but sources close to the magazine say he did not put money in and instead earned the partnership as a charismatic consultant.

Regardless, it is Mays who is hailed by all as the one who built the Source into a notable success story. Circulation stands at about 500,000, but independent audits say its "pass-around" readership is many times that and skews to the youth audience coveted by advertisers. It reigns in hip-hop, although upstarts such as XXL are making inroads.

Scott's music has appeared on the magazine's CD collections of hip-hop hits, and he was given a coveted performer slot at the Source's televised music awards show in 2000. A year earlier, his group was nominated for the show's video of the year award for "Is It You (Deja Vu)," a video that records show was played only twice on MTV. The winner in the category, by Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson, was played 400 times on the channel that year.

Jeremy Miller, the chief operating officer of the Source, said the magazine remains an independent voice, although he concedes it would have been wise for the magazine publicly to acknowledge Scott's role sooner.

Meanwhile, Scott says he will continue to "speak for the streets" in his music and at the magazine. He says the tumult is unwarranted, that the only thing that has changed is his title.

"I didn't want to be out there before," Scott said. "Journalism is about agenda and setting people against each other. I don't need all of that. I wanted to stay in the back."