[CountryGurl]

Monday, Dec 22, 2003, 12:17 pm EST

Justin Timberlake A Racist?
World Entertainment News Network

-----------------------------

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE`s former bodyguard has leapt to the singer`s defence amid allegations he is a racist - labelling the star "the blackest white boy I know".

KENNETH HUNTER, who was employed by Justin`s former band `N SYNC for four years until 1998, spoke out after former tour manager IBRAHIM DUARTE launched a $10.2 million (£6 million) lawsuit against the band, claiming he was the victim of racial abuse at their hands.

In his suit, Duarte claims, "After the band terminated the employment of security professional Kenneth Hunter, they made fun of the way Mr Hunter spoke and mimicked his accent in a racially offensive way."

But Hunter, who has stayed pals with Justin and even met up with him in Frankfurt, Germany last month, (NOV03), has rubbished these claims.

He says, "I never heard that. They never said anything derogatory about me. I got let go of because of political stuff between security and management. Justin`s whole security staff are basically black, even now. Any suggestion Justin is racist is an outright lie.

"There were no racial slurs or anything. I`ve always said he`s the blackest white boy I know. His characteristics, the way he sings, the whole soul vibe about him. I`ve never really witnessed a Caucasian person that had those characteristics. It`s also the people he hangs out with - he`s got a lot of black friends.

"I never heard him or any of the other band members say anything like `n*ggers`.

"Duarte`s a good tour manager. I`ll leave it at that. I`ve got nothing against him."
__________________________________________________ __


Friday, Dec 19, 2003, 11:25 am EST

Source Can`t Distribute Tape
Associated Press

-----------------------------

NEW YORK - A court ruling has stopped hip-hop magazine The Source from distributing a CD of a previously unreleased recording by rapper Eminem that includes phrases such as "black girls are dumb."

Manhattan federal Judge Gerald Lynch granted Eminem`s lawyers an injunction preventing the magazine from enclosing the CD in its February issue, which goes on sale in mid-January. The magazine had planned extensive coverage of the recording.

The Source said it exposed the Eminem track while investigating the forces corrupting hip-hop, including racism.

"The fact that our opinion regarding the prevalence of racism in the music industry is being censored is just another step in the effort to cover up the racial bias destroying hip-hop culture," The Source said in a statement Thursday.

Eminem`s record company, Interscope Records, declined comment on the ruling.

Eminem`s lawyers had argued that distributing the CD violates copyright laws.

Last month, The Source held a news conference to accuse Eminem, who is white, of racism, citing lyrics on the recording such as "black girls are dumb, and white girls are good chicks."

The tape was provided to the magazine by "three white hip-hop fans from Detroit who were peers of Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, in the early `90s, at the time of the recording," the Source said last month.

The 31-year-old rapper has said the recording was "foolishness" that he`d made as a teen "out of anger, stupidity and frustration" after breaking up with a black girlfriend.

Besides winning several Grammys, Eminem won an Oscar this year for his song "Lose Yourself" from the film "8 Mile."