Judge OKs release of Eminem CDs

A federal judge has decided to allow a hip-hop magazine to publish CDs containing limited excerpts of a previously unreleased recording by rapper Eminem that includes racially charged lyrics such as “black girls are dumb.”

U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Lynch authorized Source magazine, which has waged an ongoing campaign against Eminem, to publish up to 20 seconds of material from two of his recordings. The magazine said it would enclose the CDs in its next issue. Last week, Lynch granted Eminem’s lawyers a temporary restraining order preventing the magazine from distributing the CDs.

But on Monday he held that limited reproduction of the recording falls within the magazine’s right to “fair use” of copyrighted material for the purpose of criticism.

Eminem, 31, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, has said the recording was “foolishness” that he made as a teenager “out of anger, stupidity and frustration” after breaking up with a black girlfriend.