So Many Styles (partially found Eminem song; 1993)
This article has been tagged as NSFW due to its racist subject of matter.
Exclusive CD from The Source #173
Status: Partially Found
Eminem recorded a song in 1993 titled "So Many Styles" on a tape recorded before he entered mainstream success in the near end of the 1990s. This is also one of the few surviving songs Eminem recorded after Still In The Bassmint in 1992 and before the EP Soul Intent in 1995.
Shady Records v. The Source
One of the producers from the Soul Intent era had an old tape with several recordings in it. The tape was left in a friend's car; the friend agreed to let someone sell it along with "Oh Foolish Pride", a track Eminem made with Soul Intent in the late 1980s, to the hip-hop magazine The Source for $60,000.
Both tracks were published without the permission from Eminem which violated the copyrights of Shady Records. The Source co-owners David Mays and Raymond Scott accused Eminem for racist lyrics on "Oh Foolish Pride". The lyric examples are "I don't like a n****'s shit" and "Black girls are dumb, and white girls are good chicks". Eminem apologized for the lyrics. Despite that, he and his label sued The Source for copyright infringement.
When issue #173 of The Source came out on February 2004, it included an exclusive CD which includes a 36-second snippet of "So Many Styles" and "Oh Foolish Pride". As it says on the bottom of the CD:
"In an attempt to suppress several blatantly racist song Eminem recorded back when he was 21 years old, his record company, Shady Records, sued The Source this past December. In a landmark decision by federal judge Gerald E. Lynch on Monday, December 22, The Source was given the right, in the interest of freedom of the press, to include a total of 20 seconds from the songs on the CD."
Aftermath
It is currently unknown if there is a full version of "So Many Styles" because Eminem owns the rights to all of his early recordings. No new revealed audio of the track is leaked to date.
Trivia
- Despite being said to include 20 seconds, it includes 36 seconds of "So Many Styles" on the CD.