Eminem [ tickets ], in a statement released on Thursday (12/4), again apologized for racially insensitive remarks he made on a 15-year-old amateur rap recording, and took the publishers of The Source magazine to task for publicizing the tape.

"I did and said a lot of stupid s--- when I was a kid, but that's part of growing up," he said. "The tape of me rapping 15 years ago as a teenager that was recently put out by The Source in no way represents who I was then or who I am today.

"In becoming an adult, I've seen what hip-hop and rap music can do to touch millions of people. The music can be truly powerful, and it has helped improve race relations in a very real way. I want to use this negative attack on me as a positive opportunity to show that."

The Detroit rapper was responding to a recording that The Source founders Ray Benzino and Dave Mays--who have a long-standing feud with Eminem--made public at a Nov. 18 press conference. The pair introduced the tape with lengthy remarks, during which they described their unveiling as "a major point in history" and implored the media to treat Eminem "the same way you treated Mike Tyson, you guys are treating Kobe Bryant, you guys are treating R. Kelly [and] O.J. Simpson."

The tape features a teenage Eminem rapping lyrics that include: "And all the girls that I like to bone/Have the big butts, no they don't/ Cause I don't like that n----- s---/ I'm just here to make a bigger hit."

In his latest statement, Eminem accused Benzino and Mays of "spitting in the face of what hip-hop and rap music have done to promote racial unity. Their attempt to use this old, foolish recording to damage me and, in turn, the positivity that hip-hop promotes is really nothing more than blatant self-promotion for a failing magazine and one man's lifeless music career. They're scared of what can happen if the hip-hop community shows it can live without them ...

"So while I think common sense tells you not to judge a man by what he may have said when he was a boy, I will say it straight up: I am sorry I said those things when I was 16. And I don't want to let anybody turn this into an opportunity to promote their own bulls---agenda."

In the original apology that Eminem issued shortly after the tape surfaced, he said, "Ray Benzino, Dave Mays and The Source have had a vendetta against me, Shady Records, and our artists for a long time. The tape played today was something I made out of anger, stupidity, and frustration when I was a teenager. I'd just broken up with my girlfriend, who was African American, and I reacted like the angry, stupid kid I was. I hope people will take it for the foolishness that it was, not for what somebody is trying to make it today."