The long-simmering battle between Eminem and The Source magazine took a nasty new turn Tuesday when the music publication called a press conference to play an untitled 1993 song that features the Grammy- and Oscar-winning Detroit rapper using a racial slur and disparaging black women.

"Never date a black girl because blacks only want your money," Eminem raps in the number, which was reputedly given to the magazine by three fans in the Motor City. "Black girls and white girls just don't mix because black girls are dumb and white girls are good chicks," Eminem later raps.

Shortly before the Manhattan news conference, Eminem issued a statement through his spokesman confirming that he is the performer delivering the rap, according to The New York Times.

"The tape they played today was something I made out of anger, stupidity and frustration when I was a teenager," said Eminem, 31. "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 into today."

But The Source apparently doesn't accept Eminem's defense -- which is not surprising considering the magazine has been feuding with the rapper for some time now. (Eminem and many of his colleagues, including Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, have boycotted the magazine, while Source co-owner Raymond "Benzino" Scott has bashed Eminem both in print and in his own rap music.)

"We've got to treat this the same way we treated Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant, O.J. Simpson," Scott said during the news conference. Newsday quotes Source editor Kim Osorio as saying: "These are racist remarks by someone who has the ability to influence millions of minds."

At the conference, it was announced that the Source will devote its February issue to Eminem's rap. "This is something we can't turn a blind eye to," said the publisher, David Mays. "This is the key unlocking a much bigger picture."

Eminem, meanwhile, says the magazine is simply bitter. "Ray Benzino, Dave Mays and The Source have had a vendetta against me, Shady Records and our artists for a long time," he said.