Rap Beef-Why?

One of the glaring smudges to rap music and hip hop culture is beef. I remember the historical lyrical beef between BDP and pretty much all of Queensbridge via MC Shan. I was young about 10 years old or so when that hit and I remember sitting in my room at night when I was supposed to be asleep and listening to WEBB with my dubbed over tape and hearing the loud raucous sound of MC Shan's "The Bridge". That beat was hot but now I find slightly annoying but it was meant to be played loud because MC Shan and Marley Marl knew it was an-ANTHEM for their locale. However, pretty much all of us are proud of our hoods good or bad. Well, the badder the better unfortunately but that's another blog in itself (hmm?).

We now usher in probably one of the most influential two man teams in rap music that later branched into other artist, KRS-1 and the late Scott La Rock. Funny how everyone had to use a little french in their names back then i.e. T La Rock and Coke La Rock (not sure why anyone refer to themselves as coke the rock)? Those two took offense to Shan's repping and claims via his sonic assault of "The Bridge". We all know rap music had it's orgins in the Bronx led by Kool Herc. KRS had a point but he could've simply made an answer to the record but he dissed them on "South Bronx" and the radio loved and more so the Bronx itself. Those songs became war chants if you will for those boroughs. I've seen the vintage show footage of KRS whipping the crowd into a frenzy when the hook drops.

What those two teams managed to do what create 4 awesome and classic tracks in hip hop culture. Shan and Marley came back with "Kill That Noise" which fueled the lyrical beast in waiting KRS. BDP went back and recorded the banger "Bridge is Over". The beat was simple but hard. Actually it was the first piano loop I learned on my keyboard-it was that simple. KRS injected something he would become known for-reggae dancehall infused lyrics that sat him apart and sealed Shan's fate. KRS went after anyone who was affiliated with the Shan's team the Juice Crew. Roxanne Shante attempted to carry the flag with hit "I'm Shante" but the damage was done because KRS cemented her female rap diss infamy with the line "Roxanne Shante is only good for steady f---k-ng" in "The Bridge is Over". What I didn't know until years later Shante was a very young teen in rap game but KRS didn't care this was grown man B.I. as we used to say in Bmore. Guess she should stayed on the sidelines. Well that battle did lead to her to become Dr. Shante-true story, she has a PhD courtesy of stupid record execs doubting she would stay in school via contract stipulation she worked out-SMART! LOL

After that battle Shan and the Juice Crew gradually faded into obscurity due to contract disputes and lackluster albums. As individuals some were incredible i.e. Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, Biz Markie, Masta Ace and the severly slept on young Craig G.

BDP would become a super power in rap music. KRS put down the gloves and picked up some books and became a leader in the Black awareness movement. He would later patch things up with Shan and the Crew. They actually did some Sprite commercials together. He said it was pure competition and vehemently denies Scot La Rock's death was linked to beef just people know it wasn't that serious. The mighty KRS would later destroy new pop rap sensation Nelly on his blistering "Ya Not Hot" on his Sneak Attack album. Better cop that one it's slept on but vintage KRS without the teaching.

LL Cool J vs Kool Moe D, Ice T & Canibus

This one was biggest onslaught defeat ever in rap music. I mean why did Moe D bother. L was evolving into a lyric leader and Moe D was stuck in his early 80s rap style. Ice T dissed L and L went on to rhyme about how beat off to the probably best album cover ever, Ice's Power album cover featured his long timed girlfriend in a thong blue bikini holding a shotgun behind her back. Check "To The Break of Dawn" for the Ice T diss and "Jack the Ripper" for the of death Moe D. Ice T developed into a respected actor over years and achieved much notoriety for his phat bootied white girl wife Coco that he flaunts around more than a pinky ring-LOL!
By the way where is Kool Moe D these days?

Canibus apparently slipped into a beef without knowing it and felt Mr. Chapstick's wrath. LL dropped a classic named "4,3,2,1" featuring a major heavyweights on the Def Jam roster, DMX, Redman, Method Man and Canibus was the non-label lyrical mixtape beast that was hell hot at the time. Canibus rhymed about L letting him borrowed the mic tatted on his arm and L took offense to the lyric. Canibus later said L mistook his meaning in the rhyme. L went back in rewrote his lyrics dissing Canibus on the very track he asked him to be on and released that version. Listeners wondered who the heck is L going hard on then if deciphered you realized he was dissing his invited guest. Hmm, dirty and low in my book but it made for awesome record sales and the demand for another video hit and version. Ok Def Jam way to milk but Master P? C'mon Master P freaking P? Yes, he was hot with the new No Limit movement but that dude was wack and didn't fit in at all on that track.

Canibus didn't sit on his marble composition books long and came back with Mike Tyson assisted joint. Very hard track lyrically but the production wasn't on point. I honestly think Wyclef sabotaged him and that whole album. Poor production throught this lyrical beast's career has plagued him. Canibus later joined the Army as an Abrams Crewmember (he's a M1A2 battle tank gunner). I think it's fitting of this very ecletic and gifted MC to do something like this. After all he's one rap's vaunted battle rappers. He lost to L due to lack of clout but lyrically L couldn't touch him. The mainstream gave the nod to L but the streets know L caught an L.

Biggie vs Tupac
We saw the movie, we read the countless articles and saw all of the "authentic documentaries" about these rap phenoms but why did it have to go this way?

Alotta cats don't know Pac and Big recorded a few tracks together until recently. Remember they were good friends early on.

Let's stick to the battles. Big was a humble guy an avoided so many lyric chances to get at Pac and we all knew Big was fully capable of laying Pac to rest without writing anything. Remember "Warning" was written before the beef and most importantly "Who Shot Ya" was as well. That eery death is near beat should remind everyone how calm Biggie could lay you to rest-lyrically that is. Pac's "Hit Em Up" was scathing and layed the blueprint for the coming of probably the greatest "beef rapper" ever 50 Cent. Now Biggie did take his jabs at Pac subliminally and flagrantly at Pac and his soon to be ex-wife Faith on Jay-Z's "Brooklyn's Finest". However, many of you don't know those two lyrical stalwarts were trying to out do each other on that very track but in name of competition. Imagine a Biggie and Jay Z record? You know that would have happened instead of the horrible R Kelly crap.

Solidarity is a mutha tho. Pac did manage to create huge problem for himself by calling out some heavyweights by proclaiming a coastal war. He dragged some lyricist he couldn't match up with lyrically on the clever side like Nas and Jay Z and then he pulled in the ultra violent duo of Mobb Deep. That spawned othe beefs that we get into later. I deemed this senseless violence a draw. These two better together just listen to "House of Pain" and "Running".

Biggie vs Nas

Wait that's not true? No pa you don't know your history or your lyrics. Let's pull up exhibit A "Kick in the Door" by late Francis M. White (Biggie's pseudonym). He rhymes "your rain on top is your short like leprechauns". That was subliminal diss to Nas' push to the top as King of New York. Nas didn't claim it but the crown was placed on him by the masses after his stunning debut "Illmatic". You can't front he was what the game needed at the time and still needs. However, Biggie was smoking hot with his "Ready to Die". Now how did this all come by about. This one is deep and involves entities not viewed as connected but are.

Exhibit B
One of rap greatest CDs ever excuse me tapes Raekwon's "Only Built for Cuban Links". Yes folks the vaunted "purple tape". Rae and Ghostface Killah have a skit at the beginning of "Glaciers of Ice" where they are talking about "Shark Ni----z". Ghost and Rae say "Ni----z bit off Nas' album cover!" Wait who bit off Nas' album cover? What album cover? Oh the Illmatic cover with a picture of him as tot-yep! Now who else had a concept like that just months later? Biggie's "Ready to Die" has a picture of young Chris in a diaper. Coincindence, purely! C'mon fam I'm sure no one was really biting something that minor.

So why are the Wu cats riding for Nas?

Exhibit C
Nas, Ghost and Rae appear on Mobb Deep's "Eye for an Eye" off their second album "The Infamous". Yes fam that's their second album do the knowledge. That track was so hot and their chemistry was incredible that became allies.

Wait there's something wrong right?

Exhibit D
The top lyricist in the Wu, Method Man appears to have broken a pact or something. Why? He appears on Biggie's Ready to Die on the track "The What". The beat wasn't that hot in my opinion but their lyrics were. Now if Rae and Ghost are with Nas and Meth is with Big, what's going here. In a Biggie documentary Method admits his team was not for him doing that track at all but Meth admits Big was hot and he wanted to record with the dude because it was a good move and he was a good dude.

Nas never really shot back but he later admits on "Made You Look" years later that he was briefly the king of NY. Go back and listen for his drop "King of New York, yeah I did that......" Clever Nas very clever but he wasn't a warrior type so he let the all the BS ride. Smart move and better man I guess.

This was a draw because more beefs would be intangled from here as well.

Mobb Deep vs. Jay Z

How did this come about? Well here's how Prodigy felt Jay sat on the sideline when th bi-coastal beef was at it's highest. He had a thinly veiled diss to Pac on Sauce Money's "Dead or Alive". However, that was laughable according to P. I mean P does have a point because Jay actually rhymed "I'm trying to restore the feeling, New York's been since Snoop crushed the buildings". I even took offense to that because of the lyricism of NY's emcees.

Despite the Mobb's verbal assaults on Jay on their "Infamy" album Jay prevailed due to him dropping the pics of P in tap dance attire at his grandmother's dance studio. It was pretty wack in my opinion. P was like 6 years old then and his mom had him doing that. Dude was a baby-LOL!

Jay-Z by a low life blow in my opinion is the winner.

Mobb deep vs Tupac

Pac called out the Mobb on the intro track to his last album he released while he was living. He called the violent rapping Mobb boys "little ni--g-z". Now what do you when you have the game's hottest producer at the time and a emcee who crafts more crimes than a Riker's Island lifer. You bust back with an automatic microphone and speakers. Enter the Mobb's scathing "G.O.D. Father Part III" and "Drop A Gem on Em". You would almost thing P and Hav shot Pac after the latter track.

Pac died before a respones was dropped but the Mobb got em!

Nas vs Mobb Deep & Cormega and oh yeah Nore

Funny how that one major unrest in rap music spun off several beefs. Now what's disturbing it's now infected affiliation that once seemed rock solid. Enter the disintegration of the Queensbridge Finest or QB Connection as they sometimes called themselves.

Nas saw that Queensbridge and Queens in general was the like Medina to the Bronx being Mecca. He wanted to reunite or unite, depending how you saw Queens again. He launched the album that would set of the club banger "Oochie Wallie" which saw his spin off group Bravehearts hit the airwaves. Now it appeared to be all love. However bad blood was brewing.

Cormega was seething from being dropped from the Firm project due to contract disputes with Nas. He was replaced by Nature. Not sure if that was an upgrade lyrically? Cormega would devote several albums to dissing Nas. Nas just laughed and listened, well least somebody was listening Cormega figured according to his sales.

Mobb Deep sided with Mega and recorded "The Anthem" with thinly veiled disses to Nasir with the eery hook "We Wanna Kill You". Tight track probably one of the best Mega's had in his career.

Nas did respond years later with "Build and Destroy" he named names in that track which pretty much ended the mess his hood mates help feed into.

Prodigy took shots at Nas' street cred after getting his chain snatched and alleged his younger brother was more street thorough because he got the chain back. Ironically P had his snatched months latter in the bridge and never got it back. Nas took care of P as well in "Build and Destroy".

Nore was upset because, well we don't know and Nas said he needed to step it up lyrically. Well, can't blame Nasir for that one because it was true. Nore much of nothing except for a few drunken rants on the radio but that's the Noreaga of old.

Nas vs Jay Z

The beef of the century! But how and why? Well let's break it down like this. Jay rhymes "Who's the best MC's Biggie, Jay Z and NAS". Now Nas fans are like Nas, third, naw? Was Jay just throwing names or was putting them in his order?

Let's dig deeper. Jay and Nas were cool before that but it gets deeper. Apparently Jay wanted Nas to do a track with him but Nas never got around to it. Actually that's not true either because they are both on a Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz track. Wait that's not completely true either because they did not record it together.

Jay begain to call Nas out and then it got dirty. We now know Nas plays his card tight and to his chest. He's a very calculated emcee but when he laids down his hand it's pretty heavy and a sure victory. Jay begans to drop mixtape tracks telling of skeeting in his Nas baby mom's truck and car seat. (listen to SupaUgly). Then launches his Rocfella goons on him led by Beanie Sigel and the Young Gunz. Pretty good diss track by the way. Problem was they managed to drag Jadakiss in it who was cool with Jay but managed to murder Beanie a few times.

Nas realized he had to respond and he took his time. What Jay didn't realize he had unleashed the lyrical beast. Nas enlisted an unheard producer that we now pop champagne to and gave the masses the massacre that was "Ether". The battle was over the war was one. It took Nas one track to end it and Jay about 3 and his squad's help to keep it going. Jay would later admit on the historical official beef ending interview on BET that he could not retailate after "Ether" it was too much.

Winner:Nasir Jones; he withstood Jay's flurry of jabs and executed a brutal upper cut to end it.
Nas and Jay would team up to drop 3 extremely tight tracks between their albums from 06-07.

50 Cent vs Ja Rule

This is the infamous career ending or more accurately dampening battle. 50 an Ja actually don't like each other and led to violence in a studio. 50 actually had an order of protection placed on Black Ty from Ja's crew Murder Inc. 50 still denies it to this day but it actually exists. Too many tracks were dropped from both sides to give the blow by blow of this stupidity that ensued roughly 7 years ago.

5o wins this one because he damaged Ja's credibility and killed his fan based. 50 also had the mainstream backing of some heavyweights such as Busta Rhymes, Eminem and Dre. Dre was never involved but his Aftermath labeled held too much power and influence compared to Ja's label Murder Inc after Ja there was only Ashanti who was truely noteworthy. G Unit took shots at her but she sang nothing back in return. Ja did manage to garner the affiliation of Almighty RSO and the Source magazine but that did nothing but fuel 50's growing empire.

This was a clear and crushing defeat for Ja and he was never ever able to regain his street cred he experience on his first 4 albums despite the singy and bubble gum like tracks he dropped. I still love "100 Gunz and I Cry".

The problem with 50 is realized beef sells and he fueled his career off beef and I noticed a horrible trend with the guy. If he has a project of some sort in the works he fires up the grill and cooks some beef. The if someone is gaining some steam in the industry he goes at them ala Rick Ross. What's funny is that manages to validate alot of the madness his creates ala heavyweight pushing "The Boss" being a correctional officer. You can't beat that kind dirty being dug up with a shovel-LOL!

In closing I hate beef rap because most of it just publicity now for someone's album that's in the works. What happened to good ol mixtapes, street teams, guest appearances and promo tours? Oh beef is cheaper than a marketing and promotion rep I guess?