Rappers taking their beef to YouTube...
Eww...
In the earliest days of hip hop, diss records and battles were the foundation of the music I love so much. MC's would verbally assault their opponent and b-boys battled each other way before Wade Robson disciples (blech) were serving people in shitty movies. I'll admit, I'm not really into the commercial rap (I refuse to call it hip hop) that's out there today, but when I read about two beefs that are currently going down I threw up a little in my mouth. Strap in, kids...
1) Ice-T vs Soulja Boy
2) Ne-Yo vs. Chris Brown
I'll let you take a few moments to recover.
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I can't go through the entire history of beefs in hip hop, because you would need to dedicate an entire website to it. I'm going to list some of my favorite hip hop beefs with some heavy paraphrasing. You can find tons more of info on teh internets. Needless to say, the following samples and videos are going to slapped with
KRS-ONE vs. MC Shan
Also known as "The Bridge Wars"
This started around '85 when Marley Marl and MC Shan put out "The Bridge." The track proclaimed without directly saying that hop hop originated from Queens.
Here's a sample of the first verse:
You love to hear the story, again and again,
Of how it all got started way back when,
The monument is right in your face,
Sit and listen for a while to the name of the place,
The Bridge, Queensbridge, the bridge, the bridge...
Boogie Down Productions and KRS-ONE took exception to it and claimed (rightfully so) that Hip Hop started in The Bronx. Here's an excerpt from their response, "South Bronx"
Party people in the place to be, KRS-One attacks,
Ya got dropped off MCA cause the rhymes you wrote was wack,
So you think that hip-hop had its start out in Queensbridge,
If you popped that junk up in the Bronx you might not live...
This escalated to a response by Shan with "Kill That Noise," and then KRS fired back with "The Bridge is Over."
KRS-ONE's career took off from the battle with many successful albums, and MC Shan did a guest verse on Snow's "Informer."
LL Cool J vs. Canibus
The Microphone Tattoo Incident
This one started when they recorded "4,3,2,1" along with Method Man, Redman, Master P, and DMX. Canibus, had a verse that included the lines:
Ripping an arm out a socket,
Taking a mic off it, and
Letting a real MC rock it...
This was a reference to LL's tattoo of a microphone, in which LL took umbrage (SAT word) to. LL had the lines taken off the track and rewrote his verse to rip apart Canibus...
When young sons fantasize of borrowing flows
Tell little shorty with the big mouth the bank is closed
The symbol on my arm is off limits to challengers
You hold the rusty swords, I swing the Excalibur...
In the video, you only see LL with Meth, Red, and DMX in cypher. Canibus and Master P were missing in that scene. This led to Canibus' song, "2nd Round K.O."
LL has tons of experience in making battle records. He's conquered Kool Moe Dee, Ice T, MC Hammer, and others. If you need a rapist and an overrated Haitian producer to help you out, you know you're in trouble...
LL came back with one of my favorite diss albums of all time, "The Ripper Strikes Back"
The beat was epic with the opera singing in the background, and the lyrics tore Canibus, Wyclef, and Mike Tyson apart. The thing is Canibus does have tight lyrics, but he never recovered from this. To this day he still takes shots at LL whenever he tries to release something new.
Notorious B.I.G. vs 2Pac
The East Coast/West Coast rivalry is born...
You don't need to know a thing about hip hop to know about this one. This is what hip hop should not be about. The mass media got involved, blew it out of proportion, and eventually led to the deaths of two of hip hops best ever. Crews got involved. Other artists got involved, hell even baby's momma's put their two cents in. I'm not going to write too much about this one, because you can find it anywhere. I'm just going to include a couple of videos.
It went from this...
to unfortunately this...
Other highly publicized beefs:
Jay-Z vs Nas
For the title of "King of New York" after Biggie died.
Jay-Z drops "The Takeover." Nas drops "Ether."
I love Jay-Z, but Nas smoked Jigga on his track. Nas proves that he's the better lyricist. This one ends up with a "let's agree to disagree" truce and are now rumored to be working together on a album. (I want this shit to happen so badly.)
Lil' Kim vs. Foxy Brown
Battle for Hip Hop's Biggest Ho. I'm gonna say it's a tie.
G-Unit vs. The Game
The battle of who gives a shit.
Which leads me to this post's topic, kids. I came across the Soulja Boy & Ice T beef about two weeks ago. This is how it started...
"Nighttrain" comes out swinging after Soulja Boy. I agree with him, but he hasn't put anything out in years. I was never a fan of Ice-T...the only track I ever like was "Hustler."
Soulja Boy responds with this...
Do you need your lil' crew to comeback with a response?! I hate to admit it, but SB actually made a few good points. Help bring back hip hop to what it is!!
Ice-T comes back with this one...
Soulja Boy apparently is now winning the battle with this...
A cartoon?! What happened to BATTLE RECORDS? Posting a video on the internet seems so catty. Grab your notebook and a pen and throw out some fire. That's how it should be done. Soulja Boy could put this to rest by doing it this way, and possibly gain some credibility in the hip hop community. Unless, he's scared...or very smart. I'm sure he has people that told him about past beefs like LL vs. Canibus. His career could be short lived if he tried to put something out, and Ice-T responds lyrically. So what he does is make a video, and it goes viral. He didn't have to go to the studio, and his name is still out there. It's so smart that it sickens me. Ice-T might have just extended SB's fifteen minutes of fame. Think about it...where's "Chicken Noodle Soup" girl?
As I'm in awe of this situation, I read about this gem two days ago...
Ne-Yo vs. Chris Brown
Wait, aren't you dudes R&B singers?
Chris Brown and Ne-Yo are two young singers in the R&B game as we speak with really good success. I actually don't mind them at all. I like a few of their songs (so shoot me), and it gets the girls on the dance floor. Brown has been selling more records, but Ne-Yo is making up for it in writing songs for other artists, and singing hooks in many rap songs (watch your back, T-Pain). Chris Brown as of late has been really shitting on Ne-Yo, comparing total record sales. So what does Ne-Yo do? He records a diss record with a video to go with it?!
WARNING: If you have an acute case of OCD like myself, the beat of this track will stay in your head for hours. It's taken from Lil' Wayne's "A Milli," produced my Mr. Bangladesh *blech*
What really bugs me about this, is that Ne-Yo doesn't have the balls to admit that he is going after Chris Brown. If you're gonna put out a diss record, take responsibility for it cotdammit.
Chris Brown fires back with this...
Picking the lesser of two evils, I have to go with Ne-Yo on this one. Both of these dudes need to stick with just singing. You're gonna get the ladies, or men for you, Ne-Yo (allegedly) with the singing. If this becomes a trend and I hear Keisha Cole and Rihanna put out diss records, I will hang myself.
So is that what we have to look forward to now in the art of battling? Video blogs, and singing? I hate the "hip hop is dead" argument, but damn it's in a chokehold. Am I too "old school" for thinking this way? I'm only 32...come to think of it, that might be too old in hip hop. Dog years and Hip Hop years run in the same time frame.
Thanks for reading...
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6 comments:
I always felt a little bad for Canibus: he is a far superior MC to LL (and LL taking him off the song and recording a Canibus dis WAS a bitch move). Plus, Canibus is the best thing on the Mau Mau's "Blak iz Blak" video from the otherwise terrible film, Bamboozled.
Some of my favorite battles:
Common vs. Ice Cube ("The Bitch In Yoo" is THE most scathing dis record ever)
Ice Cube vs. N.W.A ("No Vaseline" was the most scathing dis record ever before "The Bitch In Yoo" came along)
DJ Quik vs. Compton's Most Wanted ("Def Wish II" is beautiful)
Jeru the Damaja vs. Junior MAFIA ("Ya Playin Yaself")
Company Flow vs. Sole ("Dear Elpee" and the response, the vicious "Linda Trip")
Hit Squad vs. Def Squad (not a lot of great records out of the split of EPMD, but a couple jabs here and there)
Roxanne Shante vs every female rapper ("Big Mama" is unparalleled)
Tim Dog vs. NWA (fun for the 2 months it lasted, but fostered "Fuck Compton" and "Fuck Wit Dre Day")
and the greatest one ever
Wrecks-N-Effect vs. A Tribe Called Quest, all because Phife said "not a new jack swing" on "Jazz (We Got)."
Thanks for the list, always brings me back.
Awesome, awesome blog. B-Shan shared a few of my thoughts, so I will reiterate them and add a few others.
1.) I think Canibus has gotten a raw deal as well. L.L. has lost his card as a true rap artist. Now he is all about the party scene. If L.L. is on, I can live without my radio. As for the battle, L was a straight up bitch by taking Canibus off the track then dissing him. I think "2nd Round K.O." with Tyson or not is a blistering track and shreds L. "The Ripper Strikes Back" was a decent answer track, but it was too long and got repetitive and boring. Wyclef's "What's Clef Got to do with it" wasn't the best track, but was kinda fun from the "rasta imposta". Canibus' other L dis songs including the one playing off "I'm Bad" are great, however he beats the proverbial dead horse. I think Cani got the better of L, but he tarnished his place in the battle by not being able to let things go.
2.) East v. West. I have a problem with Biggie and Tupac being labeled as some of the best MC's. Biggie had a great debut then became boring and repetitive. Tupac was better carrying crates for Digital Underground.
3.) The Ice Cube V. N.W.A battle should be mentioned. I still remember to this day Bill Shannon calling me one day after school...I will say in the spring of 10th grade. He says "Have you heard that track "No Vaseline" yet?" I say nope, I just had dubbed the tape from him. He told me I had to check it out. I did and my ears are still bleeding from the beat down Cube gave N.W.A. "100 Miles and Runnin'" was a formidable touch off, with it's "The Warrior's" like setting, but on the strength of one track, Cube got the best of this battle.
4.) Kool Moe Dee V L.L. Just classic stuff.
I hadn't heard about Ice-T's recent battle with SoljaPop woever, however I am disappointed at Ice. I ave always been an Ice-T fan. Music, Movies, SVU it's all good. However he knows better then to mix it up with this asshat.
Oh, and KRS vs. Anyone. I'm still not sure why anyone would try, and I still cannot believe the Beef DVD series credited Nelly with the win in their battles because Nelly continued to sell records.
Finally Eminem Vs. Anyone. Think what you want about him, but he can handle his own in a battle. I would have to search my archive of stolen ERRRRRRRRRRR downloaded music for this one track on a Green Lantern Mix Tape where Em slices up JaRule but that ranks as one of my favorite diss tracks ever!
Great post E.J. Keep'em coming.
I just want to add a bit more to my disdain for Biggie and 2Pac. I still have no idea why everyone was on Big's dick. Yeah he could flow, but I also could only take so much of his mumbling mouth filled with half a blunt and half a cheese burger flow as well. The more music he put out, the worse it got too.
2Pac was big only because Death Row embraced him after he got out of the joint. "Dear Mama" is a POS track that he wrote to get some money, and people act like its a window to his soul...whatever.
The only reason these two have reached the heights they have is because they were killed. Oh, and somehow 2Pac has managed to put out like 15 posthumous albums. Really, dude had that much material records and just "sitting" around? I will give credit though, as "Hit'em Up" is a good track.
Oh, and Nas V. Cormega. COrmega's dis of Nas using the beat to "Paid In Full" was incredible. It was short but it fucked up Nas. Gotta shout that out as well.
Ok gotta also say that Tupac is probably the most overrated lyricist ever. He also did that highly annoying double-vocal track that always made it sound like he was doing a duet with himself. I know this is blasphemy but it's gotta be said. Biggie had a lot of potential, but when he started doing that playboy/pimp thing, it started to become extremely uninteresting to me. "Party & Bullshit" is great though.
You're not wrong by saying that Pac is overrated. The only song that I really like from him is Get Around, and primarily because it's a great party joint. What really shot him up to fame was that associated with Death Row when shit was really poppin' for them at the time, and his extra-curricular activities.
I know the playa thing was a little much, but you gotta respect a "Kentucky Fried Chicken eatin', gangsta killin', mutha fuckin black mafia ass, chronic smokin', Oreo cookie eatin', pickle juice drinkin', chicken gristle eatin', biscuit suckin', V8 juicy drinkin', slim fast, black greasy muthafucka" to not give a shit and still say he's fly! "I Gotta Story to Tell." still makes me laugh to this day.
Puffy really shitted on Biggie's legacy by releasing those albums post-Life After Death Those tracks were not included in his earlier albums for a reason. I am a fan of "Dead Wrong" with Eminem though.
Don't get me wrong, "Ready to Die" is a great album. I went and saw a KRS concert and Biggie was one of the opening acts in Nov. of 1994. I had no idea who he was, but I went and looked for his album that weekend. I still rock the disk today (whenever I can find it that is). However, for me, 2 things stuck out. The whole pimp/playa/hustla/ganstamuthafucka bit got old with Biggie even though the whole style was still in it's infancy. And the 2nd is more like a pet peeve, but I get nothing out of hearing a motha fucka smokin' week on a record. On Big's first album, there is that one bit where he is smokin' and he starts caughing and hacking and you can hear all that nasty ass phlem and shit. Dude, I don't need to hear that shit. I know weed fills your lungs with tar and add in 350 bills on top of it, I can imagine what that does to your resparitory system...I don't need an audible example. After the first album, Big fell off imo. "Hypnotize" was alright for what it was, but that was it.
The Eminem/Llyod Banks/50 Cent diss of JaRule and boys I was thinking of earlier is "Bump Heads".
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