Where the Beef Should Lie
Rappers, misdirection, mediaRappers constantly beef with each other, of all the other musical genres, hip-hop music has to have the most animosity amongst its artists. Rappers have gained a career (a la 50 cent) by dissing and feuding with other rappers and their respective camps, and of course, some rappers have also perished of beef (R.I.P. Tupac & Biggie). The causes and reasons for beefing are self-serving at best; it can be looked at an attempt for one rapper to gain notoriety for dissing another or it can stem from a real personal beef that began before the music. Lately, it has been the former, as many rappers will diss others so that they can get heavy rotation in the rumor mill and spill cycle - this usually happens just around the time when they are releasing an album. At times though, the reason for beefing can seem silly at best, some of these beefs include:
- DFB beefing with D4L over who created the 'Lean with it rock with it' dance
* note: both groups are irrelevant
- Ice-T dissing Soulja Boy because he thinks he is corny
- 50 Cent dissing Ja Rule for singing on the tracks, but then 50 Cent makes a career of singing on tracks ('21 Questions', 'candy shop', 'ayo technology')
- The rise of local/up and coming rappers jacking somewhat-established rappers (like Yung Berg), taking their jewellery, and showing such jewellery on YouTube
* note: YouTube jackings of rappers is a growing and alarming trend, rappers need to get their insurance game up!
Not one to condone beefing or dissing, but I think that rappers need to step up their game and take their dissing/beef to the next plateau; I mean verbally attacking a fellow rapper, saying that you are going to kill him, rob him, et cetera, is not that realistic - rappers should really be beefing with people that are detrimenting their community and society. Hip-Hop, in its childhood was heralded as a genre to address social issues and injustices, the classic song 'The Message', had a real message of how politics, media, and the government had left many inner city New York communities in perils.
Somewhere, along hip-hop's progression, the pursuit of using music for 'social messages' subsided for the pursuit of material wealth. Well, if a rapper is going to 'clap' at anyone, it should not be his fellow brethren, it should maybe be somebody like:
- DFB beefing with D4L over who created the 'Lean with it rock with it' dance
* note: both groups are irrelevant
- Ice-T dissing Soulja Boy because he thinks he is corny
- 50 Cent dissing Ja Rule for singing on the tracks, but then 50 Cent makes a career of singing on tracks ('21 Questions', 'candy shop', 'ayo technology')
- The rise of local/up and coming rappers jacking somewhat-established rappers (like Yung Berg), taking their jewellery, and showing such jewellery on YouTube
* note: YouTube jackings of rappers is a growing and alarming trend, rappers need to get their insurance game up!
Not one to condone beefing or dissing, but I think that rappers need to step up their game and take their dissing/beef to the next plateau; I mean verbally attacking a fellow rapper, saying that you are going to kill him, rob him, et cetera, is not that realistic - rappers should really be beefing with people that are detrimenting their community and society. Hip-Hop, in its childhood was heralded as a genre to address social issues and injustices, the classic song 'The Message', had a real message of how politics, media, and the government had left many inner city New York communities in perils.
Somewhere, along hip-hop's progression, the pursuit of using music for 'social messages' subsided for the pursuit of material wealth. Well, if a rapper is going to 'clap' at anyone, it should not be his fellow brethren, it should maybe be somebody like:
Bill O'Reilly
The popular Fox News pundit has a successful show called the O'Reilly Factor, where the tagline is 'No Spin Zone', this guy has been described as a neo, fascist, racist, biased reporter - everything from calling Michelle Obama Barrack's "Baby Mama", to actually challenging rappers; O'Reilly made Ludacris lose a sponsorship deal with PepsiCo over O'Reilly's rant of Ludacris and his questionable misogynistic lyrics.
Lou Dobbs
If I see another report on illegal immigrants from this guy, I will go crazy. Dobbs complains how jobs are being taken from Americans by migrant workers, but what he fails to realize most times that the jobs that are being 'taken' are the ones that average Americans will not do.
GWB
I think Kanye said it best in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but I have to give rappers credit - they have took jabs and shots at GWB, while more underground rappers have dedicated whole songs to his legacy.
Besides this list, I am sure that rappers can find other sources for beef than another rapper that may or may not have stole their dance, swag, or jewellery.
.:: d.b ::.
