What's Beef?
Beef, my friends, is not what's in XXL—it's in the recent rash of violence in the CD and in the South End. This shit has been going on longer than I can remember, but it's out of fucking control this year... I only wish it were as benign as the war of words being waged between Livio and Neema. This beef—like the DV One situation, minus a great deal of the relevance—seems to be one of the very few things that the local hiphop community has been talking about en masse.
Both combatants are contending that they are the King of Seattle; a few people have understandably taken issue with this, and contend that Seattle's true and only king is Sir Mix-A-Lot—and I think we can all agree that nobody from the town has put up numbers anywhere even slightly near him. It's long been a consensus, however, that the drive to be "that guy"—the next rapper to blow up Seattle—has held us back as a community, and I'd tend to agree. Deeper than that, I say that hiphop's "king" mentality—ever since Biggie was crowned King of NY—has been a straight cancer to hiphop's creativity; instead of coming up with original concepts, individuals are only out to be the HNIC by following formulas, always to the detriment of the art form. But sheeeit—what's all this monarch talk anyway—what kinda idjit would just hand over unparalleled, unchecked power to their government? D'Oh!
Speaking of beef—one that unsurprisingly hasn't seen a lot of light is NYC vet Freddie Foxxx's vendetta against the God MC, Rakim. Their long-running rivalry (Foxxx was famously supposed to be Eric B.'s MC, but missed his recording session) has finally boiled over, with the musclebound Bumpy Knuckles committing what some would deem blasphemy, taking aim at the man many consider the single greatest MC of all time. My prediction is that Foxxx's scathing dis will only be available through hiphopgame.com, and Rakim's sage response will get shelved indefinitely.
Yeah, the gangsta rappers sell/but if he really gangsta then you'll find his ass in jail...
There's been a boom in dope street hiphop as of late, and I will be putting you up on it in the next couple columns; first things first is definitely D. Black's The Cause and Effect. Combining Black's hunger with the cream of the NW's production talents, this is an album you have to fuck with if you are checking for that local heat. DeVon Manier's Sportn' Life Records enlisted the trifecta of Bean One, Vitamin D, and Jake One (among others, including Black himself) to lace this long-awaited release.
While adept with the boasts ("Fuckin' with Me") and the narrative ("The Story of Roger") both, Black's best moments actually come when he's at his most candid, such as the heartfelt "This Is Why," where he runs down a formidable litany of obstacles, or the moving eulogy to his mother, "Secret Place." Somewhere in between this vivid reporting and the sneering South End swagger is one of Seattle's best talents—the streets don't lie.
