What's BEEF?(Empathy's Top 5 Beefs)

In the course of rap music there's one element that will never die...BEEF. We've had some good ones. If the Beef is really good, it always splits the best of friends on opinions. I've had the 2Pac and Biggie argument many a times with my step brother and cousin. My opinion changes every few years, growing up, I was in Pac's corner, during my teen years, I was pro-Biggie, nowadays, I change my mind every two minutes.

Tupac Shakur VS. The Notorious B.I.G 
I mean, these dudes are the best to ever do it, for real. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is the only group to ever collaborate with both artists. They both sold records like it was going out of style, whether living or posthumously. It's amazing to me the amount of classic songs they recorded. You know, Biggie with, "The Warning", "The What", "Unbelievable", "Ten Crack Commandments", "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Kills You", and the list goes on. His cameos were second to none, "Brooklyn's Finest" with Jigga Jay-Z, "Notorious Thugs"(Though I don't think he murdered Bizzy Bone with his verse) and "Victory" with Puffy for example. 2Pac, though his shit talk probably got him casketed, or inspired him to fake his death and hide in Cuba, he was the muthafuckin' realest. "Dear Mama", "I Just Don't Give A Fuck", "Pain", "Str8 Ballin' ", and "All Eyez On Me". His guest spots were shittin' too, "Smile" with Scarface and "Deadly Combination" with Big L.

When it comes to beef, people think of it on different levels than others. I know when Jay-Z and NaS had beef, a lot of people at school based it on lyrics and album sales. When it comes to records, Pac was the victor easily, he continued to sell records well after he died. Lyrically, most say Pac and Biggie were evenly matched, others will take a side. Some think of it on who had better beats...in the beginning, Biggie's beats were killing it, but as 2Pac's career grew, his beats were top notch.


Jigga Jay-Z Vs. Nasty NaS

The biggest beef since Pac and Biggie. It spawned from so many different areas, I question if it really happened.....ok, it did. It could've happened when Jaz-O pulled Benedict Arnold on Hov and joined NaS in diss tracks. It could've spawned from Jay-Z having relations with Esco's baby's mother, Carmen Bryan, and rapping about it. Either way, this was a beef to remember. Ok, another torn situation.

If you look at it, you can look at it from a commercial P.O.V and say, Jay sells more records, I know more from this guy than Nas. That's how my aunt saw it, she can't stand Nas. I used to be biased and not like him either just because she didn't. My borrowed my uncle's copy of I AM... and went ape shit, like this dude is dope, you ain't hearing this man. I downloaded Illmatic and he went right next to Jay-Z on my list. So I became torn, Jay-Z has his semi-lyrical-sell-records-flow and Nas has that intelligent poet aspect. I dug both. Hov makes me bop my head, Nasty makes me think.

Some people think of it like who's classic is hotter? Reasonable Doubt or Illmatic, honestly, I can't listen to either front to back, so neither is a classic in my book. BLASPHEMY! So? My opinion, I'm entitled to it...

When it comes to beef songs, EVERYBODY knows NaS took the cake with "Ether", BUT, BUT, BUT, if Hov had released "Supa Ugly" and "Blueprint2" a little earlier, he could've competed. The only thing hot about "The Takeover" was the beat, Jay-Z ain't a battler, he just kills the rappers in his way, nuff said.


Common Sense Vs. Ice Cube
This was a shortlived unheard of beef. It came from when Common released his song "I Used To Love H.E.R". The song was written to make you think he was talking about a woman, but by the last line, the listener finds out he's referring to Hip-Hop. Ice Cube took this song as a diss because Common said:

"But then she broke to the west coast, and that was cool
Cause around the same time, I went away to school
And Im a man of expandin, so why should I stand in her way
She probably get her money in l.a.
And she did stud, she got big pub but what was foul
She said that the pro-black, was goin out of style
She said, afrocentricity, was of the past
So she got into r&b hip-house bass and jazz
Now black music is black music and its all good
I wasnt salty, she was with the boys in the hood
Cause that was good for her, she was becomin well rounded
I thought it was dope how she was on that freestyle shit
Just havin fun, not worried about anyone
And you could tell, by how her titties hung"

Ice Cube took it as a diss because he thought Common was implying the West Coast killed HipHop. So these two beefed or whatever, and both tracks were wack, honestly, they're back friends though.


Canibus Vs. LL Cool J
 Alright, I see it like this. LL Cool J is the one who started it. They were doing this track "5,4,3,2,1". So Canibus in a rhyme asks LL if he can borrow the mic on his arm, the tattoo...LL took offense to it and rewrote his line, kinda sittin' Canibus down in the verse. Since then, they went at. Canibus on his first album called in a favor from Mike Tyson to talk some shit before his diss track "Second Round Knockout". If you ask me, the track was ok. The beat was cool, I guess, and the lyrics were standard Canibus lyrics. The winner of this beef was LL Cool J because he's more recognized in the mainstream and he came a little harder than Canibus, delivery wise. Ask me, Canibus should've won it. Since the end of this beef, Canibus' career has been under a rock, which is why he tried to resurrect himself in this next beef.

Eminem Vs. Canibus

Sorry for the wack pic.... Well, if I've learned ONE thing in life, it's, don't fuck with Eminem. Eminem half heartedly beat ICP with one full diss, a half diss and a skit. Later in his career, Benzino, with two tracks and Ja Rule with one.....Leave that man alone. Canibus started a beef with Eminem on his album "C! True Hollywood Stories" with the theme of the first track. The song starts with Canibus seeing Stan, from Eminem's song, "Stan", drive off of the bridge. Canibus then goes in after him and saves him. He then does a perspective track called "You Didn't Care" where he goes in as Stan and tells Eminem.....well, he didn't care about him. There's a skit on the album where Stan sits in a limo with Canibus and he freaks out about all the candy in the car. He goes ,"Hey, Canibus, you want some M&M's?" Canibus then says, "I don't eat M&M's." Low blows all around. Eminem then murders Canibus with a joke track, "Canibitch" which never actually released, thus burying Can-I-Bus....sad.

Canibus still makes music though, he updates his Myspace frequently, and he STILL raps about how nobody listens to him. The last time I followed Canibus, he had just released Poet Laureate Unlimited, a 1,000 bar track that would prove him the greatest of all time....even in its release, this dude was ok on it, he didn't say anything. His music was much better when he wasn't tryna prove anything.....whoa, I got away from myself there.

Any other beef out there, simply doesn't matter, like G-Unit vs G-Unit, or Lil' Wayne vs Jay-Z, Twista vs Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Gucci Mane vs Jeezy and less importantly Lil' Romeo vs Lil' Bow Wow, ha, what the fuck them boys talkin' bout?

The E-M-P'll Say P.E.A.C.E