Redirected from Feuds and rivalries in hip hop music
One prominent example used as contrast by those who feel the media manipulate and intensify hip hop feuds is the 1980s hit "Roxanne[?]" by U.T.F.O.[?], which sparked several hundred "answer records[?]" in response, some of them quite vituperative. Since, at the time, hip hop was nowhere near the level of fame it would eventually achieve, there was little media response at the time, and no violent feuds erupted; many observers feel that, if something similar happened today, violence may be the result.
A video game will soon be released by EA Entertainment[?] in conjunction with Def Jam[?] and featuring animated likenesses of rappers like Method Man, Ludacris, DMX and Ghostface Killah wrestling to settle grudges WWE style.
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Probably the most famous rap feud is the early to mid-1990s rivalry between East Coast and West Coast industry members. Hip hop had begun in New York City, which remained the undisputed capital of hip hop until 1992, when Dr. Dre's The Chronic became one of the biggest-selling hip hop albums in history. Dre was on Death Row Records[?], headed by Suge Knight, and he soon built up a roster of stars like Warren G, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Doggy Dogg that reigned on the charts, and Los Angeles replaced New York as the center for hip hop. The biggest stars on East Coast were Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records crew, which included Busta Rhymes, Mase and the Notorious B.I.G.. Puff Daddy had founded Bad Boy in 1993, and it soon outsold Ruthless Records. The rivalry intensified as hip hop continue to enter the mainstream in the United States and abroad; more money entered the industry and raised the stakes. The focal point soon came to a head with Tupac Shakur on the West Coast and Notorious B.I.G. on the East. Shakur claimed to have slept with Faith Evans[?], Notorious B.I.G.'s wife and herself a rapper, and he responded with "Stupid niggaz mess wit Big Poppa/motherfuckers get roasted if you fuck wit B.I.G.".
On September 7, 1996 Tupac Shakur was shot several times in Las Vegas, dying a few days later. On March 9, 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed in California. Both murders remain unsolved, and numerous theories (some of them conspiracy theories) have sprung up. These include, most notoriously, that Shakur's death was faked.
In 1997, several rappers, including Busy Bone[?], C Low[?], Doug E. Fresh[?] and Snoop Doggy Dogg met at the request of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam and pledged to forgive any slights that may be related to the rivalry and deaths of Shakur and Biggie.
Soon after the death of Shakur, Death Row Records folded as Afeni Shakur[?], Tupac's mother, sued the label for allegedly cheating her son out of millions. Label head Suge Knight ended up in jail for unrelated probation violations. Lady of Rage and Nate Dogg[?] have also filed suits against Bad Boy with similar allegations. Puff Daddy has also had multiple legal troubles, including a much-publicized case resulting from a shooting in a New York club; he has been acquitted, though fellow rapper Shyne[?] was not.
On a song called "Takeover", Jay-Z, a multi-platinum star, attacked Nas, who has never achieved the same level of commercial success. Nas responded with "Ether" (of his intended comeback album Stillmatic[?]), in which he says "When these streets keep callin', heard it when I was sleep/That this Gay-Z and Cockkafella Records[?] wanted beef". Jay-Z came back with "Superugly", claiming "Niggas will tie you up on the coliseum roof/And open beer bottles off the boy chipped tooth". After concert promoters refused to allow Nas to hang an effigy of Jay-Z during a show, he began attacking the music industry's control over hip hop: "Y'all brothers gotta start rapping about something that's real. My man N.O.R.E.[?] I love you, N.O.R.E., but step your rap game up. Nelly, if you trying to battle KRS-One, don't follow Nas, man. You can follow Nas if you gonna be creative. I'm here letting my people know it's time to be real. Make your own outlets. Make mixtapes. Listen to DJ Kay Slay. Go get hip-hop without dealing with that station. Or get some balls. Rappers, get some balls. Rappers are slaves." He also specifically attacked Jay-Z and his label, Def Jam Records[?].
LL Cool J invited Canibus, Method Man and Redman[?] to record with him in 1997. Canibus contributed the lines "L, is that a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that", and LL wrote a response intended as the next verse, then changed his mind and asked Canibus to change the lines. Canibus claims that LL promised to remove his own response ("Tearing every MC at the game/To play yourself out position and mention my name/I'll make a rhyme for every syllable in your name/Go platinum for every time you rhyme shit on a train/Watch your mouth, don't ever step out of line/L.L. Cool J is the greatest of all time" if Canibus removed his own. LL denies this, claiming that he told Canibus that no one would know who he was talking about if Canibus never explained the mic line it was responding to.
LL Cool J has also been involved in feuds with Steady B[?], MC Shan[?], Ice-T, MC Hammer, as well as actor Jamie Foxx[?].
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