Music, like poetry, is a subject of emotion. It is an art form that caresses the inner recesses of the mind. Sometimes, the best hit songs come about after the musician has brooded over issues by way of introspection. It is not all about smoking of weed or cannabis and other hard substances. It is about the capacity to look at life from a different perspective.
Well, some of the greatest musicians that greeted the world stage were people who got inspirations from different things; some, admittedly, through drugs and others, from situations and circumstances.
Nigerian musicians (thankfully I don’t consider a lot of them worthy of the title) are of different breeds. Most of them are buoyed by the greed for erotic exercise, the pervading narrative of poverty that hounds them, the envy from those they do better than and the lust for beautiful women.
Those who started on the strength of their love of music, who really understand what the hip-hop world is about, know quite well that the genre of music started with rivalry. Remember the Tupac versus Notorious B.I.G era, which sparked the East Coast versus West Coast enmity. In the legend, we saw two friends torn apart by the lust of fame and fortune.
Those were the days of good rap and hip-hop, not the Afro hip-hop that is being dished out by many Nigerian artistes.
Tupac versus Notorious B.I.G rivalry was too long ago. Some of still remember the recent beef between Meek Mill and Drake, and how it gave birth to some hit songs, leading a major nomination for the eventual winner of the feud – Drake. Whether we like it or not, Drake left Nicki Minaj’s beau with bloody nose.
Meek Mill versus Drake started when Meek Mill tweeted that Drake does not write his own raps. Rather than get into a Twitter war, Drake eventually snapped back with two freestyles, Charged up and Back to back, wherein he called Meek Mill out for not having his own world tour, but being on his lady’s tour. Meek Mill eventually got back to Drake on a track called Don’t wanna know, but it was pretty unanimous that Drake won.
There was also Gucci Mane versus Young Jeezy. Two friends but one track caused the rivalry. Gucci took the song and put it on his own project, which meant Young Jeezy could not use it. The latter never got paid. His calm response was to offer to “cremate” his target on Stay strapped. In 2005, Pookie Loc, a Young Jeezy’s associate, was murdered.
Gucci was blamed, and then acquitted, having acted in self-defence. After years of volleys and a splinter beef involving DJ Drama, the two artistes settled, supposedly recording a couple of songs together. But Gucci went rogue, as he does, and recorded a song called Worst enemy.
In 2010, the two camps were fighting at Walter’s Clothing in Atlanta. Later, Young Jeezy would describe the whole thing as a “misunderstanding” but would also refer to Gucci as “retarded”.
Now, enter Eminem versus The Source. The Source was like a Bible of sort for musicians. The magazine’s five-mic review of Illmatic is just as important to Nas’ story as the actual music. Its authority received a serious blow in 2002, when Benzino, a rapper, used his influence inside the office to launch an all-out attack on Eminem – the world’s biggest artists at the time.
Eminem responded with some of the greatest tracks ever recorded, such as Nail in the coffin. To cut a long story short, The Source lost all credibility and investors. Eminem managed to sell millions of copies of even his records.
Most rivalries were personal. In 2001, Beanie Sigel released his first single, Mack B, which included the line, You got the 430, small wheels. Jadakiss thought the line might have been directed at him and sent a couple of shots back, ending in a well-regarded feud that would pull in their respective crews for a slew of classic records, including Beanie’s Kiss the game goodbye.
Maybe the best moment was when Jadakiss, onstage at Philadelphia’s Power House concert, said to Beanie’s hometown crowd: “Send Sigel a wire, I’m riding again”. Hours later, Beanie stood on the same stage and said: “I make his mouth piece obese like Della Reese/When I released, he loses cheek…I’m a made man”.
The subtle remarks were all apparently directed to Jadakiss. The rivalry got heated and yet, it ended with the two in good terms.
There was also the 50 Cent versus Ja Rule duel. 50 Cent has had altercation with several artistes. Even now, he still has issues with one or two persons including women. He recently filed for bankruptcy as a result of legal logjam he got himself into with a woman who demanded for child support. But the one that stands legendary is his fight with an equally legendary Ja Rule.
For a time, 50 Cent’s marketing plan was simple: go hard on them. His 2005 Piggy Bank was a direct attack on Jadakiss, Nas and Fat Joe. He also fired darts at Lil Kim, Mobb Deep, Shyne, Kelis and others. In 2007, he sent black roses to Cam’ron’s label, around the same time he had promised to retire if Kanye West outsold him.
As the story goes, trouble started when an associate of 50 Cent tried to steal Ja Rule’s jewellery, which in turn led to 50 Cent getting stabbed at a New York club. 50 Cent set to dismantle Ja Rule’s career, starting with mixtape tracks and skits such as Life’s on the line and Ja Rule duets, where he mimicked Ja Rule’s gravel-voice singing over pop songs and videos.
Ja Rule tried responding in kind when he released Blood in my eye, though it could not heal his pain. In desperation, his team left bullet holes in 50 Cent’s office. By 2005, Ja Rule’s career had nosedived. In two years, he had gone from Number One to nowhere. But there’s no bad blood, perhaps. Ja Rule acknowledged his loss and in 2013, the two were on the same plane and got to their destination without any problem.
My point is that, musical rivalries have led to composition of ever-green songs that have stood the test of time. In Nigeria artistes’ feud, as seen in the case of Olamide and Don Jazzy, began and ended in two days. I saw it as gimmicks. But then, we have learnt enough from the boju-boju we experienced at the hands of Idrees Abdulkareem during his reign as Nigeria rap king when he would just catch anyone and lambast them to submission until Ruggedman came out with the track that shut him up with his hit track, Why you too dey rap like mumu?.
