S. Samuel
Southern rapper David Banner recently spoke with SOHH about the popularity of beefs within hip-hop and revealed a conversation he had with T.I. about some conflict being inevitable.
While Banner personally feels artists should not be beefing he has come to accept it.
“I’m happy for their situation,” Banner said about Cam’ron and Jim Jones recently reuniting. “I don’t think rap should be too much of anything, I don’t think we should all come together and sing ‘Kom-Bi-Ya’ and I don’t think that we should be beefing. I think we’re grown men but as grown men, you can have difficulties with each other but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have beef on the record. I don’t think that’s necessary. But at the same token, everybody’s not gonna get along with each other. That was something that I actually learned from Tip. Tip told me, ‘You’re not gonna get along with everybody in real life, so you’re not gonna get along with everybody in rap.’ And that’s fine. We men, we agree to disagree, but I don’t think we should do it like highschool and put it all in the music.” (SOHH)
New York rapper N.O.R.E. recently said he feels rap beefs internally hurt the African American and Hispanic community.
“I’m not really with the rap game dissing each other,” N.O.R.E. said in an interview. “To me it’s all young Black[s] [and] Latinos, you know people from the ghetto that’s struggling, and every time you…diss the next person it just makes it harder for the game. So me, I have never been with the dissing sh*t… that’s something that I don’t pay attention [to] in the game. I am aware of it, but I don’t pay attention…I remember I had Max B and Hell Rell on the same record. I didn’t even know they was beefing…They both was calling me like, ‘Yo, dude.’ I was like, ‘What the f*ck is going on?’… I don’t wanna pay attention to the beef, I wanna pay attention to the love.” (XXL Mag)
Ja Rule also recently pointed out the negative effects of beefing.
“I think the beef sh*t is wack,” Rule revealed in an interview. “My beef was different, it was real. Physical altercations, all that. A lot of these beefs today, are just publicity stunts for artists to try to sell records. They try to further their careers or whatever, doing so by creating conflict with other artists who are creating a buzz. I think it’s watered down hip-hop. Even though hip-hop was founded on the battle, it came from that. It’s still, with how far hip-hop has come, the beef records take away from the talent and the creative process of it all. I just think all the beef records and that sh*t is wack.” (Dubcnn)
Earlier this year, Slaughterhouse‘s Joell Ortiz said he would not take part in a potential beef with Benzino.
“Ah, no comment,” Joell initially said about Zino’s actions as of late. “Everybody is entitled to their opinion. So you know, that’s homeboy’s opinion. That’s all I can say. Leave it right there. I can’t speak on it ‘if’ someone mentions my name. Everything just [gets] handled according but as of right now, everybody is entitled to their opinion and that’s his opinion of the group…I don’t have a problem with anyone. That’s one thing I take pride in, I don’t [get] involved in beef, I don’t have any beef. My beef is with poverty, you feel me?” (“On-Air Idiot Show”)
Check out David Banner’s recent Gatorade commercial down below:
