“It used to be that battling meant picking up a mic and letting all your anger out. But then it took on a whole new meaning with Tupac and Biggie when they both somehow ended up dead. And ever since then there has been an air of paranoia surrounding hip hop. People get uneasy every time somebody has something to say about another person- on or off wax. Now with LL Cool J and Canibus at each others throats, eyebrows are being raised once again.
You could say it started with a simple misunderstanding. LL asked newcomer Canibus to drop some lines on his single 4,3,2,1, along with Method Man, Redman, and DMX. Canibus, excited about the record, laid down some cuts. But when LL saw his work, he was offended by Canibus’ line, “L, is that a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that.” (LL has a Mic tattoo on his arm.)
So LL fought back on the next verse, but then talked to Canibus about changing both their verses, and Canibus agreed, changing his verse. But to his surprise, when the single came out, LL attacked Canibus, starting the battle.
“…Play yourself out position and mention my name
I’ll make a rhyme for every syllable in your name
Watch your back, don’t ever step out of line
LL Cool J is the greatest rapper of all time…”
Canibus, obviously feeling disrespected, made a record of his own, dissing the self-proclaimed “greatest rapper of all time.” “Second Round Knockout” surprised the entire hip hop industry, not only because it was such a serious dis record, but because Canibus, being a newcomer, had mad skills! Teaming up with Mike Tyson, who was an old friend of LL’s, Canibus rhymes,
“I’m gonna let the world know the truth
you don’t want me to shine
you study my rhyme then laid your vocals after mine
You walk around showing off your body ’cause it sells
To avoid the fact that you ain’t got no skills…”
Many people saw this as good competition. Power 106’s Baka Boys played the joint to no end, calling it “The Greatest Dis” and feeding into the hype, forgetting that LL is a legend.
But LL came back, and he came back hard. “The Ripper Strikes Back” is basically part 2 of “Jack The Ripper” which was a hit at Kool Moe Dee. In it, LL disses Canibus from his skills to his physical appearance.
“How dare you step up in my dimension
Your little a– should be somewhere cryin’ on detention
Every little boy wanna pick up the mic
And try to run with the big boys and live up to the real hype.”
Sounds more like the LL from back in the day, than the one we know now, which goes to show you that true talent never dies. Yea, LL makes music for the ladies, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still rip up the spot. He explained it best when he told MTV News, “This is not a new thing for me. It’s like Michael Jordan putting on his ’84 Jordans and playing at the Garden and hitting 44. That’s all it is. I make love songs now. I take jumpers, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t take it to the hole and make it real ill and make it hard.”
It seems as if LL had the sense that he was untouchable when he dissed Canibus on 4,3,2,1. He probably thought, “How could a kid step up to me?” But that kid was good, and he did step up to him, challenging his skills. Now they are both involved in one of the greatest battles in a long time. Old skool vs. New skool.
Deejay Julio G of The Beat thinks that they should work out their problems between themselves, “because at the end off the day when people like Tupac or Biggie get killed, the people that benefit from it are not their families, it’s those record companies, and them people don’t care who kills themselves. And then black men are talking about other black men on records and making other people rich.”
The question is will anyone get hurt? Will a crazed fan take this battle too far? People have to realize that this is their job. They do this for a living, and they should not have to pay for it with their lives. Canibus did not dis LL Cool J so that he can get murdered the next day. And people have to realize that fact in order for hip hop to progress. There is nothing wrong with battling, as long as it is kept between the two people and not taken care of on the streets. As long as a mic is not replaced with a gun, this is going to be one bad battle between a legend and a rookie. And the winner just might surprise you.
LL Cool J
“LL Cool J is the greatest rapper of all time.”
(From “4,3,2,1”)
“99 percent of your fans don’t exist.” (From “The Return of the Ripper”)
Canibus
“You claim to be the greatest rapper of all time, but the greatest rapper died on March ninth.”
(From “2nd Round K.O.”) (Notorious B.I.G. died on March 9)
“