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| Phenom | Kingz | Dabatos | TonySelf | Tha Q | Half Breed | Tito | 7th End | RV Radio  |
03-11-05, 08:43 PM
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#1
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Where's the beef?
IP: 258C A279
Verbal jousting may be part of the hip-hop tradition,
but the latest round rises concerns about consequences BEEF SELLS. Whether it's professional wrestlers, cheating spouses on "The Jerry Springer Show" or Jon Stewart against Tucker Carlson, America loves a good smack down - verbal or otherwise. And no industry capitalizes on these personal conflicts more effectively than hip-hop Beefing is ingrained in hip-hop culture, from the rap battles to the break dancing challenges to graffiti artists striving to outdo each other with their choice of canvas as well as their actual art. Hip-hoppers regularly use beefs to generate publicity and gain respect from their fans and peers. Rapper 50 Cent fanned hip-hop's beef flame to promote his recently-released second album "The Massacre." However, as the $10 billion hip-hop industry continues to grow in stature and in revenue, so do the stakes associated with creating a hit. In the past few weeks, rapper 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, has shown he’s willing to gamble again by provoking a variety of beefs with a number of high-profile rappers in an attempt to raise his profile and generate interest in his second album, “The Massacre,” which hit stores last week. The most surprising of his battles was with a member of his own G-Unit camp, The Game, whom he dismissed during a radio interview for being disloyal – a move police say resulted in the shooting of a member of The Game’s entourage outside the New York station. Beef: The stakes have gotten higher “Beef has always been the engine of creativity in hip-hop. It gives it a creative thrust,” said Jeff Chang, author of the hip-hop history “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” (St. Martin’s Press). “But now beef affects the competition. Beef affects business. It affects who stays employed, and there’s a lot of people employed by successful rappers. That makes things completely different. There’s a lot more fallout when people could lose their livelihoods. Now it’s a high-stakes spectacle.” It’s also seems as a dangerous one. Though 50 Cent’s recent targets – Fat Joe, Jadakiss, and Nas – have said they plan to keep the beef within the boundaries of music, police have increased security around 50 Cent, and several of his personal appearances around New York this week have been canceled due to security issues. However, if there’s a record company that understands how to navigate beefs, it would be Interscope Records, the parent company to the labels of Eminem and 50 Cent, who are both currently embroiled in some of hip-hop’s top squabbles. An Interscope spokesman declined to comment about how artists’ beefs may affect sales. “It’s a great marketing strategy for 50,” said hip-hop historian and DJ Davey D. “He pick some fights, he goes for shock value and soon that’s what everybody’s talking about. At the end of the day, it’s been a winning formula for him, but he may end up paying up a heavy price for it. I think the way he looks at it, he knows his time is up soon, so he might as well go out with a bang.” Rapper Jadakiss agreed, telling an interviewer that he thought 50 Cent started beefing with him because “The Massacre” wouldn’t live up to his multiplatinum debut, “Get Rich or Die Tryin.’” The new album “is garbage,” Jadakiss said. “Nothing on it’s as good as the first one.” 50 Cent’s relentless attacks are dividing the hip-hop world. Some worry that he may be launching a hip-hop war like the East Coast-West Coast beef from the late ‘90s that resulted in the deaths of the culture’s two biggest heroes, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace). Others say he is simply carrying on the tradition of hip-hop beefs, the way nearly all rappers do at some point in their careers. “All through hip-hop history, there have been beefs that have gotten to the crisis point, Change said. “The differences is that now, some rappers’ egos have gone wild. Money has distorted the power communities had to keep them in check.” It took the slayings of Shakur and Wallace to convince that rappers who wanted to use beefs to advance their careers that they may want to consider the consequences. “No one really used beefs that way for a while – until 50 Cent came along,” Davey D said. “Maybe people forgot, but several years ago, he first got attention for doing ‘How to Rob,’ a fantasy song about robbing everybody (in hip-hop). He said it was humorous, but a lot of people named in it didn’t think it was too funny.” When 50 Cent launched his debut album in 2003, he generated a great deal of hype with the song “Wanksta,” an attack on rapper Ja Rule, who, at the time, dominated hip-hop. Though “Wanksta” was never a hit, it gave 50 more street cred and damaged Ja Rule’s reputation. “At this point, if I let off of (Ja Rule’s label) Murder Inc., they linger for a bit, people start to feel like it’s OK to like them, they get back their position and guess what – they want to fight again,” 50 Cent told MTV News. “That’s why for me, when you begin to destroy, you should destroy completely.” Davey D. said that 50 Cent is playing the law of hip-hop averages. “He knows he will be very hard-pressed to come up with a hit third or fourth album. That’s not because of him. It’s because of the nature of hip-hop today. It’s fueled by fickle fans and fickle radio outlets who can easily decide, ‘Maybe we get behind somebody else this year.’ “It’s a pattern that recurs. It happens because the artistry that comes with being around, with taking in the influences from traveling and growth as a human being, aren’t necessarily appreciated. Maybe 50 could do something like Mos Def and be successful, but I don’t think he’s sure about it. That means he only has two other options: shock and awe.” And in order for those options to work, 50 Cent must choose his enemies wisely, Davey D. said. He doesn’t want to pick a verbal fight with a rapper who will turn it into a real-life fight or someone who has the sales, the stature and the inclination to take the hip-hop crown away from him. “Beef isn’t that urgent, it’s more calculated,” Davey D. said. “You have to decide if it’s really worth the effort, if I’m really going to spend time and put it out on a record. It’s not like a real fight. I mean, if you hit my mom, I’m not going to go home and write a song about it. We’re going to settle it then and there.” Some in hip-hop say the success of 50 Cent’s strategy will actually hurt the music in the long run. “If you’re a 15-year-old looking to make it in the business, the message this gives is loud and clear: Start challenging people,” Davey D. said. “I think that undermines the potential of the culture, the potential of the black community. Instead of trying to do your own thing and having a community where everyone flourishes, you get locked in to trying to take somebody else down.”
__________________
..The Council..
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