Beef. It’s more than what’s for dinner – it’s what rappers today have been dining on for a minute now. Every other week or so, you can hear a new diss track from someone in the game. Whether it’s real, subliminal, or WWE-inspired – 2006 will be known as a year of some noteworthy beefs; whereas others will be written off as stupid and trite. But there is seeming to be a common thread in some of these beefs. It looks like the new era of emcees is constantly bumping heads with the old regime. The old heads claim "Hip Hop is Dead" or dying while the new school feel that is an insult because what does that mean for their craft?

Interesting...

Here's a review of some of the bigger beefs this year:

Gillie Da Kid vs. Lil’ Wayne

Former Cash Money recording artist, Gillie Da Kid was signed to the New Orleans label for a good hot minute. While there, he never released an album, but according to him – he’s the reason why Lil’ WayneThe Carter went from “wobbily, wobbily, drop-drop it like its hot” to dropping gems like he did off of his two-times platinum offering . Gillie said that not only did he write the raps for Lil’ Weezyana, but he (Wayne) pulled a swagger jack move by biting the Clipse’s fetish for A Bathing Ape clothing. To credit, Gillie does have footage to back this up, showing Wayne sporting a Major Figgas chain in a video. Wayne has also recently called out The Clipse and Pharrell too. Wayne hasn’t responded or given any true response to Gillie. Is ignorance the same as having something to hide?

The Clipse vs. Jive Records

The Thornton Brothers are something like a gift and a curse. Their opus Lord Willin’ was a beautifully crafted gift, reworking the crack tales and giving it a sense of stark reality. The curse would be Jive’s refusal to put them out on time. Having been three years since they originally began working on Hell Hath No Fury, the group became more and more frustrated with the label. The label responded by overlooking them in favor of the more “pop” oriented acts on its roster. This led to suffer numerous delays, which only made the fans and The Clipse angrier. The “crackers” who weren’t playing fair at Jive were parodied and threatened by the Virginia rhyme-slangers. The request to be formally released from their contract was refused. Industry rule #4080 was put in place. The duo sued the label and started their own imprint Re-Up Records. Having released the critically acclaimed We Got It 4 Cheap mixtape series helped to only fuel the fervor of wanting Hell bumping out the speakers. This past May, the Clipse reached an agreement with their record label to release the album through Re-Up Records along with Jive. Even though the date of release was pushed back twice, the beef simmered down between the two, as Hell Hath No Fury was released on November 28th, 2006 – after almost a four year delay. Continued on page 2 »