hip hop beef

First of all, I need to define what a “beef” is for those of you reading this who may not be aware of hip hop lingo. A beef is a term used in hip hop culture to describe a grudge between two people. In normal society, a grudge for the most part can occur without any real ramifications, but in the hip hop industry meat never happens without some real fireworks associated with it.

Meats in hip hop were created with two purposes in mind. One is that two artists with legitimate grievances against each other could work out their differences while still promoting their respective albums. One of the earliest highly publicized feuds in the hip hop industry was between an up-and-coming young rapper named LL Cool J and a previously established veteran named Kool Mo Dee. Most people don’t remember what the main feud between the two was, but the songs they did in an effort to discredit each other were true classics at the time. The universally accepted beef winner was LL Cool J and his record sales no doubt benefited from it. In this case, the hip hop meat worked perfectly and the animosity disappeared and there was no violence between the two. This would not be the case for the most publicized fights in hip hop history. Tupac Shakur, who was a leading west coast hip hop artist, and the Notorious BIG, who was the leading rapper in the east at the time, used to be very good friends. Tupac Shakur was then said to have had affairs with the wife of the Notorious BIG, resulting not only in the two ending their relationship, but also in hip hop’s most historic battle. For months, the two hip hop artists clashed over songs until one day Tupac Shakur was shot outside a studio in New York. Tupac Shakur believed that the Notorious BIG was involved in the shooting or somehow knew about it. The fact that the shooting happened in the East and Tupac was a Western rapper caused quite an uproar among West Coast hip hop fans. The two coasts were no longer collaborating together on musical projects and it was actually quite dangerous for any of the artists to venture to the other coast. The result of this East Coast West Coast beef was monumental. Both Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG were killed within 6 months of each other. Those two deaths marked the downfall of the greatest universally recognized rappers of all time.

Although hip hop fights were created to have an outlet or forum for two artists to voice their grievances, the cardinal rule of keeping it on the record has been consistently flouted and many deaths have occurred. Sad to say, but 10 years after the deaths of the Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur, fights are as frequent, if not more so, than they were at the time of his death.