Rap On Steroids

Considering the close proximity of both of these cities one would think there would be a more heralded history of hate and bad blood between the residents of these two municipalities. Even in sports this is not so,don’t get me wrong I am no Bill Simmons but I do not remember there being that much on the line whenever one of the New York teams played Philly nor do I remember rooting against Philly teams when they were not playing the Knicks, Yankees, Mets or Giants. To me there was not that much at stake. I just didn’t hate Philly. Part of this tolerance or respect for Philly stemmed from my love for the second wave of Philly Gangster rap artist. Now that I think of it, I dont think Philly produces anything but (with the exception of Kwame, and Willard Smith). If you do not know the history of Philly rappers and how influential their contribution to hip hop in the mid to late eighties Do The Knowledge. From Cool C to Young Chris, Philly spitters are known to rival their N.Y. counterparts rhyme for rhyme on a lyrical scale. Black Thought is proof positive that lyrically, Philly has an argument on most lyrical city in rap. I would never concede this due to my home city bias but, for the sake of this post I am being objective.

Despite the similarity in musical product and closeness in distance one would think these two cities would be vying for the top spot in the region rather than trying to share the spotlight. When I heard Rocafella signed a cadre of Philly rappers I thought to myself this may just be a way for Rocafella to increase their buzz as a major record label. All of this changed when I heard Beanie Sigel’s “What A Thug About” on Battle of the Beats a “hate it or love it” radio show hosted at the time by Angie Martinez. Although I didn’t call in when i first heard it on my casio boombox on the floor next to my bed, I hated the song, honestly I thought the shit sucked. But one thing I remember was that I didn’t hat the rapper but more so the beat. Sigel’s voice and delivery stuck out to me plus the fact that he was cosigned by Rocafella, which was establishing themselves as the E-class of Def Jam labels the first being Ruff Ryders, was a big factor why I was going to give him another chance after I heard that song. After 3 critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccesful albums and 2 group projects with his group State Property, I was a Sigel fan through and through. The dude was nice, gravelly voiced, dexterous with the word play and vivid description of the “crimes” that he committed and would continue to commit on the streets of Philly until they buried him under the jail. The sum it up dude was dumb nice . Up until the collapsedeparture of Dame from Rocafella Sigel was second in command when it came to cold bars, and as Jay put it so subtly in Excuse me miss remix Sigel would shoot you on command for Jay-z.

That’s why the recent diss from Beanie Sigel to Jay-Z is coming as a surprise. It’s no secret that some of Jay’s former cohorts and employees from his clockin’ days in Trenton to his corporate trappin’ days up as President of Def Jam believe for a lack of better words Jay is a unethical bastard, and will step on as many necks heads as it takes to reach that one billion he has been eyeing since he first made the forbes list of entertainers. But, never would I have thought Sigel would come at Jay. Thats like Turtle turning on Vinny, Luigi popping reckless about Mario (you get it). But my personal views will be summed up in pt.2 of this post.

See yall in November