Today I look at the recent beef between newly signed Shady Records artists and a rapper who no one has cared about for 10+ years...

http://www.reppghhiphop.com/2011/05/...se-vs-canibus/

Always one for controversy, Canibus is out of his hip hop cave yet again and he mad as hell yet again, for reasons that no one really understands, yet again.

This time the target is Slaughterhouse, specifically Royce Da 5’9” and Joe Budden. After a couple months of bubbling on Twitter, Canibus has finally taken to dissing both the recent Shady Records signees and while the idea of some of hip hop’s most lyrical MCs going back and forth on wax sounds appealing, the whole thing has just been one big mess. From low blows by Canibus on Twitter (supposedly) to a diss track titled “Joey Cupcakes” which is as soft as it sounds, this has been one of rap’s worst beefs. In an age where beef is dead in rap anyway, this shit really put the nail in the coffin.


For starters, Canibus ain’t been relevant since his last beef. No not the one with the white boy, the one with LL Cool J. Since that time he’s done nothing but flop, never being able to regain the spark he had back in 1997 when everyone was expecting him to be the next lyrical threat on the mic. So to come at these rappers almost 15 years after anyone gave a shit about him just comes across as pitiful, like Game’s constant attempts to bait Jay-Z into giving a shit about his mediocre cries for attention. At this point Canibus is like that drunk uncle who may or may not show up to the BBQ but if he does you remind your kids why they should stay away from him.


On the other side of this “beef” you have two artists who after years of industry bullshit have been signed to arguably the biggest label in hip hop. I don’t even like the white boy, and short of a D-12 album 10 years ago I can’t recall his label ever releasing anything that sold more than 5 units other than his own albums, but being signed to Shady Records is still a huge deal. So how is Canibus gonna come at these cats and expect anyone to even give a shit let alone give him any credit for anything he says? Not only was the diss weak, but he spit it over a Wu beat, an unknown Wu beat at that since it was off their last album that no one besides myself listened to more than once. Oh but it gets better.


Arsonal, a Smack DVD battle MC, took shots at Joe Budden on a diss track recently that was far better than the pathetic attempt by Canibus. How a battle rapper gonna make a better song than you but you claim to be the greatest rapper of all time? Battle rappers making listenable music is as laughable as Drake thinking he’d ever have a real shot with Nicki, but Arsonal managed to do it and the result is light years ahead Wyclef’s former protégé’s desperate attempts.


You can’t spend your last 10 years releasing albums of recycled MySpace verses over wack production that even your so-called fans don’t support and then take shots at two MCs who just signed to the mecca of hip hop. The people saying Joe and Royce are scared to respond don’t realize that they are too busy to bother with someone who doesn’t even have a record deal. Canibus already tried going at DJ Premier earlier this year and failed so now he’s just reaching for anything he can to make himself the slightest bit relevant again. And for those begging for escalation, Royce already delivered the knockout punch via Twitter when he summed up the whole issue perfectly, “Dear Canibus.. ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzz”.