Defsounds

Beef in hip hop has changed so much since the days of Busy Bee v. Kool Moe Dee (if you’re clueless to these two artist as well as this legendary battle, then sadly you are not a true hip hop fan and secondly need to educate yourself ASAP).

There's no denying that beef between rappers has gone from trading lyrical blows to full on wars. Back when hip hop was first becoming popular battle raps rarely ever spilled on to the streets. The winner of battle was announced and both gave each other a pound and that was the end.

The more that “Corporate America” became involved with hip hop got the more serious beef became. It was no longer just lyrics; it became personal attacks, and threats of violence turned into reality.

It went from Prodigy getting punched in the face by Keith Murray to Mobb Deep getting robbed by Tru Life to the tragedies of Tupac and Biggie. We all know what could happen when beef gets out of hand.

Fast forward 12 years later and now we have the infamous (at best) and played out (at worst) beef between Officer Ricky v. 50 Cent aka Boo Boo.

Now whatever feelings you may have on either of these artists or their music, the one thing I think should jump out at everybody is the lack of the musical element of the beef.

It started out on wax which was interesting. Well not really. We all knew Ross had no chance against 50, but it was at least entertaining with a classic diss track coming out of Lloyd Banks(Officer Down).

That is the exact thing that is great about hip hop beef. It forces both sides to step there game up to win the beef, so us as the listeners, get artists on their "A" game lyrically to win.

We saw it with Nas and Jay-Z, Saigon and Joe Budden, Royce a 5'9" and D12, and of course Game and G-Unit. It also works as a great way to boost album sales and get people to talk about you.

Why do you think Ross started this beef in the first place? His album sold 150,000 units in its first week at a time when CD sales are at an all time low.

Did any of you care about Deeper than Rap before Mafia Music?

After Mafia Music Ross's disses were half assed at best. Those 1 minute diss tracks were just feeble attempts at keeping the whole beef buzzing, and to keep his name in the media. This is when the beef had taken a turn onto a personal level.

We all know the story, 50 takes out Ross's baby mama and gives her a book deal, then we have the gay-unit videos, leading to the part that went too far with the video of DJ Khaled's mother at work with 50 implying, “We can get at you and your family anywhere.”

Then we have Ross's other baby mama's porno, and the hundreds of interviews where Ross continuously calls 50 a monkey.

It seems to me like this whole thing is starting to stray away from the music and into that personal realm. The problem with the personal realm is that’s where the war of words ends and the more serious war begin.

I hope they can keep this professional and we won’t have another Pac and Biggie situation. Fortunately that seems unlikely since both artists have been in each other's cities, yet to hear of either of them getting shot or slapped up.

Plus neither of them are thugs anymore; they're just entertainers (no matter how many times they shout it in their songs).

However, it can turn violent very quickly and I just want to remind both sides that this is Hip Hop so let’s keep it on wax and off the streets. If only we could have this whole thing settled over a battle and they can get over all this retarded beefing. Controversy sells and who knows this better, 50 Cent and Rick Ross.