Hip-Hop Civil War....Is It Really Necessary?

Hip-Hop. It is a music of rebellion. A music that has brought people from all over the world together in the name of it. A music that, no matter how old I get, I will never abandon. Not as long as there's good music out there to enjoy.

That being said, I want to take some time out and address what is becoming increasingly disturbing: a new civil war in hip-hop. It is slowly brewing, and  will eventually reach a boiling point. It's something that hip-hop doesn't need, now or ever.

Back in the early 90's, a shift in the hip-hop landscape became apparent once Dr. Dre released The Chronic. The year was 1992. The West Coast had been on the come up since the late 1980's, thanks to the rise of NWA, Ice-T, and Too Short. By 1996, the West Coast ran hip-hop. However, beef between both the East and West Coasts had risen to the boiling point of war. By the end of 1997, the war had claimed the lives of two of its biggest stars: Tupac Shakur and Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace. From there, it was agreed upon that it wasn't worth the loss of life, and hip-hop started to regain a sense of unity.

Fast forward to 2012. The leaders in hip-hop now aren't from New York City or Los Angeles, but from Atlanta and Memphis. Miami and New Orleans. Houston and Fayetteville. The rise of the South isn't anything new; the genesis of that goes back to the late 80's, when The 2 Live Crew came bouncing from Miami, Florida. The Geto Boys came out of Houston, released their LP "Grip It! On That Other Level" in 1989 and achieved major success when they released "We Can't Be Stopped" in 1991. Fueled by the haunting track "Mind's Playin' Tricks On Me", the album achieved platinum status by 1992. Group member Scarface released his solo LP "Mr. Scarface Is Back" in 1991 and received gold certification. Success would be sporadic in the South until Outkast released "Southernplayalisticadillacmusik" in 1994. From there, the first "Southern Invasion" consisted of Outkast, Goodie Mob, Geto Boys, 8Ball & MJG, Three 6 Mafia, Mystikal, UGK, DMG, and Tela. Reinforcements came in the form of a tank coming out of New Orleans, driven by Percy "Master P" Miller. His California-born, New Orleans-raised No Limit Records took the entrepreneur spirit of the South and mixed it with the swagger of Bad Boy to create a force to be reckoned with. No Limit's run as the top label in the South would be short-lived, as another label from New Orleans claimed the crown by 1999. Cash Money Records, founded by Ronald "Slim" Williams and his brother, Bryan "Baby" Williams (aka Birdman), found themselves on top thanks to top selling LPs by The Hot Boys and group members Juvenile, 'Lil Wayne, & BG. Miami's Slip-N-Slide Records came into play in the late 90's, led by former Luke associate Trick Daddy. His debut LP featured a song called "Nann Nigga", which featured a young female named Trina. She used that song to launch her career in 2000. One of the up and coming rappers in Miami was an artist named Teflon Da Don. He was featured on a couple of Trina's songs, and even found his way on the final track of Erick Sermon's "Erick Onasis" LP in 2000, on the posse cut "Van Gundy". Today, Teflon Da Don is Rick Ross.

Since the turn of the millennium, the South has been the force driving hip-hop. Atlanta has seen their share of success in this time. Outkast, T.I., Ludacris, Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins, Pastor Troy, DJ Unk, Bubba Sparxxx, Killer Mike, Shawty Lo, Waka Flocka Flame, Gucci Mane, and others have had success. In Memphis, Three 6 Mafia became the first Southern rappers to win an Academy Award for the song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" from the movie Hustle & Flow. Houston has seen their hip-hop scene explode since the days of the Geto Boys. Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Slim Thug, UGK (and group member Bun-B), Mike Jones, and 'Lil Flip have moved units. New Orleans went from No Limit to Cash Money, and now Cash Money has been revamped due to the success of former Hot Boy 'Lil Wayne. His Carter series has sold close to 9 million copies worldwide. North Carolina has been making noise with Little Brother and Petey Pablo, but has had greater success with Fayetteville's J. Cole. And Miami has been riding the wave of success due to Rick Ross, Flo Rida, Pitbull & DJ Khaled.

What does this have to do with a brewing civil war? Let's look:

-In hip-hop's first civil war, the issues were mainly between factions or labels. The first time around, it centered around Death Row vs. Bad Boy and Tupac vs. Biggie. Other artists got into the mix (DPG, Capone N Noreaga, Mobb Deep) which added fuel to the fire.

-The media played a LARGE part in hip-hop's civil war. No one really called it an "East Coast/West Coast war until the media branded it as such. From radio stations and video outlets to the news networks themselves, they added their own fuel.

-The artists themselves. Ice Cube went from being one of the most loved MCs on both coasts to being public enemy #1 on the East Coast after he and his Westside Connection co-defendants ripped Common a new one on their song "Westside Slaughterhouse". The song was meant in response to Common's song "I Used To Love H.E.R.", in which Cube & Co. took offense to lines in the song regarding the West's influence on hip-hop. Even though Common is from Chicago, lines in Westside Slaughterhouse like "Ice Cube bailin' through the East without a vest" clearly painted a target on WSC. After Funkmaster Flex refused to play any Ice Cube or WC songs on his radio show and flat out dissed Mack-10, the group then recorded "All The Critics In New York" for their album "Bow Down", which further heightened tensions. Tupac recorded "Hit Em Up" in 1996 as a response to Biggie's "Who Shot Ya", but went on a tirade at the end of the song, dissing anyone and everyone East Coast-related. Chino XL caught the barrage, as did Mobb Deep, who had recorded (with Capone & Noreaga and Tragedy Khadafi) a reply to the Dogg Pound's "NY NY", called "LA LA". Mobb Deep then went and recorded their reply to "Hit Em Up", entitled "Drop A Gem On Em". Not to be outdone, Tupac then went and targeted Mobb Deep on his posthumous LP "Makavelli" in 1997. Mobb Deep were targets, as were Nas, Jay-Z, & Biggie.

Of course, this all ended after Tupac was murdered in September of 1996 and Biggie in March of 1997. There were other casualties of this war; Randy "Stretch" Walker of the group Live Squad was murdered in 1995. He was a close friend of Tupac's before their relationship went sour after Tupac's shooting in 1994. Yafeu Akiyele Fula, also known as Yaki Kadafi of Tupac's group The Outlawz, was shot once in the head almost two months after Tupac died of his gunshot wounds in Las Vegas. 

History repeats itself.

Although there are no beefs between labels (at least none that are of public knowledge), artists are still playing the role of instigator. Mysonne, a New York rapper who's been incarcerated at different times during the rise of the South, publicly came out dissing Southern rappers T.I., 'Lil Wayne, & Lil B. Wu-Tang co-founder GZA found himself in controversy dissing Soulja Boy. Papoose, Havoc (of Mobb Deep), 50 Cent, and other New York rappers have been caught throwing shots in the direction of the South. In the heat of the negativity, Southern rappers caught feelings over the title of Nas' 2006 LP, "Hip Hop Is Dead". Rappers such as Young Jeezy, T.I., Big Boi (of Outkast), and others responded negatively to the title and Nas' relevance in hip hop. Some of the response to New York is warranted, some of it is not.

The media still hypes it up. Recently in an editorial on HipHopDX.com, a so-called journalist named Slava Kuperstein called out New York on it's regional bias. In his article, Kuperstein blasts Nas' for his "whiny" LP Hip Hop Is Dead, speaks briefly on Peter Rosenberg's "rants" on Hot 97, and claims Jay-Z "embraced the South long before Outkast was going diamond".  

Let me first point out that Mr. Kuperstein is originally from the Ukraine, and currently based in Ellicott City, Maryland. Kind of makes me wonder how much exposure he's had to hip-hop in the first place.

Second, he says that Southern rappers were justified in their feelings of Nas' album title. Never once in the album does Nas directly or indirectly accuse or blame the South for the lack of quality in today's hip-hop. That blame would be spread around, even to those in the same city that Nas represents. Any rapper from the South who caught feelings off of that album title are a little too sensitive, in my opinion. 

Third, the "rants" from Peter Rosenberg started off directed at Nicki Minaj (who from last account, was from Queens, a borough in New York City, nowhere near the South). The attacks from Hot 97 were to Young Money. And although that is a label headed by 'Lil Wayne (Southern rapper), his biggest selling artists (besides himself) are Nicki Minaj and Drake (who is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada if you didn't know by now). Rosenberg blasted Nicki for her single "Starships" at their Summer Jam concert, prompting Wayne to pull Nicki and other Young Money artists off the bill. And although he did call Starships "bullshit", Rosenberg stated that he's heard better from her, and wanted to hear the MC that "killed the mixtapes" prior to signing to Young Money. When Wayne went on to explain that "women need to be respected", all Rosenberg did was fire off soundbite after soundbite of songs from Young Money artists  disrespecting women, including some from the Young Money boss himself. 

Finally, Mr. Kuperstein really needs to either work on his hip-hop history or learn to work Google better. New York and Southern rappers were working together way before Jay-Z made it cool with UGK. Just the year before, Outkast collaborated with Wu-Tang's Raekwon on their 1998 banger "Skew It On The Bar-B". Nas collaborated with Scarface on the track "Favor For A Favor" from his 1999 LP "I Am" (released before Hov's S. Carter LP). 'Face was even on Gang Starr's 1998 LP "Moment Of Truth" on a track called "Betrayal". I won't even get to Mia X and Master P getting down with Foxy Brown on the track called "The Party Don't Stop" from her 1997 LP "Unlady Like". I can go on, from The Neptunes (Virginia) working with Nore before Jay got down with Timbaland, Lil Kim & Missy (Virginia) working together, yadda yadda yadda. You get the point.

Bottom line is this: we don't need another civil war in hip-hop. I am from Philadelphia. We took the creations of Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa & Grand Wizard Theodore and expanded on them. We were tagging El trains and walls before NY's graf movement. However I will not discount NY's creations or the cats who are still true to the game. I will also never discount the contributions made by cats in other areas of the USA. As long as you make dope music, and you're not lazy with it, then you're good with me. I came up with Sugar Hill, Enjoy & Profile before Def Jam came along. I was a Run DMC, Public Enemy & Big Daddy Kane head before I was introduced to NWA and the Geto Boys. I bought 8Ball & MJG and Three Six Mafia. I was one of the first die hard East Coast cats banging Mystikal's first LP in my car. I'm sure there are a lot of cats from the East (and especially in New York) who feel the same way. Wayne's issues with New York may stem from his time being locked up there and from the Summer Jam incident, but that's on him. If he doesn't like New York, then he doesn't have to go there and perform there. Feelings from a few rappers do not make the consensus of an entire city. Everyone, Slava Kuperstein included, should keep this in mind before we lose a few more stars to senseless bullshit.