Hip Hop’s New Tough Guy?

I’ve always been a fan of beef…you know drunken street brawls, cat fights, rap battles and of course beef on wax.  Perhaps the newest edition to that has been the recent phenomenon of YouTube sh*t talking.  But I’m not sure how I feel about cats turning on their web cams and going in on their enemies.

The latest such installment has been the Ice-T vs. Soulja Boy fiasco.  Over the last couple of weeks you’ve read here, there and everywhere about how T called out Soulja Boy for being the death of Hip Hop. Naturally we all know that if Hip Hop INDEED IS DEAD it was killed long before Soulja supermanned that hoe. Its kind of like HBO’s Boxing After Dark.  There are no real headliners and only mildly entertaining if you’re bored on a Saturday night.

Anyway after trading YouTube shots, It looks like Ice-T has apologized, sort of.  I got a chuckle from his whole apology bit.  Lets not get it twisted, Ice has far more dough, his wife is way badder then any of Soulja’s jumpoffs and even in the twilight of his rap career is way cooler (in my opinion) than the kid.  But stooping to a teenagers level is sort of a referendum on Ice-T’s maturity level and credibility no?

Then if it wasn’t all silly enough, Kanye West infuses himself into the beef waving the Soulja Boy flag with the following statement from his blog:

Soulja boy is fresh ass hell and is actually the true meaning of what hip hop is sposed to be. He came from the hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound and a new dance with one song. He had all of America rapping this summer. If that ain’t Hip Hop then what is? A bunch of wannabe keep it real rappers that ain’t even relevant, recycling samples trying to act like it’s 96 again and all they do is hate on new shit? Niggas always talk about the golden age but for a 13 year old kid, this is the golden age!!! That song was so dope cause everything he said had a hidden meaning… that’s Nas level shit… he just put it over some steel drums which is also some Nas shit if you had the 2nd album cassette with the bonus track “Silent Murder” on it. In closing… new niggas get ya money$$$$$$$$$$ Keep this shit fresh and original…. ain’t no fuckin’ rules to this shit and that’s what real hip hop is to me.

Its sad to say but maybe he’s right.  Hip Hop doesn’t belong to me and neither do her beefs.  She’s got a new boyfriend and my only memories of her are contained with in a shoebox of old mixtapes (on cassette,) issues of Word Up Magazine and taped music videos from Ralph McDaniel’s Video Music Box.