Ice Cube isn’t a fan of watching rappers beef with each other, though he also understands that it’s a part of the game.
Last month, before things got intense between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, he joined Canada’s E-Talk for a conversation about feuds in Hip Hop. At the time of the interview, K. Dot had already fired the first shot on Metro Boomin and Future‘s “Like That,” following which J. Cole issued then rescinded a response to Dot with “7 Minute Drill.”
“Beefs are volatile. You always have to be careful that a beef doesn’t turn into a murder,” he said. “Back in the day, you’d do a diss record, but it would stay somewhat in the Hip Hop community. Now, it’s all over the world. All walks of life know what’s going on. And some people can’t really take that kind of humiliation. I don’t really like seeing rappers beef.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to have a great career. But it happens! Hey, it’s part of the game and I think when you in a beef, you can’t really hold back. It’s like being in a fight — you can’t really half-punch; you gotta go all the way.”Even less enthusiastic about the beef in question is Questlove.
The Roots drummer sternly criticized the hotly-contested rap battle in an Instagram post earlier this week, going as far as to declare that Hip Hop is “truly dead.”
The veteran drummer’s issues lie with the way both rappers have conducted themselves over the back-and-forth, dragging each other’s family members into the feud by making scandalous and unsubstantiated allegations on their respective diss songs.
“Nobody won the war,” he wrote. “This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned.
“Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop truly is dead.”
Challenging both MCs to step their game up morally, Questlove added in the caption: “Here We Are Now…Entertain us?”