Thursday, May 14, 2009

Dart's Rant Of The Day: Method Man vs. Joe Budden...Why Not Just Battle It Out?

This seemingly harmless footage may end up being the "shot heard 'round the 'net". A visibly heated Joe Budden (alongside an equally annoyed Joell Ortiz) broke down the Vibe.com brackets for their Best Rapper Ever tournament and were really disappointed in the seeding as well as their places in said brackets (Joey was seeded super low and Joell Ortiz was included at all). In the ensuing rant, Joe claimed that he didn't know who Cowboy of the Furious Five was *raises the People's Eyebrow*, doesn't think Grandmaster Melle Mel can rhyme as of right now and the star of the show...that he could beat Method Man in a straight up rhyme battle. I have NO problem with Joe saying that whatsoever. I'd expect him too, actually. The thing is, Method Man didn't appreciate it very much at all.


Of course, Method Man is in the process of promoting his new album with Redman "Blackout! 2" and he said that he didn't appreciate Joey baiting him. Especially, after Budden came on to Power 105 and claimed that in 32 bars a piece on a record he'd cut Method Man's head off before Meth called in to the same show later on. Method Man was extremely pissed off and started out by saying that he was uninterested in the whole situation. That then escalated to "let's do a track , go 32 bars a piece then let the people decide" to wanting to have a face to face battle with Joe Budden. I personally feel that any nice emcee should feel that no one could handle them in a rhyme battle so none of this is problematic for me. I just think this battle NEEDS to happen and soon.

In this money gettin' era, there are few established emcees willing to just battle it out rather than go back and forth on wax after the whole "subliminal diss" round is over and everyone knows who's being addressed. In situations like this (one that can only happen in our current "Flip Cam Rap Era" (the intellectual property of Elliott Wilson)), The best thing to do is get it all out in the open then with as little interference from execs, record labels, corporate sponsors, or hype as humanly possible get these two together in a nuetral location and have them have a face to face rhyme battle like the ones emcees used to have back in the days (or the ones they used to have before they got on).

This younger generation of Hip Hop/Rap fans NEED to see/hear what we oldheads saw and heard all the damn time. The game has so much money at stake now that no one is willing to risk anything or engage in any of the activities that they did as they came up in the culture. This is a rare opportunity to prove to everyone that Hip Hop isn't dead after all and the industry does not trump the culture. C'mon fellas, tell your people to get in touch with his people. Pick a location, get both your asses there and do it for Hip Hop (no Ludacris, Jay-Z & Nas)

One.

5 comments:

She Hate Me said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Justin Boland said...

Amen...your post addressed most of the questions I was asking, this was on point.

She Hate Me said...

I agree.

Wholeheartedly.

I also feel like Vibe is REALLY trying to stay relevant.

Watch Vibe try to set the venue for these two. And film it. And then try to get credit for it.

soulsupreme said...

"The game has so much money at stake now that no one is willing to risk anything or engage in any of the activities that they did as they came up in the culture. This is a rare opportunity to prove to everyone that Hip Hop isn't dead after all and the industry does not trump the culture."

Really well said brother. I hope they do it too.

Unknown said...

Great points. Meth needs to step up to the plate so that he can either relinquish this ridiculous respect he gets from being a member of Wu Tang as if Wu Tang is relevant or knock joey down a couple levels for thinking he's better than Meth.

IMHO, Joey is going to rip his head off and shit down his throat. Mellie Mel needs to go sit his ass down somewhere. Mellie Mel dissin Joey is like a Model T Ford owner saying his Model T can out run a Lamborgini......not gonna happen. Just because you are a pioneer of something doesn't make you the best at what you helped to pioneer. Mel shouldn't even be on a best rapper ever list.