WHAT'S BEEF? battles and beefs back in da day

WHAT’S BEEF
BATTLES AND BEEFS BACK IN DA DAY

Beef
Back in the days when we had nothin but beef
At the end you may lose nothin but teeth
That’s fly
But nowadays ask kids
When they have beef, you might die, Why? - chubb rock


As I reminisce about the battles and beef of yesteryear, I can't help thinkin what we would have lost if when Kool Moe Dee had beef with Busy B over the ‘pre-organized battles he always won,’ as Moe Dee put it, bust a cap in Busy Bee Starsky instead of ambushing him lyrically. That was one of the fiercest battles and one many emcees and hip hop headz know word for word, not to mention how many had 4th and 5th generation (if you were that lucky) tapes of it there are and were floating around. It didn’t matter how clear it was just that you had it. Don’t get me wrong those who had the clearest copies like my homeboy G-Reg and the diabolical one himself, Biz Markie were the ones who got the most props.
What would have happened in 1983 in Patterson, New Jersey if when the Force MC’s (yeah that’s what there went by before their career as singers) who were pissed at The Cold Crush 4 always getting top billing on the flyers, what would have happened if they came armed with guns and sprayed the stage with bullets instead of harmonizing routines.
Imagine the Treacherous Three tired of being dissed by The Furious Five in Sugarhill Studios, imagine if they did a driveby, killin' off one of the world first excepted commercial rap group (Sugarhill Gang got famous off Grandmaster Caz's lyrics and werent excepted by all old school emcees) instead of inviting them to battle on stage at Harlem World during one of their legendary anniversary parties. What about when Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash parted ways, what if they had succumbed to violence and never got a chance to lay down the blueprint way before Sean Cory Carter which paved the way for every rap artist today? Where would we be, where would hip hop be?
Let’s just pause for a minute and imagine a world without hip hop and rap music, without ya favorite artists, favorite video show or magazine. No Karl Kani or April Walker to pave the way for FUBU, Phat Farm, Sean John or Roc-A-Wear, no Hype Williams, no Russell Simmons to lay down the blueprint for Andre Harrell, Puffy excuse me I mean P Diddy, no NWA to pave the way for the gangsta sound of the west. Just sit there and think of all the many headz who make their living off of hip hop. Now erase them from the equation like they never existed. What would many headz who hip hop helped escape the streets be doing?
Let’s turn back the hands of time and take a look at some of the battles and beefs of the past.

The first is one of the all-time favorite of true hip hop headz. Im talking about the legendary Cold Crush Brothers vs. The Force MCs. Talk about routines and harmonizing, here you had two of the tightest crews to ever touch the m.i.c.
CC4 came to Paterson that night and spit all their routines many of us have come to love have listened to til our tapes popped and recited over and over. I remember sitting in the playground on 8th Avenue, or 4th Street Park in Money Earnin’ Mt. Vernon or with my cousins Rich and Pete on Webster Avenue in New Rochelle. I was always JDL. It was JDL, Kool Moe Dee, Grand Master Caz and Melle Mel that made me wanna be an emcee.

‘the L, the L the one that ROCKS WELL,
Takin all the fly ladies to the Hotel,’

anyway like I was sayin, CC4 did their thing and broke out. The Force MCs came in later with the intention of rippin’ it. Cold Crush brought it like this…

you never saw a crew, that can rock you the way that we do
we’re too much
with chase and tone, got jdl, ez and kg too
the cold crush
you girls know who we’re talkin to
the four just wanna get next to you
and we’re the brothers that you all adore
so get ready, hey girls get ready, cause here we come
well get ready, cause here we come
we on our way….

And…

we don’t mean no disrespect
it’s time we put you all in check, in ‘83
it’s not that were conceited
it’s just that we defeated, all of you, you, you, you
why you wanna be around us
then you front and down us with ya silly games
people comin' up and tell us
that y’all are very jealous, were not sayin any names
now y’all just keep on frontin
but that shit don’t mean nuthin, to the four
cause we just keep on writin
and y’all just keep on bitin, more and more
the other, the other you and ya brother
other emcees wanna be us
cause when people come and see us, we just let them know
while other crews just break up
we stand tall and make up, the ulti-mate show….

And then the Force MCs brought the ruckus with their straight battle rhymes, routines and perfect harmony as they put it (which only make sense since the went on to change their name to the Force MDs, showing the world they could hold a tune or two a few years later.) They were the first group to represent and put it down for the forgotten boro of Staten Island, Shaolin to all you younger headz. They came with the intention of straight setting it off the way Mike Tyson straight wreck the unfortunate fools on the opposite side of the ring in his early days.

were the force mc’s, we came to rock the spot with dr. rock
(You may remember when they revise this routine of Ghostface Killah’s Daytona 500 off The Ironman album)
i’m mercury, i’m stevie d and i’m jesse d
we came to take out caz and jdl, the harmony
so listen to us sing perfect harmony
tony tone and charlie chase you can't mess with dr rock

you just lost the battle, cold crush better give it up (5x)

now IT’S time to win, for the battle to begin
were not gonna leave the place with no sad faces, were gonna win
the battle everyone in paterson, new jersey came to see
the cold crush brothers vs the f-o-r-c-e
cold crush walk out the door
you run the same rhymes the crowd don’t wanna hear no more
grandmaster caz, jdl, ez and almighty
you better listen, you better listen carefully
and dr rock came here to cut up tony tone and charlie chase
our rhyming and our timin is so fresh from the pack
cold crush got trouble cause the force is fightin back
so please don’t sing, yall better rap
because tonight you’ll hear you sound like shit
and you won't wanna hear it back
were takin and breakin everything you like and own
not ya faces but ya fuckin microphones

While this wasn’t exactly a battle with both present, CC4 came to rock and Force MCs came to get respect, this still goes down as one of the greatest battles of all time. That was then, this is now…

what’s beef? beef is when you need 2 gats to go to sleep
beef is when ya mom aint safe out in the street
beef is when i see you
guarentee to be in icu, one more time
what’s beef? beef is when you make ya enemies start ya jeep
beef is when you roll no less than 30 deep
beef is when i see you
guarentee to be in icu
- what’s beef- the notorious b.i.g.

Who can forget when Kool Moe Dee caught Busy B out there and left him looking shook like a deer caught in ya headlights? Busy B did went first with his party type rhymes, Say sex (sex) and more sex (more sex)… and all the whole favorite restaurants-zodiac signs- and takin about somebody stole his favorite rhymes bit he used to do. Don’t get me wrong, that crowd pleasing shit was doin just that, pleasing the crowd. But this was a battle and on that night in 1982 Kool Moe Dee lit that ass up. Its one of the most infamous battles of all times. Kool Moe Dee set it on a brother and all he could do was shout out, ‘Shut Up, Shut Up,’ a few times. It went a little something like this…

i heard all that shit, busy bee poppin all that shit, sayin he’ll take out any emcee and all that. i give it to the man, he knows how to rockin crowds. but when it comes to rockin rhymes theres no way he can fuck around. ima prove that to ya right now
one for the treble, two for the bass, come on ez lee, lets rock the place
one two, one two, do the do yall

come on busy b, i don’t mean to be bold
but put that bob diddle bob bullshit on hold
we gonan get right down to the nitty grit
gonna tell ya a little something, why you aint shit
there aint an emcee’s jock that you don’t hug
ya even bit ya name from the love bug
now to bite a niggaz name that some low down shit
if you was money man you be conterfeit
i gotta give it to ya though you can rock
but everybody know you on the furious’ jock
nd i remember busy from the olden times
when my man spoonie gee used to see you rhymes
remember that rhyme called didety bob didety
man goddamn that shit was a pity
too hot to trot im here to rock the spot
spoonie gee will rock it whether youlike it or not
you begged for the rhyme, asked for it twice
said spoonie gee i’ll buy it at any price
when spoonie finally sold it, oh what a relief
busy b stole it like a fuckin theif
came out rockin the party sure
(Busy B shouts, ‘Shut Up, Shut Up’)
got everybody thinkin that, that rhymes yours
everytime i hear it i thow a fit
party after party the same ole shit
record after record, rhyme after rhyme
always wanna know your zodiac sign
he changed the shit to ya favorite jeans
come of busy b tell me what that means
hold on brother man, don’t you say nuthin
im not finished yet, i gotta tell you somethin
too hot to trot, im here to rock the spot
gonna rock ya ass whether you like it or not
i’l take ya title right on the spot
how can i take a title that you aint got
you’re not number one, you not even the best
ya can't win no real emcee contest
celebrity club and bullshit like those
those are the kinda stories everybody knows
celebrity club, those the kind you can win’
they’re all set up before you walk in
but in a battle like this you know you’ll lose
between me and you who do you think they’ll choose
well if you think its you, i got bad news
when you hear ya name, you’re gonna hear some boos
cause ya fakin the funk, cause ya fakin the funk
at the end of this rhyme you can call me uncle
moe dee rock shocks the house, call me uncle
rock the house yall
like this yall, like this yall
like this to th this like this yall
now you popcorn peanut toy emcee
never ever ever heard no rhymes like these
cause my intent, from the time i spent
was to say those rhymes that i invent
and for ya pleasure, a rhyme you’ll treasure
please don’t try, cause youcant measure
the length or the time, can't touch the rhyme
hip hop don’t stop cause you know im
an emcee supreme and im one of a kind
and if you search real hard im sure you’ll find
aint another emcee who can rock like this
not ya mother or ya father, aunt, brother or ya sis
sit back and enjoy, don’t try to bite
cause it very hard to say any rhyme i write
but you do it like this, do it like that
concentrate real hard to get the rhyme down pact
no matter hwo hard you try you’ll see
bet ya mind and ya money can't say it like me
but you wanna be, busy wanna be
and he know he wanna be another kool moe dee
so lets all chant, cause you know you can't
everybody salute to the new emcee champ
it sliek this yall, IT’S like this yall
it like this a this this, its like this yall
busy b starsky, im kool moe dee
the best emcee and that’s my trophy…

I guess I don’t have to tell you Kool Moe Dee came in first place, Busy B came in second and Johnny Wah came in third.

Back in the days, the art of battling was created to settle differences and as a deterrent against violence.
“B- Boys battled with uprock and took each other head off doin the electric boogie, graf artists went over each other pieces or battled side by side, emcees battled on the m.i.c. and DJs with turntables,” KRS informs during an interview I did on the subject. Even though he wrecked all competition on the mic some years later, he definitely knows a thing or two about bringing to emcee whose choose to oppose.

Speaking of KRS ONE he was involved in some of the biggest battles in history as well. KRS almost single handedly took on the whole juice crew.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not even tryna tell ya there wasn’t drama back then and blows didn’t get thrown, because brothers went for theirs, it was all about respect back then. But even in situations when the Fantasy 3 were on stage dissin' the Crash Crew, beefing cause their joint ‘Its Your Rock’ got taken by the Crash Crew who used joint and recorded their classic joint, ‘On The Radio.’ The Fantasy 3 was straight beefing not knowin Crash Crew was in the house. The Crash Crew ran up on stage and beat down the Fantasy 3, like KRS did PM Dawn, several years later. Egos were bruised, but no one got killed over the incident.
Other memorable beefs were between Flash and Furious Five and Crash Crew called the Battles of the Freedoms. Now from what I understand they never actually battles or threw any blows but there was constant beef being both group were on Sugarhill Records, on the road together and they also used the same beat. Both crews say their record came out first.
Cold Crush also went at it a few times with the Fantastic Romantic 5 MCs, a battle that was loosely recreated for the movie Wildstyle in the basketball court scene. Grandmaster Flash and Grand Wizard Theodore had a few legendary battles. Rumor has it, Theodore had handcuffs put on him in the battle and tore shit up on the wheels of steel. (cant say i saw that first hand, but thats all everyone was talking about for years to come)
Now these are just a few battles and beef of the past. My point of sharing this with you is we need to settle current difference in hip hop on the stage. In those situations where it just gotta go down, let’s take it back to the knuckle game and put the guns down. We have had enough deaths in hip hop over some bullshit. Any punk can pull a trigger, but it takes a man to handle his and get up close and personal with his hands, ya heard!

© AJ (AJ ROK) WOODSON

HIP HOP JUNKIE 4 LIFE

(I originally wrote this in 1997 for ON THE GO, my favorite hip hop magazine

and revised it for a book on hip hop Im working on,

I must give my man J Knowledge a shout for still havin the issue and hitting me off)