Earlier in the week, it was the 18th anniversary since Eminem’s Slim Shady LP was released; the album that pretty much introduced a white boy who would go on to be among the greatest that ever did it.
Days after that anniversary came news that another iconic figure in the rap game, Jay Z got inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
But all that moved aside for Remy Ma last night after she dropped ‘ShETHER’, a seven-minute verbal decapitation of Nicki Minaj, with Meek Mill a.k.a Twitter Fingers serving as small chops beside the main chow.
In response so far, Nicki has put up a couple of Instagram and Twitter posts talking about album sales and being queen of rap; all of which is nice to see. But like many millenials, Nicki’s missed the point here.
READ: Beef Alert! Remy Ma drops a savage 7-minute Nicki Minaj diss song
No one can ever forget the ill-fated beef between 2pac and Notorious BIG; especially when 2pac went ‘that’s why I fucked your bitch you fat motherfucker’ to open what is arguably the sickest beef song in rap history, ‘Hit ‘Em Up’.
While that beef took a fatal turn and artistes have been careful to not take their beef afterwards to that extreme, rap battles remain a core part of the genre whether artistes and the people admit it or not.
Remember when 50 Cent dropped ‘Piggy Bank’ in response to ‘New York’ by Ja Rule featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss? 50’s beef was with Ja Rule but he took nice swipes at Joe Crack and Jada. This made the former to release one of my favourite beef songs ever, ‘My FoFo’ in response to ‘Piggy Bank’.
Those songs remain references in rap and spurned a number of interviews, more beef songs and more interviews for years until both buried the hatchet in 2014.
Bringing it home, no one can deny not enjoying the verbal jabs M.I Abaga threw Kelly Hansome a few years ago. Before that was eLDee and Freestyle dropping their songs. There was also Mode Nine and Ruggedman, and Ruggedman against Eedris (it was exciting at the time anyway).
Once upon a time in hip hop, it wasn’t really about who sold what or who made more money or had more social media followers; it was about who could out-spit the other on a beef record and keep their rep.
Taking out her frustration: How Nicki Minaj lashed out at Trey Songz over Remy Ma diss
Till today, the opinion remains divided on who came out on top of the beef between Nas and Jay Z, which is no surprise seeing as both dropped heavy bars on their respective songs ‘Ether’ and ‘Take Over’.
And seeing as Remy went the ‘Ether’ path to make a savage ‘ShETHER’, the least Nicki can do is jump on the ‘Take Over’ beat and spit whatever bars she has to spit; whether written by her or a ghostwriter, it doesn’t matter.
There are two things involved, though. Nicki can stay quiet and take the L, then try recovering with stuff that will sell and ‘reaffirm’ her status as ‘queen of rap’. Or, she can respond to ‘ShETHER’; but that response better be something at the same level of savagery otherwise, RIP Nicki.
Funnily, beef in rap and battle rap goes much deeper than what Remy did to Nicki on ‘ShETHER’ but if it’s by going underground to enjoy it remains the norm, then fine. Battle rap has been very alright that way and will be for a long time to come.
But if you do believe that battle rap is a dead part of the genre so Nicki needs not respond because she ‘has it all’, then explain how ‘ShETHER’ got over a million streams within five hours of being available online.
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