Don't get on a song with me, I'm a problem...

Collabo’s: The “Other” Battle
written by JusHH

“But you ain’t fin to murder me like everybody else/ I’ma rap like I have some type of respect for myself.”

On the Lolipop Remix, Kanye made it a point that he was going to hold his own on a song with Lil’ Wayne and not get embarrassed. At the time, Wanye was hopping on songs with everyone and simply outshining them. Ye didn’t want to be another victim. Busta Rhymes recently mentioned the fact that he never got on a song with someone else and got “eaten”. And frankly, isn’t that what happens on every collabo – you trying not to get embarrassed by the other people on the song. Who wants to have the worst verse? With Hip-Hop being so competitive, every collabo almost takes on an unwritten battle feel where emcees compete to see who’s the best on a particular beat.

“Yo son, you think Em got Hov on that ‘Renegade’ joint?”

“Canibus killed everyone on that song. Nobody seeing him for real.”

Every featured verse on a collabo instantly becomes topic of discussion to see who won and who got beat. Sometimes the “cold war” type battle can turn real. The entire LL Cool J/ Canibus beef started over the “4,3,2,1” track that they did together. LL used his verse to throw shots at the younger emcee and it led to one of the more popular battles in history.

In an interview with XXL, Fat Joe talked about rapping with the late Big L and how he had to “fight for his life” on that song. Big L told him that he better bring it because he was going to take all of Joe’s fans. Every rapper, whether they admit it or not, wants to beat every other rapper that they do a song with. Fabolous and Jadakiss have made careers winning these kinds of battles. So even if they never get a classic album under their belt, they will still be two of the most feared rappers and go down on a few people’s all time lists.

“… and Eminem murdered you on your own s**t.”

This line blended the two together as Nas, during an actual battle, proclaimed that Jay-Z lost to Eminem when the two featured on the 2001 classic. Whether or not you felt that Nas beat Jay-Z, most people agree that “Ether” was without question the hardest punch thrown during the fight and showed that the great Hov wasn’t untouchable. So when it was announced that the two ended their feud and would do a song together, I asked myself, “who’s gonna win this battle?” And with the way that Jay-Z destroyed “Black Republican”, you had the feeling that Jay wanted to prove a point. He further proved that point on “Success” where he spanked Nas for a second time. Maybe its why Nas put a little extra on his verse when he got on that Ludacris song with Jay. Now I’m not saying that the two of them aren’t cool… but they are both aware that the jury is still out on who is the best emcee and each collabo performance can tilt the scale.

To the naked eye, a good collaboration is the harmony of rappers trying to make a dope record. But to those that know, it’s a secret competition to one-up the guy next to you. It’s that desire to be #1 that brings the best out of everyone. Because when you first heard “Swagger Like Us”, what did you immediately ask yourself…

“Yo, I think T.I. killed all of ‘em.”