Innocent Bystanders
Written by JusHH
Written by JusHH
Imagine you’re a young athlete in the early 90’s and you’re good enough to get drafted into the NBA. In fact, you’re good enough to win the slam dunk contest during All-Star weekend. You’re around 21 or 22 years old and chances are you are into Hip-Hop music. You probably heard Reasonable Doubt in 1996 and became a Jay-Z fan. During practice, before games or just in the house you probably had some Hov blasting. You may not have bought all of his albums but you were more than likely throwing up the Roc sign. Now picture that you’re listening to a song back in 2003 and you are in the middle of a classic Jay-Z verse and you hear…
It’s Hovie baby, Kobe maybe
Tracy McGrady
Matter fact, you’re a Harold Minor, JR Rider
Washed up on marijuana
What do you do? What do you say if you are either Harold or JR? Even if you didn’t discover it yourself, you know one of your friends would have told you about the rhyme. Can you still like Hov’s music? Seriously, how do you react when you’re the innocent bystander in a rapper’s lyrics? If there’s a beef that’s one thing, you expect it and you are probably not a fan either way. But if you are either one of those guys, could you still be as excited about any new Jay-Z album when you know he doesn’t really respect you?
Obviously when Kobe heard (of) the rhyme he got hyped because who doesn’t want to get bigged up in a song? But Kobe is from the east coast and was probably a Nas fan. Well, that was until he heard him say this…
From OJ to Kobe, let’s call him Toby…
You can’t do better than that?
The hotel clerk who adjusts the bathroom mat?
Nas pretty much dedicated his entire verse to bashing Kobe Bryant and dragging his name in the mud. Nas didn’t have a personal beef; he was just making a point about who our role models should be.
But damn, what if Kobe loved Illmatic? It can’t possibly sound the same any more. Was he excited to hear Hip-Hop is Dead album? I don’t know the rules and regulations on what you should do if you get caught with a stray, but I know something has to change. Can you separate the art from your personal situation and just appreciate the song? Or do you cut the artist off and never support or listen to him again?
Most recently, Nick Cannon got caught with a few strays on Eminem’s new album. If you recall, Eminem first started dissing Mariah Carey a few projects back and said some not so nice things about her. But now Nick Cannon is married to the aforementioned Carey and that didn’t make a bit of difference to Slim Shady. He blasted Eminem on his personal blog and is doing what every husband would do in defending the reputation of his main lady. But I’m sure Nick had a few of Eminem’s previous albums or at least a few songs in the iPod. So what should Nick do? Can he ever give Em a compliment about his lyrics? Does he have to start hating on songs that he knows are dope just because of what he said about Mariah?
Catching a stray must be tough to deal with; especially if it is from an artist that you are a fan of. It can really mess up your CD collection. I don’t know if there is a clear answer to this problem but the immortal words of Prodigy are looking quite appropriate right now…
Take these words home and think it through
Or the next rhyme I write, might be about you.
9 comments:
Dag gone it. Classic JusHH material. Yeah, catching a stray has got to be a tough thing.
Not sure why people jumped on Nick Cannon's case. Just because he's corny people act like he wasn't supposed to say anything. That's dude's wife, man. And for real, if he was someone "important" in the eyes of Eminem, Em would've taken it back (see: Puff Daddy and J.Lo reference fromt he MMLP).
Yeah if you're Nick Cannon, you HAVE to say something about that line.
I don't remember Em taking anything back about the JLo thing. Did he do it in the interview? Its not like they are releasing MMLP albums with that line bleeped out.
He did. Gave this whole spiel about how he didn't mean to offend Diddy and said he was just trying to say JLo is very attractive.
It went very weird with Nick too. Em said he expected him to say something, but didn't think it'd be a big deal. Went on to say that he was seriously, in the song, wishing them luck in their marriage. Hmmmm...
Shawn Bradley caught a stray in that Joe v. Jay Pump It Up joint. Tito Jackson caught a stray in the Party Life joint from Jay. Apparently Joe Budden caught a stray from Drake.
Don't forget Jada's "shaking like Ali holding the torch" line.
Ummmm...Faith Evans in the Big-Pac beef...I wouldn't even call that a stray bullet. That's like a stray missle or something.
This post makes me wonder which MCs are notorious for "shooting" innocent bystanders. Jay has to be near the top of the list because he does it so effectively...The Game has to be on there too because he drops at least 20 names per song. Who else do you think?
You right. I remember Em saying something like that.
When did Drake go at Budden?
Def remember that Ali line but Ali always gets shouted out, plus he's probably not even aware who Jadakiss is.
Ditto for Shawn Bradley, he probably doesn't give a s**t about Jay-Z.
Nah Faith didn't catch a stray. She caught one right between the eyes. He was actually heated at her at that time.
Game name drops often you right. So he definitely in the running. But its probably Eminem. On "We Made You" alone he probably hit like 10 people lol
Joe Budden: "Drake was beefing with a local Toronto rapper and the guy accused him of jacking Joe Budden’s style. And Drake told him, “If I’m jacking his style, you’re jacking his career.”
Ice cold. lmao.
joe budden had drake on joe budden tv and they both said it was nothing people tried to make something out of nothing. joe actually says he is a real big fan of drake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-WV7me6qM
Jus, great f'n post, I mean, I think those who are sensitive and/or insecure are the ones who get fired up. Like 50 said "its just music maan, its just music"
My boy once said "shit, if somebody makin fun of me, and it's funny, I'ma laugh"
People just need to lighten up and enjoy the art, cause these weren't really "strays" cause they were aimed right at the intended. They were more like friendly jabs, right to the nuts, hahaha
LOL @ jabs to the nuts
I think i said strays cuz I don't think Hov went in the booth and was like, "i'm gonna diss Harold Minor today." I think he was gonna be witty with how fly he is and Harold Minor caught a bad one.
the mariah thing might not have been a stray... lol
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