Every year, there is a new scapegoat in hip hop. Back in the 1990s, that man was LL Cool J, then it was Canibus, then it was Ja Rule, and later it was 50 Cent. Now, it is Jay-Z’s turn. It has been a long time coming because many rappers have been vocal about him ever since he took the role of CEO at Def Jam.
Throughout the summer of 2009, Jay-Z has been receiving multiple disses from Game. During the summer, he went on tour and dissed Jay-Z and his entire crew. Later, Game came back to America and continued to send disses towards Jay-Z. This is seemingly coming from nowhere, realizing that was possibly a publicity stunt, Jay decided to leave the situation alone.
Upon his return to the game, Jay-Z made a splash. For almost three years, more and more rappers began using the auto-tune, which was brought back to life by T-Pain. On his single, “Death of Auto-tune,” Jay challenges rappers to rap instead of “T-Paining.” Initially, Pain said that he understood where Jay-Z was coming from and he supported him. But, once the song became a hit, T-Pain had a rant where he dissed Jay.
That issue went away rather quickly, but soon DMX, a former collaborator of Jay-Z began sending disses to his former ally. He said that Jay-Z was in hip hop only for the money and that was not right. X did go on to say that Jay was talented, but he is talented because of the money, not because that is where his heart is at.
Game, T-Pain, and DMX are not the only rappers to go at Jay-Z. Ever since he has been in the game, 50 Cent has always said slick things about Jay-Z. However, he is no longer being slick about what he says. On two occasions, 50 has referred to Jay-Z as a punk. He even has some songs on his new album that take some shots at Jay-Z.
But, where is all of this hostility towards Jay-Z coming from? There is not anything that he has done to any of these artists directly. His feud with Game stems from a feud between Game and Memphis Bleek over Bleek’s label, Get Low Records. That is the name of the label that Game used to record for. At the time, he felt that Bleek had stolen their name, so he began dissing him.
In time, Jay-Z caught wind of the disses from Game to Bleek and he came to Memph’s defense. For a year, Jay-Z and Game feuded, but Game said that he was cool with Jay only months before his summer series of disses.
As far as the T-Pain feud, Jay-Z made it clear that “D.O.A.” was not aimed at him. There should have never been a feud since T-Pain got on stage and performed the song with Jay-Z. For some reason, he did all of that and still decided to go at Jay-Z. Before the T-Pain rant, some felt that a collaboration was on the horizon.
For years, DMX and Jay-Z were running buddies. Along with Ja Rule, they created such street hits as “Murdergram,” “It’s Murda,” “Can I Get A…,” “Money, Cash, Hoes,” and many more mixtape songs. Along with X, Jay signed with Def Jam back in 1997. It seemed that DMX and Jay-Z would always be together. When Jay first became CEO of Def Jam, X expressed his issues with Hov, but no one expected him to come out and diss Jay-Z the way that he has.
However, of the artists mentioned that have dissed Jay-Z, there is not a hit single amongst them. On the other hand, Jay-Z has 2009’s highest-selling hip hop album in The Blueprint 3 and he has one of the year’s hottest songs with “Empire State of Mind.” Out of DMX, Game, T-Pain, and 50 Cent, there is only one current notable single.
The only possible reason for these artists going at Jay-Z is for publicity or they are jealous. However, it could be a combination of both.
