The Beef that simmered but never cooked.

Keep it Oldskool Presents: 

The Battle that never was


Over the years it has been mentioned and speculated on. People even speculate on who would have won. Keep It Oldskool decided to try to decode the back story and recreate a beef that was subliminal and sometimes verbal,but was never full blown. 

 It has been said that the origin of the beef started after Marley advised Eric B and Rakim that he would not being producing their album as he wanted to start working with with his "Juice Crew" MCs. That it did not sit well with the duo. So while Rakim is in Marley Marl studio recording his verses for "My Melody" Shan,Kane, G-Rap and Biz Markie all happen by the studio. Rakim ever the perfectionist had written,scrapped and re-written his verses several times while the Juice Crew waited and watched. Some say (although Kane has NEVER confirmed that he said it)  BDK blurted out "I could have done 2 albums in the time this dude taking to make one song". What followed after that were several songs the 2 icons subtlety dissed each other. The first of which was recorded while Kane watched was "My Melody" when Rakim spoke of  Kane having to wait for him to finish "So stand back, you wanna rap? All of that can wait"  and  Kane's fast rap style " Puttin blurs and slurs and words that don't fit in a rhyme" .  

Kane took the words as disses and set about to respond Rakim in his song  "Set It Off" off his debut album "Rap soloist you don't want none of this"

Rakim after hearing on an advanced copy of himself being sampled on Kane's "Smooth Operator"responded on"Microphone Fiend "with "E-F-F-E-C-T a SMOOTH OPERATOR operating correctly"   

As the war of worlds escalated cooler heads prevailed. Ant Live (Eric B's brother) who was cool with Kane as well brokered a phone summit where the 2 lyrical giants squashed the beef.  These 2 although have never colloborated on song together have been on friendly terms since.


KEEP IT OLDSKOOL