The Real Dis To Joe Budden
I guess I’ve returned just in time to see Joe Budden get into beef with the Wu. I’ve haven’t been dead in my absence (note to reader Quan), so I peeped the video of Joe getting heated about being some double digit number in the Vibe (RIP) rankings for “Best Rapper In the Galaxy” or whatever.
It probably didn’t start off on the best note for Joey when he took offense to being under Method Man. Now, I’m the first to tell you Vibe doesn’t/didn’t (God bless the dead) know much about hip-hop, but they got that right. I respect Joe as a rapper, but Meth is just better – personality, flow, rhyme structure, the whole nine. So, Joe stays losing.
But the REAL insult. the REAL kick to the man sack, is that Meth couldn’t even bother to respond to Budden. And who do they deploy? The leader of the third string of Wu-Tangers, Inspectah Deck. Ouch.
You always know how serious your opponent takes you based on the effort or resources they deploy to respond to an attack. True, we can discuss whether Deck’s joint throwing knives at Budden is dope or not, but I suspect we can all agree that the good Inspectah isn’t exactly a heavyweight in the rap game.
Forget the 16 bars – if I was Joe, I’d be far more insulted who the Wu chose to spit them. If this were a video game and if Budden was where he thinks he should be in hip-hop stature, he’s be fighting a boss. Right now, he’s battling a level 2 lieutenant to get that stamina upgrade at the end.
Tags: Inspectah Deck, Joe Budden
Well, that’s kinda ridiculous. Didn’t you once say you didn’t even like Wu-Tang that much (or was it another group? I remember some douche in the comments getting hella offended by it)? If that’s true, it kinda shows here. Deck is probably the 7th most visible member of Wu but in terms of rhyming ability, I’d say he’s really only behind Ghostface and Raekwon. You hear Big Pun’s “Tres Leches” before? He kills there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Ec2AH0tTc
Welcome back, glad you didn’t pull a MJ/Farrah/McNair/Carradine/Oxyclean guy.
Yeah, that was this here blog. But what’s the play, Q? Are you telling me that Deck was dispatched to defend Meth? Wouldn’t that say something about the Wu as well? That their franchise player can’t take on Joey?
Then again, doesn’t it go against your theory about how dope Inspectah Deck is if he’s getting into some battle with Budden?
Or is Budden that dangerous? Again, not sure that says much about Wu.
I’m disagreeing with your ranking of the Wu members. To say Method Man is their franchise player in terms of rhyming ability is pretty off. To say Deck is only third stringer Wu is even further off. To say that Budden is not dangerous in a battle context is just ridiculous.
If Wu did indeed “deploy” or “dispatch” Deck, that’s because Buddens, as lame as he is as an ARTIST, was still pretty vicious in his diss. But really, the Wu Tang Clan doesn’t operate like G-Unit. They aren’t mindless soldiers being sent into battle. Deck is his own man and of his own will, he went in on Buddens. This video from UGHH.com reveals as much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqQf_p1CU0E
Notice that Raekwon also seems like he wanted to go in on Buddens (even during the interview, he stays passive-aggressive) but says that Method Man told him to stay out his battle. What it says is that the Wu act as individuals, not like on some gang or army shit.
So your original premise, that the Wu insulted Buddens just by “deploying” Deck is unfounded because that’s just not how they operate. But even if it were how they operated, that wouldn’t be a diss in itself because Deck is clearly really dope, meaning they respected Buddens enough to be sending a lyricist of Deck’s caliber.
I never said I was ranking the members in terms of rhyming ability, only stature and/or profile. I saw the UGHH video; while I agree that the Wu isn’t like G-Unit (at least each Wu member can hold their own), I think its a pretty big stretch to say that Deck just decided to throw out a dis record in defense of Meth. I’m of the view they probably discussed it and made a decision. Hence, the “deployment” language.
In any event, I tend to think that established rappers often choose who they DON’T battle as carefully as who they do. You can come up with whatever reason you want to explain why Deck is not battling Budden (to raise his profile, straight up ability, etc) but I think it was equally deliberate that Meth didn’t engage. I suspect its because he doesn’t think Joey is worth his time.
Hence the dis.
“I think its a pretty big stretch to say that Deck just decided to throw out a dis record in defense of Meth. I’m of the view they probably discussed it and made a decision.”
I see that you’re of that view. That’s why I offered the Youtube video as evidence to the contrary, evidence that it was not a planned attack by the Wu as a collective as you had assumed. This is evidence straight from the source.
That’s why I was calling out your lack of knowledge in matters of the Wu. If you were a big Wu stan and followed the history of rollercoaster relationships between the members and listened closely to all the shit they vent out in their music, you’d know that they act as individuals more often than they do as a collective.
For example, Meth is known to have been great friends with Biggie, being the only legit guest feature on Ready To Die and sampling Biggie’s lines for the hook to “All I Need.” But on Raekwon’s Cuban Linx, Rae and Ghost dedicate a whole interlude (“Shark Niggas [Biters]“) to calling out Biggie for biting their slang and style of rap and biting Nas’s Illmatic album cover on Ready To Die (of course recently, Rae had to go and make a goddamn Biggie tribute, but that’s like how Jay-Z covered a Tupac song ie. total exploitation). On Wu Tang Forever, RZA clearly calls out Biggie and all of Bad Boy for the shiny suit, R&B rap shit that they brought to the game (hear “Intro,” first track on second disc). But just because RZA, Rae, and Ghost took issue with Biggie, that didn’t prevent Meth from being one of BIG’s closest rapper friends.
So to think Inspectah Deck WOULDN’T go in of his own will and must have been sent as a message from the Wu is baseless. Probably, Inspectah Deck himself felt a little bit more of that brotherhood/gang mentality, wanted to defend his brother Meth, and was as mad as you or I were that Meth didn’t respond. So he responded himself.
I feel a little dumb having this debate because we both agree that Joe Budden is wack as ever. But I’m getting deeper into my Wu stannery and I think you should give them credit for being a LOT more complex as a collective than your typical rap gang/posse/crew.