Last week, a rapper that most people don’t mention in everyday conversation made his way into relevancy again. Mase, a legendary but quiet figure in hip-hop, made headlines in an unpredictable way. The 42-year-old Harlem emcee dissed Cameron on the unforgiving track “The Oracle.” He raps on a beat including a vocal loop of an opera singer. The bars were ridiculous. “Imagine 20 years with a bitter bitch and the same drama/ Dame told you do this shit and you don’t see Dame karma,” Mase viciously starts out and continues with a storm of violations. As expected, the track brought twitter into a frenzy.
People all over wondered what ignited his anger. The latest news of Cam’ron speaking on him was back in March when he spoke on Mase’s job as a preacher. Cam claimed that the fellow Harlem rapper left the rap game to escape violence, but it could be interpreted as disrespect. Unbeknownst to younger fans of hip-hop, these two rappers have had problems in the past.
In an informative video by Genius, they explained the history of their relationship. Mase and Cam’ron’s beef has been stagnant on for the past 20 years. In the late 90s they were friends and helped each other’s careers. Then, Mase tried to charge Cam $40,000 to be a music video for a song that he was actually featured. Of course, this did not sit right with Cam. The two remained distant from each other for two decades. That is, until, Cam brought the situation brought up the situation again on his last project, The Program.
On “It’s Killa” he referenced his problem Mase basically saying he separated from him before he ended up killing him. Mase heard the track and responded in a timely manner. Cam responded to the diss with “Dinner Time,” but it was obvious which was the better track. Mase claimed his own victory and now it appears that the two made upon Instagram.
Mase may have an album coming out soon titled Now We Even. He has been teasing this project since 2010, but with all the hype surrounding him at the moment, it may be best to release it in early 2018..
Rap is no question a young man’s game, but there are exceptions. Mase and Cam are both in the early 40s. Both of them have peaked, but that doesn’t stop them from getting attention because they are both legends. Earlier this year, rapper Vince Staples called rap beef corny. His argument was that it doesn’t mean anything anymore and it was just for showboating. A couple of decades ago, rap beef could endanger your life. Nowadays, rappers use beef to boost their relevancy. All of the eyes will be on them so they can release their next album in the midst heightened attention. Cam’ron baited Mase and enter up losing a beef because he did not expect a rebuttal, but a lot of beef these days is done just for general promotion. Often times they are even fake.
Yet, no matter how convoluted rap beef can be these days. It’s still something to get excitable over. Rap is WWE and who doesn’t like drama?
What do you think about this beef? Let us know!
