Slink Johnson and Soren Baker discuss raps beefs and focus on the beefs between Meek Mill, The Game and Beanie Sigel in particular.
Soren says that The Game is one of the best at handling beefs, that he lives for beefs and that he’s damn good at it.
“You are engaging in a war with somebody that this is what they do,” Soren Baker says. “Game has perfected how to like clown people on social media, destroy them on songs and at least right now his visibility, his reach, everything is just bigger than you know Meek Mill and Beanie Sigel combined.”
Slink Johnson says he respects Beanie Sigel, but he wishes he never got involved in the riff between The Game and Meek Mill.
“I really hate that Bean’s was brought into this,” Slink Johnson explains. “I really hate the Bean’s involvement has been like it has. I hate it for Beans, because Beans definitely a G. He’s definitely a legend in the streets and on the mic. However, at the same time, that’s part of being the legend and that’s part of being the G. You’re going to take from us some bumps and bruises and nobody’s taking more bumps and bruises than Beanie Sigel. And he’s given his fair share of bumps, bruises and scars, as well”
Slink Johnson feels that the rap beefs have evolved and in the past it was more of dislike for each other and that rap beefs in the past were more about competition and who is best.
“It’s entertaining in a way and I guess that’s the main objective of some people, in some situations,” he says. “It’s entertaining and I guess that’s a good thing, however some cornball shit. You know I come from an era where you know, you know, of course this is before social media so we didn’t have that so that didn’t apply. But you know you moved in silence. Real Gs, real street niggas, we moved in silence, so we dealt with beef in silence. We didn’t get, you know, in front of an audience and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to kill this motherfucka and do this and that.’”
Soren Baker questions that today’s rap beefs don’t seem to be authentic and may be driven by ulterior motives to market albums.
“We’ve now entered this thing, is are we doing this for marketing?” he says. “Is this type of our new album? Is this because we got the singles? Is it because we’re going to be in a new movie?”
Slink feels that rap beef’s should be more in the vein of Kool Moe Dee vs. LL Cool J, where you enjoyed the competition and you felt it would stay on wax.
“I remember just seeing Kool Moe Dee’s album cover with the Kangol under the tire,” Slink recalls. “Oh my God! Everybody knew what that meant. But I think at the same time, those guys may have had some personal issues, but they always kept it professional and cordial and it didn’t necessarily have to come to fisticuffs. And if it did indeed come to fisticuffs that’s the true beauty of the street shit because nobody ever knows. It just got done. It got handled with nobody to talk about it.”
Soren feels that rap beefs are a part of rap because it is competitive by nature and it is good as long as it stays on wax.
“It was about being the best rapper,” Soren Baker says. “There was like who could diss the other artist harder. Obviously it ended people’s careers, then it like diminished people’s standing in the game. But I also think that rap is a contact sport. It’s also a competitive sport. So if you’re not down to that, then you gotta stay out of it. But I did prefer it when you know, obviously the biggest example being Biggie and 2pac, where the beef escalated to where it was just out of control.”