Earlier this year in February New Orleans rapper Jay Electronica released a track which seemed to be charged with anger towards his detractors. In the song, titled #TBE The Curse of Mayweather, Jay just so happened to take what seem like shots at Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent. He addressed the issue of people saying Kendrick is better that him because of his Grammy nominations (and wins). The track borrows from A Tribe Called Quest’s song Can I Kick It, and makes reference to several pop culture icons including MMA superstar Rhonda Rousey.
Unfortunately for Jay Electronica the track did not make too many waves since he can’t seem to pick up steam with his rap career; probably because he does not release music frequently enough. Personally I’m a guy who likes to sit and listen to complete albums, not singles, and jay has kept me waiting for too long; so long in fact that I lost interest. He has been promising a studio album for quite a while now. Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn) was teased more than 5 years ago. A tracklist came out but there’s still nothing concrete up to now.
Anyway it seems Jay felt remorse for releasing The Curse of Mayweather as he released an apology on Twitter just a few hours ago. He tweeted “lastly, peace to K dot and TDE because regardless to whom or what we are brothers fighting the same enemy. forgive my past transgressions,” and “peace to 50 as well. that's my brother and I love him. I'm just waiting for him to let his greatness shine”.
It’s great to see rappers trying to make peace with one another. There’s too much unwarranted violence, beef and animosity in rap so a gesture such as this is welcome. However, I don’t understand why rappers feel the need to get at one another like this for no reason. I mean neither Kendrick nor 50 ever said anything negative about Jay. So why did he have to get at them the way he did on the track? Was he trying to gain some exposure by provoking two individuals who are highly respected? Anyway only he knows. I love rap but we need to stop this beef foolishness. You never hear of two rock, EDM, jazz, soul, or pop stars insulting one another for no reason and then starting altercations and shoot-outs which end to violence.
For someone who seems as intelligent as Jay I feel like releasing the song in the first place was a careless and unnecessary move. But nonetheless shout-out to him for stepping up and apologizing. The only thing that would make it better is if he actually apologized in a song. After all the whole issue started in a song, why not end it that way too?
