Beef

We discussed sexist rap lyrics in my Women and Gender class tonight. I get irritated when people label all hip hop as misogynistic, violent, and lacking in substance. Old KRS-1 and BDP, Nas, and Mos Def are extrememly intelligent poets who do not deserve to be lumped in with idiots like T-Pain, Lil Wayne, and whoever is responsible for that shitty "stanky leg" song. The first time I heard "What's Beef", I immediately fell in love with it so I'm passing it along even though it's a few years old.


What's Beef?

Beef is not what Jay said to Nas
Beef is when the working folks can't find jobs
Steady trying to find niggas to rob
Tryin to find bigger guns so they can finish the job
Beef is when crack babies can't find moms
cause they in a pine box or locked behind bars
Beef aint the summer jam for HOT 9-7
Beef is the cocaine and AIDS epidemic
Beef don't come with a radio edit
Beef is when a judge is callin you "defendant"
Beef, it come with a long jail sentence
handed down to you in a few short minutes
Beef is when your girl comes through for a visit
talkin bout "I'm pregnant, by some other nigga"
Beef is high blood pressure and bad credit
need a loan for your home but you're too broke to get it
And all your little kids are doin is gettin bigger
and your tryin not to raise em around these wild niggas
Beef is when a golddigger got your seed in her
A manicured hand out like "Pay me nigga!
Or I'm tellin your wife
Or I'm startin up some foul rumor that'll ruin your life"
Beef is when a gangsta ain't doin it right
and another gangsta decidin what to do with his life
Beef is not what these famous niggas do on a mic
Beef is what George Bush would do in a fight
Beef ain't what Ja said to 50
But beef is Weldon Irv not bein here with me
When a soldier ends his life with his own gun
Beef is tryin to figure out what to tell his son
Beef is oil prices and geopolitics
Beef is Iraq, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip
Some beef is big and some beef is small
but what ya'll call beef, it's not beef at all
Beef is real life, happenin everyday
And it's realer than them songs that you get at Kay Slay
This has been a real nigga PSA
from Mos Def, Pretty Flaco, and Black Dante
The black star embassy, B to the K

-Mos Def