Eminem vs. Canibus

It would appear that Eminem is not just targeting the Vice-President, Britney Spears, Moby, Jermaine Dupri and Limp Bizkit. Despite what Hip-Hop heads thought, Slim Shady is going after an estabilished lyricist, who happens to be black (or for the politically correct: African-American) - Canibus!

To date, we've all witnessed Canibus' lyrical assault toward LL Cool J. Despite the mixed-outcome, the lyrics to Second Round K.O. was a devastating blow to LL's ego (not his career). Since Eminem's been on Aftermath, we've never really seen Eminem go at someone aside from Cage, which wasn't really a battle. Nevertheless, fans on both sides are anticipating that this battle will bring back the early 'Beasts From The East Canibus' and the 'Pre-Interscope Eminem'.

So how did all of this start? Canibus had a record on his 3rd album, C True Hollywood Stories entitled 'U Didn't Care'. The song implies, in a roundabout way, that Eminem was ghostwriting for LL Cool J. On the upcoming Eminem album, The Eminem Show, Em calls out Canibus numerous times on 'Squaredance'. "I'll be brief, let me just keep sh!t simple / Can-i-beeyatch, don't want no beef with Slim - No. / Not even on my radar / so won't you please jump off my dick; Lay off and stay off..." Knowning Slim's track record, there are probably multiple disses towards Canibus on the album that haven't even been found yet.

Regardless of the outcome, this battle will probably be the most important battle in Hip-Hop because it will be the battle that inevitably plays the race card. Lyrical skills should out weight skin-color. Far from a newcomer to on-stage battles, Breez Evahflowin', felt that the general public would not be able to get past color, but felt that "underground fans and listeners won't really be looking at the color, it'll be all about the punch stats." Smartsook, SOHH Moderator, hopes this battle takes off however he realizes "on the site it will be if you feel Eminem is winning it's because he's white or you're white and vice versa."

Regardless of skin-color, for either rapper to win effectively both rappers 'should' stay away from the race card. Canibus will have to stay away from reparations lyrics, while Eminem can not use the N-word - even though it rhymes so perfectly with trigger, bigger, figure and digger. Pulling the race-card is expected and it's a cheap shot. If you'll recall during the Blaze Battle 2000, many of the white rappers were compared to Eminem.

When asked who he would pick in a battle between the two, Breez put his money on Eminem. His reasoning? "I don't feel battle rappers who've never been in real battles. That recorded sh!t is cute but I've seen Eminem go head up with big scary ni99as on Broadway and put his rep on the line and flip some sick sh!t. He's also won a gang of the bigger organized battles out there before the whole Dre sh!t...I gotta go with Em all the way on this one." [Make sure to check out Breez's site if you get a minute.]

It will be interesting to see how this pans out...stay tuned!