Seriously, when was the last time a decent rap rivalry started? It seems as if it was a whole lifetime ago. Back in the 90s Tupac and Biggie were releasing diss records left and right and we haven’t seen many good rivalries since. Eminem doesn’t count: he’s mad at everyone.
That all changed until a couple weeks ago. New and indie/underground blog darling Tyler the Creator released a song called “Yonkers” that took shots at B.o.B., Bruno Mars, and Hayley Williams, saying that he’ll “crash the plane that B.o.B. is in.” To be fair, Tyler is a fairly outrageous lyricist in general: he’s brash, harsh and intensely angry – more so than anyone you’ve probably heard before (and that includes Eminem). In fact, Tyler’s mix tape “Bastard” makes anything Eminem released sound like Christopher Cross. Ultimately, that’s what makes Tyler appealing: his lyrics and statements are primal in a way that none of us allow ourselves to verbalize.
B.o.B. released a track to the internet called “No Future”, a sly jab at Tyler’s crew Odd Future, also known as OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All). Though it’s not clear if the entire song is about Tyler or just the new breed of rapper in general, in which B.o.B. is a part of; in fact he is a whole two years older than Tyler’s twenty years. He doesn’t slam Tyler by name but he does refer to “those rookies” and tells them that if they keep messing with him they’ll have “no future”. B.o.B. popped up last year with Bruno Mars on the track “Nothin’ on You”, a track that was originally offered to Lupe Fiasco, who turned it down and one of the producers suggested B.o.B. for the track instead. From there B.o.B. has gone on to have a few more hit songs, including the “Airplanes” song that Tyler mentions in his track.
Tyler released a comment from his twitter account about B.o.B.’s diss track saying, “Whoa. I Don’t Think The ‘No Future’ Song Is Even A Diss. But, I’ve Never Heard Him Spit Like That. Took Me By Surprise, Cus Its Tight.” My assumption is that Tyler writes what he writes to get a reaction; I mean remember Eminem back in the late 90’s and early 00’s when he called out nearly everyone? It’s usually a good marketing ploy, it generates buzz for an up and coming artist if he challenges the established popular class. I really like both artists, Tyler is really fresh, his new and first commercially released album, “Goblin”, will be released on May 10 and I’m excited to see what he will do in terms of success. Will we get more back and forth between these two guys or Tyler versus anyone and everyone, who knows, I kind of hope so because it’s creating some interesting and fantastic music.