When Common first dropped “Sweet,” the aggressive third single off of his ninth solo album, The Dreamer, The Believer, the collective rap blogosphere went nuts.
As you all probably already know, in the song it seems like Common sends some subliminal disses to Drake.
BURY DA BEEF: Drake’s Producer Noah “40” Shebib Goes Smack At Common
After he spits his first verse, the usually cool-as-a-cucumber Common spews:
“Hoe ass ni*gas. You ain’t no muthf*ckin Frank Sinatra. Lil b*tch.”
Everyone’s speculation was basically confirmed when Common appeared on Sway in the Morning on Tuesday (the day his album dropped) and confirmed that Drake, in fact, was the “lil b*tch” he was referring to.
BURY DA BEEF: Drake Tells Common “I’m Not No B*tch”
Things seem to escalate even more when Drake performed at the Cali Christmas Concert in L.A. and, using his outside voice, went on a mini-rant about the whole situation.
“I don’t give a f*ck! If you got something to say to me say it to my motherf*cking face n*gga. Just cause I sing, I’m not no bitch. If you got something to say, I’m right here.”
Ya’ll love it. I could care less.
And it’s not because I don’t love me a good lyrical scrap or that I hate Common (far from the truth: I defended the Chicago MC when he went through his yellow sweater and slippers fad.)
No, I think this is lame because I’ve seen Common pull sh*t like this before.
Countless number of times, for whatever reason, he sends these little slick, lame, subliminal shots at rappers who are seemingly hotter than him at the moment.
Don’t believe me? Well the Devil is in the details, baby. Let’s look at some past shots.
(FYI: I’m not including the infamous Ice Cube diss track “The Bitch in Yoo.” There was nothing subliminal about that record. That song was big, flagrant and awesome.)
Example one: On “Dooinit,” off of Like Water For Chocolate, which dropped in 1999, Common spit:
“Rap I deliver for the hungry and underprivileged. Something different from these hollow and grunting ni*gas. This is business strictly, step to my business is risky, specially when you as bitch as Missy. Back to back LP’s that sound the same, I surround the game With a four-pounded brainstorm To make ni*gas dance in the rain, scared to take a chance in the game.”
This was perceived as a diss to Master P and No Limit Records because, well, they were doing a lot of grunting and putting out sh*t that all sounded the same.
Example two: On “Soul Power,” off of the 2002 LP Electric Circus, Common had these slick lines for a certain unnamed rapper that sounds a lot like it was meant for Ja Rule:
“I’d rather listen to silence then you, Holla. Borrowed your persona from the late that made “Dear Mama.”
And, finally, example three comes from “Chi City,” which is from 2005’s Be. Here he sends some curious lines towards “Ghetto Dreams” collaborator Nas:
“This ain’t ’94 Joe we can’t go back. The game need a makeover.
My man retired, I’ma take over. Tell these “Halftime” ni*gas breaks over.”
In case you don’t know: 1994 is when Nas’ first album, Illmatic, dropped and “Halftime” was a track off of that LP.
So what does all of this have to do with Common and Drake’s situation?
Well, it tells me this isn’t about no damn Serena Williams or Common wanting attention to get more album sales (which, for the record, didn’t even work. His latest album is on pace to move around 60K units in its first week. Ouch.)
This is just Common being Common and this act is pretty old and lame already.
This so called “beef” will pass. My prediction: we’ll hear a duet with both of these dudes singing by next year. With 40 on the beat, of course.
