T.R.O.Y.

Beef: X-Clan vs. Boogie Down Productions

Posted: 09 Nov 2009 06:30 AM PST

This is a strange and unwanted beef between two crews of straight intellectuals, who both seemed to be on the same page. The main difference was (and probably still is) that one crew is pro-black while the other one was pro-human.

X-CLAN - FIRE AND EARTH

More than a diss record, they just happened to remember Kris's humanist stance, and in this pro-black track they had to air it out:

And here's a message to the Rainbow crew
And their fearless leader, Captain Human:
Revolution is not humanism!
Individualism and not separatism!

Even Professor X (RIP) raps on this one, instead of just "sissying" and "pink cadillacing".

Over and under as I progress to this
Got no time to be hanging out with humanists
Raise a flag, fly the, tag the hand, clutch the fist
Serve we nationally comes the diss
Humanity keep it with us we break edicts

On another track ("Grand Verbalizer") from their first album, Brother J also sends a direct hit to KRS:

Go from go from verb to verb,
Sit back and take heed, brother
YOU must learn!

Now to be fair though, there is an interview with Brother J over at Unkut.com where J states that there never was any hostile situations.

"The original situation with me and Kris wasn't a beef, it was more of a misunderstanding on the audience's part(...) All I was trying to state was that black people were not ready at the time for "humanism" views – we don't have our house clean. (...) So my thing was to him [KRS] "You must learn", take some time back and sit back and let's build, sit down with some different elders and see it from different perspective before it goes out there like that. And the crowd instantly took it and said "Ohh, you beefing with KRS, the greatest MC of all time!"

Personally I call bullshit. I guess that memo never got to Kris, 'cause he put on his chef's apron and served them some craaaazy beef.

BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS - BUILD AND DESTROY

The great response by KRS was not only to destroy them as artists, but also went up against their beliefs. The fact that KRS got up in pro-black's asses with his two verses just proved that he wasn't afraid of ANYTHING.

He very cleverly showed and proved that many black men are worse then white devils, using Colin Powell as a great example.

Throw in the towel, the devil is Colin Powell
You talk about being African and being black
Colin Powell's black, but Libya he'll attack
Libya's in Africa, but a black man
will lead a black man, to fight against his homeland
An accomplice to the devil is a devil too
The devil is anti-human, who the hell are you?

He then went up against all philosophies that defend that since the first man from Africa as the original man, therefore all black men are the original man. He even goes up against 5%'s that focus on black man being God.

God is not any black man on the land; God is consciousness
When you understand this you'll see Kris
Until then, you can get dissed

He finishes his diss, or better yet, his lesson, with a mouth smacking teacher-to-student verse:

Yes I am the original teacher
You gotta study the Qu'ran, Torah, Bahavaghita
The Bible, Five Baskets of Buddha Zen
And when you've read them shits, READ them shits again!
But watch what you're repeatin
If you don't know the history of the author
you don't know what you're reading!
Yeah I'm still the original
Leaving MC's lyrically miserable
Their criminal syllables are minimal, show me respect BOY
Cause I build and destroy!

This is a lesser known battle where KRS stomped all over an MC. Brother J never responded, but instead, years later invited KRS to X-Clan's album to "Speak the Truth":

X-CLAN ft. KRS-1 - "Speak the Truth"

-- cenzi stiles