His sit down with The Art of Dialogue has stirred many Hip Hop pots, and another clip has Melle Mel back in the center of controversy. For decades, there has been a Hip Hop beef that just doesn't seem to have an end in sight. 50 Cent and Ja Rule have co-existed within the culture without too many dust-ups, but when they arrive, the spats command attention. Whether they're trading verbal shots or issuing disses in interviews, Fif and Ja remain foes.
Music legend Melle Mel has seen the ebbs and flows of Rap since its inception. The Hip Hop pioneer is quite opinionated about the genre, considering he watched it take shape in real-time, and in his latest interview, he offered a few thoughts about 50 Cent and Ja Rule. He noted that many rappers could be better if they didn't attempt to emulate their peers. "What is it that you need to say? You could be the n*gga that made a song about a pool party, but you f*cked around and listened to Meek Mill. And you f*cked around and did some dumb sh*t."
Melle Mel Uses Ja & 50 As An Example
To emphasize his point, Mel mentioned the two warring rappers. "It’s just like when 50 Cent was doing this sh*t. And then when Ja Rule...and that was probably one of his last big records." He was referencing Ja's hit classic, "New York." Melle continued, “If he woulda just made that record a pure New York record, it would have been a way bigger record. But he went the route of trying to sound hard because 50 Cent sound hard. And it was still a good record, but I’m just saying. If he woulda just made it a pure New York record like how Jay-Z did with his New York record. See what I’m saying? If he woulda went along the same lines as that.”
Elsewhere in the clip, Melle Mel discussed how the street life is a detriment to Hip Hop. He argued that "consciousness does have its place in Hip Hop, but everybody is too scared about not being hard. And that’s the destruction of the whole game.” Watch the video of Melle Mel on The Art of Dialogue discussing Hip Hop, 50 Cent, and Ja Rule above.
