LL Cool J recalled his old beef with Canibus back in the 1990s and says that his rap beef with the Jamaican-American rapper was the toughest in all of his career.
His beef with Canibus started over a verse that Canibus gave on LL’s track “4,3,2,1” from his album Phenomenon.
In his verse, Canibus rapped “Yo LL, is that a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that,” referring to the microphone tattoo on LL Cool J’s arm but rather than take it as a compliment, LL took it as disrespect and lashed out at Canibus on the track.
“I would say out of all them, probably Canibus because he was a pain in the ass. I was a little more disconnected so it made it way more difficult. It’s like one of them Rocky movies when he’s driving through the tunnel with the f-cking Rolls-Royce and he’s having flashbacks and sh-t, you got this Mr. T muthaf-cka over here rapping out the basement. That was the vibe,” LL Cool J told Ray Daniels.
“He’s rapping in my ears, biting at my calf muscles, over here doing sitcoms and sh-t. I’m like, ‘Yo, this sh-t is crazy right now!’ This muthaf-cka f-cking with me, bothering me in the middle of the night. Our culture is crazy ’cause they won’t leave you alone about this sh-t. ‘What you gonna do about your man?’ You just gotta deal with this sh-t, right? So I would say Canibus.”
The beef ultimately ended Canibus’ mainstream career.
