Canibus – J. Clone (J. Cole Diss)
Currently, new artists such as J Cole have continuously mentioned me as their favorite artist, shouted me out in articles, magazine/online interviews, and even gone as far as starting off show sets by playing some of my earlier material to warm up the audience and give off the impression that he is real hip hop and loves real lyricism. Cole might say he does this to pay homage, but in reality, by him playing my older material owned by my former label dating back to 1998, subsequently overlooking my current works and contributions which directly benefit me now, he is treating me less like an artist that has, and continues to contribute, influence, and inspire an even younger generation of MC’s coming up, and more like an artist that has physically passed on already(i.e. Tupac, B.I.G., Big L, Heavy D, Eyeda): you get the point I’m trying to make. I can’t help but to think that he is not nearly as sincere or genuine as he would like real hip hop heads to think he is because he speaks about me like I am dead. What he is doing is underhanded and disingenuous and whether it is his idea or not, I don’t agree with his tactic and I have something to say about it.
Some might look to label me as an older head picking on a younger head who claims to have been influenced by me, but I refuse to let anyone including him stand on what we built, and pompously extract only the parts that suit them and their undermining intentions under the guise of “paying homage”. I’m sick of it. That’s fake, fraudulent, and misrepresents mine and others contributions, and significance to hip-hop music. After watching many many interviews of Clone, I mean Cole “pay homage”, I decided to pay some homage to him myself because I am still alive and well and ready to throw down for Hip Hop.
– Canibus
Despite J. Cole saying Canibus is his favorite rapper of all time, Canibus has decided to release a diss track entitled, “J. Clone.”. Canibus says, “It’s more than that, we could’ve recorded a track. You could give me a stack for a verse for just like that.” Canibus feels like J. Cole gives him praise in interviews but doesn’t show any love.
