What's beef?
Beef is when you...create a marketing strategy centered around the ancient proverb, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'.
What do I mean by that exactly? Let me put things in perspective.
I didn't pay much attention to this concept until earlier this month when the whole Funk Flex vs. Everybody situation happened after Flex's shared his memory of what happen to Tupac at Quad studio.
When the story first broke I was beyond intrigued. Not just by the story itself, but by the reaction of others even after Lil Cease and Ed Lover cosigned Flex's story.
I wasn't there, I don't know what happened.
But what I do know is that two diss tracks defending Tupac were dropped immediately after. One by Spice 1 and another by Treach from Naughty by Nature.
My research tells me that Spice 1 is a respected OG and keeping that in mind, I have no comments on his reaction.
Treach however, despite his contributions to Hip-hop, I must say his moves seem questionable to me.
It's as if he's using the situation to put himself back in the spotlight and capitalize off the enemy of his enemy being his friend.
Prior to Treach speaking on Funk Flex, he went on rant about his ex wife Pepa and more recently, he's been going back and forth with Wack 100 (manager of Ray J & The Game).
The diss record Treach released appears to have gotten lost in the midst of the drama, however, he now has the attention of those who enjoy negativity and dislike Funk Flex and/or Wack 100.
The enemy of his enemy, is now his fan.
A benefit of his 'beef' is being exposed to a younger generation unfamiliar with his music.
Even if Treach is just 'buddy that went in on' etc. to them, he still has their attention and more importantly free promo via the blogs.
What's beef? 'Beef' is just a marketing strategy. At least that's what it seems like in 2017.
I'm not saying it wasn't used as one before, but now it seems like the only way to really sell/push a record in hiphop is to have public issues with another artist or someone within the industry.
Most consumers are messy bitches, who live for drama
Let's take a step back...all the way back to the Meek Mill & Drake fiasco. During that time everyone hated Meek Mill. Why? Simply because everyone hated Meek Mill.
The Game, being the business savvy guy he is, benefited from his own 'beef' with Meek Mill around the time when promoting his 1992 album.
The Game and his antics were every where and so was the mention of 1992. I myself didn't find out about his album until news of the above video came out. What's beef? 'Beef' is building a buzz that gets people talking. It gets them to ask questions which leads to them having to purchase the music or watch the video in order to get the answers.
'Beef' has been apart of Hip-hop culture from the beginning. When the museum of HipHop is built I'm certain there will be a hall of beefs.
Having a 'beef' with someone can open new doors and assist an artist in gaining exposure and obtaining new fans.
It's all about marketing.
Did Tupac shot himself? I don't fuckin know, I wasn't there.
But ask yourself this...
Would Who Shot Ya have the same notary it does today had Tupac told the world he'd shot himself? 🤔
I personally don't believe so... but as always, all this is just my opinion 🤷🏿♀️