A Shot of Incilin

Over the years, many hip hop supergroups have formed but few ever managed to release anything more than a bunch of scattered songs. Slaughterhouse, hip hop’s latest supergroup, has proven to be an exceptional crew not just because it released an album but because their self-titled debut delivers exactly what their fans wanted; an album with a heavily emphasis lyrics and not much else.

It all started when Joe Buddens invited Crooked I, Royce Da 5’9, Joell Ortiz, and Nino Bless to helm a battle themed posse cut for his digital only LP Halfway House. Once the song (“Slaughterhouse“) hit the internet, the fans ate it up, and Royce, Ortiz, Crooked, and Buddens went ahead and formed a collective (For some reason Nino Bless opted not to join the crew) and called it Slaughterhouse.

The chemistry and camaraderie displayed by is more based on friendly rivalry and personal ego than natural friendship. Every member of the four-man crew is out to out-spit, out-flow, and out-wit the other. This of course brings the best of each other even when it seems like their just out to keep pace with each other. The group’s dynamic isn’t just fueled by friendly competition, the career of every member of the group is summarized by brushes with true fame and extended stretches of being underrated.

Royce Da 5’9, a veteran rapper whose long been underrated, is the obvious leader of the group and handles most of the in-house hooks (although some of the songs don’t even have hooks). Royce, a Detroit based rapper, sounds better than he has in years and SH are the best sparring partners he’s had since he fell out with his old sparring partner, Eminem.

Royce isn’t the only SH whose flirted with hip hop’s heavy hitter before becoming an underground favorite. This album is the first time Crooked I–who was once signed to Death Row–actually got see his album released, making it a long overdue coming out party for Crooked. And while there are plenty of lyrical gems on the record, the highlight belongs to Crooked I’s heartbreaking verse on “Rain Drops” where the left coast lyricist proves you can spit tongue twisting rhymes with gymnastic flow and still be poignant.

“Rain Drops” is typical of the second half of the album, which wisely focuses on more emotional issues (the state of hip hop, trials and tribulations, childhood) since lyrical onslaughts tend to be dense and tiresome. The sentimental approach is likely the biggest contribution by New Jersey’s Joe Budden, a rapper whose career has been defined by being refreshingly unique when tackling tougher issues. However, unlike past Buddens releases (like his lackluster sophomore set) the album doesn’t suffer from poor production.

Mr. Porter, The Alchemist, and Streetrunner all provide beats that are above par for an album released on E1 (formerly Koch). Meanwhile DJ Khalil delivers the stellar beat for lead single, “The One.”

There’s plenty of punchlines that could be quoted here, or intricate flows to delve into, but none of that is really necessary. Slaughterhouse has finally given internet fan boys what they wanted. The real question is, will they record a follow-up record, go their separate ways, or have a messy breakup like most supergroups?

So the story goes a little something like this: Tonight, in the San Bernardino leg of the Rock The Bells Tour, Raekwon and his goons from his crew Icewater ran up on Joe Buddens backstage with a camera. According to Joe Buddens, Raekwon asked for an apology and since he was outnumbered 8-1, Joe offered one but was then snuffed by one of Rae’s goons anyway.

Buddens later put up a video detailing the situation and claiming what Rae did was a “faggot move.” Miss Info posted this on her blog about Raekwon’s motives:

“According to sources within the Icewater camp, the motive behind the confrontation was this video that Joe posted right after his talk with Meth…as well as Joe’s “No Comment” record, which Raekwon perceived to include subliminal shots towards him.”

Now I don’t really support violence, but I really don’t condone it either. One hand is a closed fist that says fuck throwing punchlines we throwing punches. Let’s not front, talking shit on the blogs, and on radio, and on Youtube really is the bitch move. Punching someone in the face, well that’s pretty fucking gangsta. Call me shallow, but that’s just how it is.

On the other hand, when rappers punch each other in the face it makes all of hip hop look foolish, uncivilized, and immature. Plus let’s not forget that bad behavior gets in the way of making money; drama like this is the exact reason why venues don’t like to book hip hop shows and why there’s always a extra security presence at rap concerts.

So what to make of this mess? Well, everyone knows Incilin loves beef (||) but I always take it on a case by case basis. This is one of those cases where they should have kept it peaceful. Raekwon has already expressed regret about the situation: “On my children no one was supposed to get touched…that was not my intention.” But that’s too little too late, especially considering how there are unconfirmed reports that Crooked I, Busta Rhymes, and The San Bernardino police are all now getting involved.

Now I’ve been pretty involved with the entire Joe Buddens/Method Man beef myself, and the one thing I learned is that Wu-Tang is totally dysfunctional. There was a time when Wu-Tang would form like Voltron and put on a united front. But nowadays everyone is going in a different direction: Method had no interest in battling Joey, but Inspecta Deck went and made a diss record. Method squashed the beef (Which Rae supposedly arranged) Raekwon went ahead and got Joey snuffed. Meanwhile, most of the other members of the group like Ghostface (whose been doing a lot of interviews lately) have yet to really speak on the whole situation. Come to think of it, this is exactly how the Raekwon/Biggie fued ended up going down.

But the internal conflicts within the Wu aren’t the worst part about this mess. The truth is, I would have much rather seen an epic lyrical battle between Slaughterhouse and Wu-Tang and marveled at their brilliant display of hip hop at it’s most basic than have to sit through hip hop at it’s most barbaric. Wu-Tang/Slaughterhouse duel on wax is this hip hop fan’s wet dream because they’re both groups who put so much emphasis on their lyrics and microphone techniques. In a lot of ways, them making songs together makes more sense than them beefing. This beef isn’t over and maybe we’ll still get to see some positive music out of all this, but I doubt it. At this point, there’s probably just going to be more bickering.

By the way, while I was reading tweets following this beef and writing this post, I decided to play GZA’s classic 1995 LP Liquid Swords. The kung-fu sample at the end of “Duel of The Iron Mic” seems perfectly apt to summarize this situation:

“At the height of their fame and glory, they turned on one another. Each struggling in vein for ultimate supremacy. In the passion and death of their struggle the very art that brings them to such Olympian heights was lost. Their techniques vanished forever.”