LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee feud

The LL Cool J-Kool Moe Dee battle was a renowned long-standing hip hop rivalry between the two well known New York City rappers.

Background

Kool Moe Dee was a member of one of the earliest hip hop crews, the Treacherous Three, and claimed that LL Cool J stole his style, starting a long-running feud between them. From different interviews and magazines at the time, Kool Moe Dee felt that LL was actually believing his own hype based on the popularity and success of the "Bigger and Deffer" album.

The conflict begins

The conflict began with Kool Moe Dee responding to LL for some apparent offenses that had occurred in the past.

The cover of Kool Moe Dee's 1987 album "How Ya Like Me Now" featured a red Kangol hat (LL Cool J's trademark) being crushed under the wheel of a Jeep.

In the title track, while not mentioning LL by name, refers to another MC, who had copied his style and apparently questioned his ability to sell records.He also mentions along the way that he's "talking about battles, and never had a battle yet". Interestingly, both this as well as copying someone's beat were the same criticisms MC Shan had leveled at him in his earlier record "Beat Biter". In fact, considering the numerous rap acts taking shots at LL, "He became the target of choice for striving rappers, with no posse of his own to watch his back". [cite book
last=Michel
first=Sia
title=The Vibe History of Hip Hop
year=1999
publisher=Three Rivers Press
isbn=0609805037
pages=85
chapter=LL Cool J] [cite book
last=Saxon
first=Shani
title=The Vibe History of Hip Hop
year=1999
publisher=Three Rivers Press
isbn=0609805037
pages=Inset
chapter=Battle Rhymes]

LL's response and escalation

LL responded with "Jack the Ripper" which was included as a B-side to the "Going Back to Cali (LL Cool J song)" single from the Less Than Zero (film) soundtrack where LL, though not mentioning Moe Dee by name, derides a "washed up rapper" and "old school sucker punk" and then makes a couple of direct jabs at the title of the first record, such as at the climax of the rap, "How ya like me now? I'm gettin' busier'; I'm double platinum, watching you get dizzier..."." [cite book
last=Bogdanov
first=Vladimir
title=All Music Guide to Hip-Hop: The Definitive Guide to Rap and Hip-Hop
year=2003
publisher=Backbeat Books
isbn=0879307595
pages=268-9] [cite book
last=Keyes
first=Cheryl Lynette
title=Rap Music and Street Consciousness
year=2002
publisher=University of Illinois Press
isbn=0252072014
pages=85, 137-9] "Jingling Baby", also contained shots at Moe Dee, without any direct references.

Kool Moe Dee fired back with an even more aggressive response entitled "Let's Go"; where he now mentions LL, by making an alliteration of pejoratives beginning with the letter "L", ("lower level, last, least, etc."): [cite book
last=George
first=Nelson
authorlink=Nelson George
title=Buppies, B-boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture
year=1994
publisher=HarperCollins
isbn=0306810271
pages=86-7
chapter=Kool Moe Dee & L.L. Cool J: I Versus I]

:"Tryna be me, now LL stands for:"Lue Links, Lack Luster:"Last Least, Limp Lover:"Lousy Lame, Latent Lethargic:"Lazy Lemon, Little Logic:"Lucky Leech, Liver Lipped:"Laborious Louse on a Loser's Lips:"Live in Limbo, Lyrical Lapse:"Low Life with the loud raps, boy

The sequence ended with the following:

:"...Now look what you done did:"just using your name I took those L’s,:"hung ‘em on your head and rocked your bells...

LL responded on the "Mama Said Knock You Out" album with "To Da Break of Dawn"; where he makes fun of "Star Trek shades" (referring to Kool Moe Dee's characteristic eyeglasses), and also attacks both MC Hammer and Ice T for dissing him in records.

The album's title track "Mama Said Knock You Out", also took shots at him.

Kool Moe Dee fired back on "Funke, Funke Wisdom" with "Death Blow", where he answers all three singles: (e.g. "If Mama said knock me out; come do it!") He would conclude with another alliteration of negative "L" words (with a different rhythm).

Ending and aftermath

After this, the battle started to die down. LL's next album "14 Shots to the Dome"contained the track, "(NFA) No Frontin Allowed" which takes various shots at Kool Moe Dee. Moe Dee had one other studio album after that, "Interlude" and then his career waned. While Moe Dee's attacks are widely seen as more hard-hitting; it was LL who still managed to come out with a successful career. He would later gloat about this on "I Shot Ya Remix"; "..Crushed Moe Dee, Hammer and Ice-T's girl". Regarding LL's "double platinum" status, "As this suggests, microphone skills are crucial, but sales were the final determinant of one's supremacy. While Kool Moe Dee was unquestionably a bankable and bona fide rap star, LL Cool J's sales far outdistanced him, a reflection of...the commercial terrains of the evolving rap music market." [cite book
last=Forman
first=Murray
title=The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop
year=2002
publisher=Wesleyan University Press
isbn=0819563978
pages=166-7]

Kool Moe Dee, who had been calling LL to a live battle which he never engaged in, had commented:"I always said that the reason LL can never win a battle is because he talks so much about himself, that he cant talk about anything else. He used his charisma, energy and vocabulary - which is basically a combination of my style, T La Rock & Run but in battling its more. Like when I hit him with the Ls (lower level, lackluster etc) it wasn't just insulting, but it had poetic value to it".

He also continued that part of his issue with LL (as well as Run) were that ....he felt like "nothing that came before them mattered, and that his money could validate that." [cite web
url=http://www.jayquan.com/moedee.htm
title=Kool Moe Dee Interview
last=Quan
first=Jay
publisher=The Foundation
date=May 4, 2002
accessdate=2008-01-03]

List of relevant records

*Kool Moe Dee - "How Ya Like Me Know"

*LL Cool J - "Jack the Ripper"

*Kool Moe Dee - "Let's Go"

*LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out"

*LL Cool J - "To The Break of Dawn"

*Kool Moe Dee - "Death Blow"

References

Further reading

*Interview by Alan Light, "Rolling Stone", July 11, 1991

External links

* [http://www.epinions.com/content_4770865284 LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee: So, Who Really Won?]
* [http://wakeyourdaughterup.blogspot.com/2007/03/hip-hop-101-nas-where-are-they-now.html Hip Hop 101: Nas - "Where Are They Now" Remixes: The 80's Remix (Part One)]
* [http://www.mtv.com/bands/n/nas/news_feature_012102/index4.jhtml The Art of the Battle by Shaheem Reid]
* [http://www.freewebs.com/whatsbeef/beefarchive1.htm What's Beef]
* [http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article401.html "Where Is Kool Moe Dee When You Need Him?" by Timothy N. Stelly]