On the Episode 30 of Big Dookie Chain Podcast, Canibus, who was an unique talents in hip-hop when lyrics meant everything, sat down with Van Styles after a show in Connecticut and talked about hip-hop from a perspective only Canibus can.
He gets into how he started in music, what coming into the game in the super competitive golden age was like and being someone who “tried to hard and loved the game too much.” He spoke about his multiple beefs and looking back what he might have done different. He also talked about Wyclef Jean and LL Cool J.
At one point of the interview, Canibus talked about Eminem too: “I don’t take it serious anymore. I’m half of century years old… It’s not cool to diss Eminem. Everybody who has ever dissed him knows that it’s not cool to diss Eminem. Because of the different things. Not blackballed or somebody making a phone-call. It’s just, if you threaten something, or you posed to threaten something or you posturing or threatening something that so many people love, then you inadvertently put yourself in the seat [where there is no empathy] and Benzino was talking about that. Benzino is a hardcore dude and it came out of his mouth. He’s the real one.”
Canibus has recently sat down with Math Hoffa on his My Expert Opinion podcast where the former king of the underground hip-hop recalled first time meeting Eminem at his video shoot and how the beef affected his personality.
“When I met Eminem for the first time, it was at my video shoot for “I Honor U.” Clef told me he was coming. I had heard of him. I heard a lot about him. I knew he rocked with The Outsidaz and stuff. I knew he got busy. I had no problems with meeting him. At that time, it was a newborn on the set. The label was spanking us. Two weeks before that to say this newborn in the video. When that newborn gets here, they are charging us with $400 over sag every minute for the baby being there so they spanked everybody prior to all that. When Eminem came out of the bench glitter wagon, he was with Jimmy Iovine and when he came out: “NEWBORN ON THE SET, YOU ALL KNOW WHAT TO DO” so I was already under that pressure. I remember that part.” said Canibues.
Then he continues: “Em pushed up like ‘Yo, Canibus I just wanna work with you. I wanna do something with you.’ I was told right before he got there, like five minutes before he got there, he ghostwrote The Ripper Strikes Back [LL Cool J’s diss song towards Canibus]. Back then, I didn’t know what was gong on. I had to rely on what I was being told. Especially if it came from the source that I trusted or I thought it was reliable. At the end of the day, it was not reliable source cause he didn’t write it. So my conversation with Em was like ‘Yo, why did you write that’ he said he was embarrassed and that he didn’t write it. But I had destroyed the opportunity to ever really work with him again because he really was genuine about how he felt was going on. In my mind I was like, ‘why would you do that, why would you want to work so bad with me and you ghostwrote that?!’ I didn’t know, so that destroyed everything.”
“And I wisened up. He get busy. At that time, I was in that lane getting busy on the mic. He also had this thing where the stuff that he was talking about everybody wanted to hear that. Everybody wanted to hear what he said, how he said. There is rhyme where he says, in ‘Square Dance,’ He said, ‘Two trailer park girls go round the outside, Round the outside, round the outside.’ That was the rhyme I had said from ‘Box Cutta’ Blade Runna’. So he was doing things like that. Saying things in the rhyme that was driving me crazy. He was driving me nuts!”
“I was in Amsterdam, in the Red-light district and I was in the room with Shorty and she ran over the radio and as I’m listening to music and then I hear Em’s voice come on and I feel like he’s talking about me! [Everybody Laughs]. That song was award-winning song, for you and the rest of the world that song was incredible. Songwriting all that. Anyway, I don’t care what non of you say, that record was talking to me because that’s what happened when I was rude to him and then he took his style and his ability how he writes in his mind and he turned it into that. That’s what was driving me crazy. I created the monster. It was my fault. But at that time I was not looking at it like that. I was looking at it like ‘yo, my label needs to do more with me to push my s–t.’ I didn’t understand that there was an institution involved in that whole craze. It was a tsunami.”
“And that Stan record. I don’t care what you talking about. I brought him back to life. That was my way of writing back to say ‘hey look I shouldn’t said what I said but you know what? I brought Stan back to life, come on tour with me. That was my way of saying ‘yo, don’t kill Stan off.’ and whoever was listening they were mad that I was trying to bring him back to life.”
“I never talked to Em since then. A lot of people throw gas on it but the truth about it is that I tried to clean it up in different ways. It almost seemed like the public liked me better as an angry artist. Me saying angry things. They did not want to hear me when I did the song Channel Zero or these kind of stuff. So the truth about it is, I just really needed a hug, man.” – Canibus added.
In one of his recent Instagram livestream, one of the greatest underground rappers, Canibus, talked about Eminem and Nas.
“Shout out to Escobar, everytime we met he had positive words and vibes. He gave me the words of encouragement. I will never forget that. This was early in the game. Definitely sending shout out to Nas.” said Canibus.
Then he continued talking about Eminem: “Marshall, sending shout out to Marshall too. If I could say a name to Marshall to disarm any kind of nonsense that people in the game or not in the game, people who like to start fire, the name I would say is Wendy Day. She was the glue. He was the cohesive, she was what I would call force multiplier in terms of unit cohesion. She was always trying to bring people together. Everybody knows who she is. Amazing person. Shout out to Wendy Day wherever you at. Hip-Hop would have been way different without you. So, Marshall, that’s the name I could say to let you know that that’s a wall that noone else can get behind. That’s a firewall right there. Nobody knows what Wendy Day said to you about me and what she said to me about you. So when you think anything Marshall, just think about WENDY nice little face.”
Couple of months ago, it was also reported that Canibus is releasing a song with Eminem, produced by Dr. Dre as an NFT.
I know you don’t believe it too. I could not believe my eyes when I first saw this information in a closed Facebook group of Canibus but it seems official now.
Canibus will release his Eminem collaboration, described as “UNRELEASED SONG, not a blend, not a mix, not recycled nor ever heard before track,” produced by Dr. Dre as an NFT via his website.
On the website, we read: “At this session, the 4 Lucky Winners + all NFT customers will be the 1st to hear the CANIBUS NFT single featuring EMINEM and Produced by DR. DRE. Yes, this is an actual UNRELEASED SONG, not a blend, not a mix, not recycled nor ever heard before track with CANIBUS x EMINEM produced by Dr. Dre!!! As stated above, like the one of a kind WU-TANG CLAN album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin”, this Unreleased Track will eventually be sold as an NFT exclusively to one buyer. Until that happens, CANINFT.COM raffle winner and all NFT customers from the site will be allowed to hear this monumental piece of history!”
It’s hard to believe because of Canibus and Eminem’s longtime beef that dates back to 1998, even before Eminem was signed to Dr. Dre. Em even mentions Canibus in one of his recent collaborations with Conway The Machine, on a track called “Bang” in which he raps: “Used to dream one day I’d be fuckin’ pink like a flamingo, that was back when I smoked Canibus, man, but it was tough, ’cause I was a fan of his so it sucked to hand him his a**.”
We are not sure when Canibus and Eminem recorded the track but it seems to be real.
You can check Canibus’ website for more details here and listen to his latest release below:
The Fugees icon Wyclef Jean has recently set down with hiphopisreal.com where he talked about Busta Rhyme’s reaction when he heard Eminem for the first time and explains why beef between Eminem and Canibus should had never happened.
“My Eminem experience, it was so…it was Eminem and Canibus. So, here is my Eminem experience, Busta Rhymes will tell you. When he came on my tour bus, he literally broke my tour bus
“He trashed my tour bus. You still owe me for my tour bus. But you know, Busta’s a giant. What are you gonna tell him? He will take you apart with one hand. He went crazy! Till today, I have nightmares of this thing. Busta trashed my beautiful tour bus after listening to this Eminem song.”
“My whole dream was to get Canibus with Eminem. That was my dream. I so wanted that to happen. I know that Eminem had so much love for Canibus. Canibus and Eminem are two of my favorite rappers of all time. I wish beef between them had never happened. I’m a huge fan. Eminem is a complete genius and so is Canibus in his space.” – said Wyclef Jean
