‘That’s the Destruction of the Whole Game’

Clips from Melle Mel’s recent interview on the Art Of Dialogue podcast have been released and have brought a lot of attention to the legendary rapper. First for saying that Eminem wouldn’t be a top-five rapper if he wasn’t white, and now, for saying that Ja Rule was trying too hard to be 50 Cent.

Melle Mel first talked about how rappers today are trying too hard to sound like other rappers, thus ruining their sound in the process.

“A lot of rappers could be better rappers if they stopped rapping like everybody else,” Mel said. “What is it that you need to say? You could be the n-gga that made a song about a pool party, but you fucked around and listened to Meek Mill and went and you fucked around and did some dumb shit.”

He then compared it to 50 Cent and Ja Rule’s legendary beef, saying that Ja Rule tried to copy 50 Cent’s gangsta sound when he made his record “New York.” “It’s just like when 50 Cent was doing this shit and then when Ja Rule and that was probably one of his last big records.”

Mel continued: “If he woulda just made that record a pure New York record, it would have been a way bigger record. But he went the route of trying to sound hard because 50 Cent sound hard. And it was still a good record but I’m just saying, if he woulda just made it a pure New York record like how Jay-Z did with his New York record. See what I’m saying? If he woulda went along the same lines as that.”

“So the point [I’m] saying is that consciousness does have its place in Hip Hop, but everybody is too scared about not being hard. And that’s the destruction of the whole game.”

You can watch the clip below.