The 10 Best Subliminals of 2011 (So Far) #10 - #7

It’s been an incredible year for rap. Albums from all of its biggest stars. Mixtapes we should’ve been forced to pay for. The emergence of bright young stars who promise to lead and shape rap for years to come. 
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Amidst all of this excellence, there has been the typical tension among rappers. It’s a competitive game, one where you’re trying to get as high as you can, while simultaneously attempting to stop your peers from doing so. However, this might be the least true it’s ever been, this year. It’s a world of cosigns and Pro Tools-enabled features, where a collaboration is just one click away. It’s all about visibility, about being accessible, so guys reach across subgenres and regional styles to try to find as many listeners as possible. Competition might actually be dying out. But it’s still got legs. This year, its biggest source has been two guys who decided to coronate themselves at the end of 2010 and in doing so pissed off a lot of people. This maneuver is responsible for a lot of the entries on our Top 10 list. (continued after the jump, with numbers 10 through 7...)

Subliminals are not to be confused with disses, thus we've ignored entries that blatantly use names. Subliminals are a much cooler way of going about business. They send a message while still sounding casual as fuck. They rely on perception, and insecurities. Plus, they have the added bonus of generating publicity and boosting sales. 

Recall that this is the Top 10, so that horrendous “Uncle Otis” won’t appear, and the shots taken by the very irrelevant Consequence won’t either. If you’re going to talk shit, you have to sound good doing it.

It’s not a perfect list, because no list is. I’m sure you’ll disagree with it, and I’m also sure you’ll let me know how much you disagree with it. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. At KWT, we love creating discussion.  The Top 10 have been broken up, and the list will be unveiled over the next few days. Read along. It’ll be an enjoyable ride.

Perpetrator: 50 Cent on “Love, Hate, Love”

Victim: Lil Wayne, Game

Crime: “Acting like a white boy bored, now you wanna jump a flight of stairs on a skateboard, nigga, why the fuck ya pants so tight? You tryna show niggas your ass, your alternative life?”

&

"You forgot about me bitch, I wrote your hits"

Tactic: Topical shit talk, and rehashing old problems, in order to generate sales of an energy drink

Remember when I said 50 was having a hell of a year? I stand by what I said. However, this is a bit of a bruise. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. If you or I thought 50 was changing for anybody, we were wrong. He’s still taking shots, this time at Wayne and his old nemesis Game. In the case of Weezy, this is pretty pointless. Except for a rarefied few, the Martian is untouchable at this point. He did a milli the first week on back to back albums, which is unheard of these days. He's bigger than he's ever been. There's no way in hell 50 will get a response for this one, and a response is exactly what 50 needs to generate publicity. In terms of the latter, where their careers are at right now, it’d be in both of their best interests to team up again. Let's be honest, there’s a reason this is the tenth entry, in a down year for shit talk. The lines aren’t particularly clever, and 50’s star has diminished hugely. Once upon a time, this would have been world-shattering news. These days, not so much. For the straight-up hostility (something in little supply these days), and in memory of the glory days, this one makes the list.

Perpetrator: Drake on “I’m On One”

Victim: The Throne

Crime: “I’m just feeling like the throne is for the taking, watch me take it!”

Reasoning: “I’m a Cash money soldier”

Tactic: Talk that talk on a Number 1 record


If you are sold on everything that Drake has been saying in the interviews leading up to Take Care, fuck you. If you think the hostilities between the Young Money camp and The Throne are dead, you are very wrong. He has said some complimentary things about Yeezy and Hov, certainly. Perhaps you noticed he also won't confirm or deny if he has been taking shots. You can brush this line away as a coincidence that "throne" and "watch" appear four words apart, but ladies and gentlemen, this is rap. It's a dog-eat-dog game. If Drake could drop a song tomorrow and kill both of these gentlemen's careers, you bet your ass he'd do it. No longer the wide-eyed MC of Comeback Season, Drake has grown into a jaded veteran of the rap game, not to mention one of its greatest stars. His idols became his peers, and they took shots at his boss. There's no better way to let a rival know you're not going to roll over than talking shit on the biggest song of the summer.

Perpetrator: Joe Budden on "B.E.T Shady 2.0 Cypher"

Victim: The Throne

Crime: "I'm grown, I ain't watching the throne, I'm sabotaging it,"

Reasoning: When you record with Eminem on the regular, it might be tough to stomach others calling themselves kings 

Tactic: You're on TV. Do something big.

Notorious Hov-disser Joe Budden is at it again. Plus, he's got the added threat of his Slaughterhouse buddies and their well-constructed lines. And let's not forget there's always the White Boy looming in the background. It would be great commercially if Em went after Jay, but it seems highly unlikely. There's just too much respect between the two. Instead, we'll probably hear a few more shots taken by Slaughterhouse on albums that nobody buys. That's not to downplay this subliminal though. These guys have a ton of weight in the underground rap world, and will leave you looking foolish if you piss them off. Budden's a vet in this game, and he's not kneeling for anybody. Now, somebody tell him how to hold a microphone.

Perpetrator:  Kanye West on “Otis”

Victim: Drake

Crime: “Niggas talkin real reckless, stuntmen, I adopted these niggas, Phillip Drummond 'em, now I’m bout to make them tuck their whole summer in,”

Reasoning: Motherfuckers should have given credit where credit is due?

Tactic: One part ironic use of a flow Drake popularized, one part deading an old relationship

In some parallel universe somewhere, Jay-Z never let Kanye into the booth. In this universe, you never bumped Jesus Walks in your Discman, and you didn’t lose your virginity to “Slow Jamz”. You never realized your girl is only with you for your dough, and Taylor Swift never sold a million in her first week. Not being gangster never became cool. Listening to rappers with real emotions still isn't acceptable. In this universe, Drake doesn’t exist. Not the Drake we know now. Maybe his career continued on after Comeback Season. Maybe he becomes a star, maybe he doesn’t. But there’s certainly no crooning over the best 808’s and Heartbreak replicas around. 

It’s hard to pinpoint why Ye decided to take this shot; we can speculate Mr. West got tired of a bunch of guys making boatloads of cash off his style. But it's only speculation. Somewhere along the way, their relationship fell apart. It went from Yeezy directing the titty-tastic “Best I Ever Had” video and making hits for Drake, to verses getting cut from “All of the Lights” and snipes about 40 copying his sound. Maybe we’ll never know, or maybe a really pissed off Kanye will give some interviewer a career goldmine and let us in on the secret. Either way, we have the incredibly dope “Otis”, and a masterfully pieced together shot from an artist operating at creative heights unseen in the rap world.

Check KWT everyday friends, the next entry in The 10 Best Subliminals of 2011 (So Far) is coming!

UPDATED: The 10 Best Subliminals of 2011 (So Far) #6 - #3
                   The 10 Best Subliminals of 2011 (So Far) #2 & #1

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