< < Rewind < <

Then the phone rang at Hot 97 where 50 Cent was being interviewed. It was the usual fairly fluffy, warm-and-fuzzy-type talk of midday radio until somebody answered the phone. On the other end? DipSet general Cam�Ron. (Well, actually it was Allen Grunblatt, Koch GM, but then it was Cam).

�Yada, yada, yada, Koch is a graveyard,� says Fif, calmly. �Yada yada yada. But Jim Jones outsold Lloyd,� says Cam...

And now this:

Ain�t 50�s best dis track for sure (that would be �Not Rich, Still Lying� where he rapped as The Game), but he cuts deep when he runs his jibbs at the end: �Computers computin�/ Boogie-de-bootin!?� He demotes Cam to soldier and promotes Jim Jones to boss. That�s gotta hurt. Especially since Jim Jones violated rule #1 of Robert Green�s �48 Laws of Power�* with �We Fly High,� perhaps the DipSet�s biggest record ever.

Then somehow, Jay gets caught in the crossfire (see above quote). Seems like 50 has been reading is �Art of War� (yep, Sun Tzu�s a G-Unit soldier), learning to divide and conquer. Cam, judging by his maniacal laughter at the end of that phone call, has some insecurity with his present position. And possibly, with Jim�s. What led to the fall of the Roc-A-Fella dynasty can certainly befall the DipSet if 50 can stay inside Cam�s head. You�d think Cam would know better.

But hip-hop doesn�t seem to learn from its past. Big�s and Pac�s deaths are often used as some get-the-crowd-hyped tribute. And then an artist goes home to their big house and makes a record like �Funeral Music,� where heavy fire-power can be seen blasting off a few rounds. Surely there will be a proper Cam response before I can press send on this thing. Jay-Z will have plotted his next move (from some great beach chair, rocking his Gucci sandals and his linen shorts, no doubt). Meanwhile, Ja Rule, whose career was bodied some time ago, will be somewhere planning a comeback in the midst of the chaos. And by next week, we�ll all be saying, It was all good just a week ago.

(*Rule #1: Never outshine your master.)