Rap beef occurs frequently in the Hip-Hop universe. Eminem disses Nick Cannon. DJ Drama vs Young Jeezy. And 50 Cent just has beef with everybody. Nothing good comes from these disputes and it often can result in imprisonment or death for one or both parties. We all know what happened between 2-Pac and Biggie. But when beef between 2-cent films and radio show host Tom Joyner began, 2-cent declared war. However, they responded in classy fashion by taking Tom’s advice and remixed “Parent’s Just Don’t Understand” to get their point across.
Beef began after 2-cent created a spoof video derived from Lil’ Wayne’s racy track “Every Girl.” They changed the lyrics and retitled the song “Every Book” and showed the video at their annual Christmas Book Give-a-way at Live Oak Elementary School.
This video was made in attempt to reach out to the kids using a medium that they can relate to and understand, and as you can see from this next video, it worked:
Not only did they reach the children using the popular medium of music, they also had professional players (Leigh Torrence, New Orleans Saints & Julian Wright, New Orleans Hornets) come and speak about their education experience and the importance of reading.
Then Tom Joyner entered the picture. He chose as a topic of discussion the remixing of Lil’ Wayne’s song by 2-cent. Tom was not too fond of this particular song being used to reach out to kids and figured that the remix was a terrible idea. He never watched either of the two videos imbedded above and condemned 2-cent for their SUCCESSFUL attempt at communicating to adolescents the importance of reading using a local artist as a comical and witty outreach. After hearing this 2-cent took it personally and responded with another remix “Tom Just Don’t Understand.”
Needless to say, the point came across clear as day. 2-cent felt that Tom could open his eyes more to their cause and see that what they were doing was working. Instead of “jumping the gun” Tom could have supported the cause by contributing financially. Then instead of receiving angry emails from parents of these children, he would have received positive feedback. Tom messed up, but he has yet to admit to his mistake. For now this battle continues and the “beef” rages on and Tom Joyner still just don’t understand
Keller Fisher.