The 1980s rap rivalry that fuelled Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane
Hip-hop rivalries can get nasty, leading, at their worst, to the people involved getting killed.
But some clashes take place in a friendly spirit of competition, in which the participants compete lyrically and, consequently, bring the very best out of each other. That’s how it was for Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane.
Both members of the legendary New York collective the Juice Crew in the ’80s, G Rap and Kane wrote and released plenty of great songs in their day, often in the hope of specifically besting the other. In doing so, they forced one another to raise their respective game.
This contest was not conducted in the fatalistic spirit of Biggie and 2Pac, nor even in the lyrically vicious manner of Kendrick and Drake. This was good-spirited competition, with two masters of their craft going head to head and trying to gain the upper hand.
That was how G Rap remembered the rivalry, as he expressed to Unkut in 2012. “Anytime you put two lyricists in the same environment it’s gonna be good,” he said, “because people ride off the energy of other people.”
G Rap characterised his and Kane’s rivalry as “a very subtle competition thing,” which “wasn’t like how these dudes do today.” Theirs was not a violent, angry contest, but was “more constructive… more of a positive thing.” It was about encouraging “each other to keep pushing harder, just raise it another level up, another notch up.”
G Rap and Kane kept “each other on [their] toes,” but, as G Rap explained, it wasn’t just them engaging in this sort of behaviour. Rap is inherently competitive, and there were plenty of other MCs around them who also pushed them both to up their game.
“It wasn’t just between me and him,” he reflected. “We trying to keep up with the Rakim’s and the KRS-One’s at the same time! Whenever I didn’t get drive or inspired by something that Kane did, then it was something that Rakim did or something KRS-One did.”
G Rap was pretty sure it worked both ways, and that he “inspired” these rappers in turn. That’s how it was in their scene. It was fiercely competitive, without necessarily descending into rancour.