"If You're A Hip-Hop Fan & You Don't Like Lil B, You Should At Least Respect Him"

[With the recent backlash West Coast rapper Lil B has received this summer, an unexpected supporter in the form of rap veteran Cormega stands by Based God.]

 

There's definitely mutual respect between me and Lil B. The problem with hip-hop has been divisions. Division is the devil's wrath. There's race division, class division and now we have generation division.

We have situations where there are artists that are legends or old school criticizing some of the younger artists and you also have some of the younger artists calling certain artists old and disrespecting them to defend themselves when in reality a conversation with them would work wonders. The same way you could sit there and say a dude sucks, you having a conversation with that artist telling them what you think they're doing wrong or how they should be doing something would go a lot further instead of critcism.

So I'm always going to respect Lil B as a man, first, because when I met Lil B, it was respect given. Lil B salutes me the same way I salute Rakim. Before I even met him, I heard people saying, "Yo, Lil B really respects you." I remember an interview people showed me. The first time I ever talked to Lil B, Tony Yayo called him and put him on the phone with me. Lil B was like, "Yo, you're one of the greatest."

If you're a hip-hop fan and you don't like Lil B, you should at least respect him. Lil B loves hip-hop more than a lot of rappers from New York. Lil B's not even from New York and he said he likes Kool G Rap, he said he likes me, he knows about Big Daddy Kane. I know dudes from New York who don't even know about Kane.

Just the respect he has for the culture, you should respect that. At the same time, the thing I don't get about the hip-hop audience, everybody was on BMF's d*ck, and then when somebody from the South tries to get on, y'all sh*t on them? Getting money is getting money.

If Lil B was in California, the same Lil B out there busting guns and killing people, everybody would be on his d*ck. But because he does something different, everybody sh*ts on him. Everyone's mad because he said he's "gay?" At the end of the day, gay people are gay people too. Let them live. A gay person never affected my life so I'm not bothered by a gay person. At the end of the day, the only difference between a gay person and a straight person is sexual preferences. That's it.

An underground and critical favorite, Cormega was the rare hardcore rapper to win praise from all directions, and while he never quite crossed over like some of his New York City peers, he maintained a respectable independence over the years nonetheless, self-releasing his work on the Legal Hustle label. Born Cory McKay, Cormega grew up in the same Queensbridge housing projects that were home to a generation of rappers, most notably Nas, Mobb Deep, AZ, andTragedy Khadafi, and a previous generation that famously included Marley Marl and the Juice Crew.

(sohh exclusive)