Op-Ed: Rah Digga Shots Backfire?

So last Friday, Rah Digga dropped this record called “The Nigga In Me”. It’s aimed at D.C. mixtape-rapper Fat Trel and Tyler, the Creator.

Both artists, Trel and Tyler, had previously made fun of Digga for behaving like a man. Trel on record, “The bitch might be a nigga, for reala, she Rah Digga.” And Tyler on his Twitter account. Apparently the Odd Future chief had wished Rah Digga a happy Father’s Day multiple times on Twitter.

Digga felt compelled to shoot back, getting in touch with her masculine side. She rhymes on “The Nigga In Me”: “This guy, you barely got a meal short of fish fry/Think of letting this slide?/Fat Trel could kiss my global rap ass/He barely out of D.C., tried to look him up, he ain’t even got a Wiki.” Then she moves on to Tyler, not overtly mentioning his name though, “I was trying to support this young black man/It’s too bad, you probably lost your only black fan.”

A day later, Rah Digga spoke to the media about the track. “I didn’t make this record for press purposes or for hype ’cause that’s not my thing,” she told AllHipHop. “I got wind of various artists referencing me in a negative fashion. They poked fun at me I’m just poking back. It’s all sport to me. I wish ’em all the best, they just need to understand who is off limits. MC Lyte is off limits. Rah Digga is off limits. Respect those who kept hip-hip raw so that we could still have a culture, or get a firsthand lesson in a lyrical ass whooping. Love is love.”

Regardless of how you want to interpret the diss, for hype purposes or mere ‘sport’, it’s safe to say beef in hip-hop is getting old. It timestamps your appeal. Just like it’s not cool to wear a single strap in 21 Jump Street. It’s not necessarily cool to start beef in hip-hop anymore. It’s not even really cool to be a rapper. Being a celebrity chef is way cooler. So if you’re an old cat shooting back at a young cat (*cough* Common), know what you’re getting into.