MobStyle weekend # 1 : their beef with N.W.A

We're aiming for them Avatar numbers in Hungary and Lenox Avenue in Harlem over the next couple of days because it's officially MobStyle weekend here at The Martorialist, but if you can't find anything about the MobStyle vs. N.W.A beef online which suits your needs then you might as well just write it yourself.





MobStyle - Gangster Shit



In some ways this was the original east coast vs. west coast spat which even predated Tim Dog's atrocious attempts at baiting N.W.A; MobStyle, who we can pinpoint as the first proper NY thug rappers (G. Rap hinted at it, yes, but he wasn't really a full on thug rapper at that point), took exception to N.W.A describing themselves as gangstas and tossed a couple of subliminals at "fake gangsta mc's" on their first album The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. How Eazy and the boys even picked up on some vague disses from an obscure independent NY tape release I don't know (having said that, both N.W.A and Eazy solo dissed Romeo & Master Rhyme after they were mentioned on a local west coast record called Crackerjack so it perhaps wasn't too suprising in hindsight), but pick up on them they did and Eazy returned fire on Real N*ggaz :

"Back, the good, the bad, the ugly - see?
A lil’ streetwise n*gga, you know me
Rollin’ with some real n*ggaz playing for keeps
but you muthafuckas know who run the streets"

N.W.A - Real N*ggaz



It's rumoured that MobStyle tried to step to Ice Cube at his infamous first NYC solo show at The Apollo in 1990 but hometown-hero Chuck D and his Nation Of Islam cronies managed to convince them to chiiiiill as Ice Cube was a changed man who had nothing to do with N.W.A anymore. N.W.A themselves weren't so lucky during their Apollo show in early 1991, however, when a wolfpack of Harlem goons led by Pretty Tone invaded the stage mid-show and the Most Dangerous Group In The World quickly got the fuck out of dodge. Azie and Pretty Tone then both issued solo releases in 1991, 1992 and 1993 which included explicit dis tracks aimed at the boys from Compton.

Azie - Don't Dis Nobody (taken from his 1991 Street Wise tape)



"N.W.Gay" and "N*ggaz With Activators" - HAHAHAHA! Thankfully, it gets better with Azie holding counsel as he compares Eazy's squeaky tone to Michel'Le's voice, instructs them to suck a dick with Aids (was this an Ebert getting cancer after Gallo wished it on him self-fulfilling jinx type situation where Azie put a voodoo hex on Eazy?), proposes that Ice Cube left the group when he found out the other N.W.A members were homosexuals, issues threats of violence so their trademark Locs will be a neccesity to cover their black eyes, compares Eazy's jheri-curl to Al Sharpton's shag 'doo, and promises to throw stuff down Eazy's "chim-a-ney". Add in a wah-wah loop with two choice vocal samples and you have Azie's best solo song, like, ever. Not tryna be a contrarian, but I actually prefer this to No Vaseline as far as N.W.A disses go.

Pretty Tone Capone - Kidnapped (taken from his 1992 Case Dismissed 12")



Pretty Tone's first dis to Eazy came a year later, opening with a skit where P.T runs up on "that faggot ass n*gga" Eazy and kidnaps him. The rest of the song is then used to detail the various torture methods Tone has in store for Eazy and some kinda dodgy rape fantasies when he adds "stuck up bitches" Michel'Le and Tarrie B to his stash of Ruthless Records employed hostages. I was really hoping Tone would have an accidental "that goes for yo' mama and yo' sister too/and if I'm locked down in jail that shit might go for you"-style moment to AYO! in this, but, nope, he keeps his threats strictly based around beating the shit of Eazy, save for the taunt that he plans to finger-fuck Eazy's neice at his funeral.

Pretty Tone Capone - Marked 4 Death (taken from his 1993 Across 110th Street 12")



I wonder if there was ever any Rick Ross/Freeway Rick Ross type beef between Ghostface and Pretty Tone Capone over Ghost using the Pretty Tone handle? The intro on this even sounds like a proto-classic Dennis Coles rant. That intro is my favourite part of this as I'm not overly fond of the beat when the actual song kicks in, but it's an extention of Kidnapped with a caboodle of other trajectories thrown in including an airport receptionist getting bucked, some self-mythologizing, P.T now adding Death Row, Digital Underground and all "humpty-dumpty broke ass country" west coast rappers to his sights, and that fantastic "dosie-doh, yo, n*ggas don't know" line.

Bonus plea :

Anybody have an MP3 of Can't Talk Too Long On The Telephone by Pretty Tone Capone from the 1992 Def American Recordings preview tape? That's kinda my holy grail mp3 right there. Okay, so no Pretty Tone album on Def American ever actually materialized because Tone probably wasn't the most corporate-friendly person to have hanging around the Def American offices (best mental image ever : him and Glenn Danzig making chit-chat in the corridor), but how amazing is it that Rick Rubin signed Pretty Tone to his label and put him on a sampler tape alongside songs by Slayer, Trouble, and Brummie metal-hogs Wolfsbane? If only there could've been a Pretty Tone Capone and Andrew Dice Clay collaboration.