Triple C’s Diss KRS-One and Others That Claim Hip-Hop Is Dead

Rick Ross' posse Triple C's, also known as the Carol City Cartel, recently took aim at KRS-One in an interview with Rollingout.com. Their big bone of contention: KRS and others of his like often claim hip-hop is dead, but how could that be the case if Triple C's are still making money? Lazy logic aside, the group does make the point that its hip-hop forefathers also often made their money by selling violence and gangster lifestyles.

"You notice it's the people that always say 'Hip-hop is dead' that ain't got no [money]," said Torch, one of the group's three members. "To top it off, it's like, hip-hop is dead but when they had their run, the same people that say these things, they be in pictures with AKs. They forget all that now."
As the interview progressed, Torch was interrupted by Gunplay -- another third of Triple C's. He called out KRS-One's 'Criminal Minded' as proof that the rapper is a hypocrite for blasting younger MCs that rap about guns, pimping and sex. Clearly, KRS was one of the original MCs to bring gangster elements into hip-hop, but that doesn't necessarily mean he has ever gone as low as groups like Triple C's.

KRS-One, in an interview earlier this year, targeted Triple C's label Def Jam as the harbinger of death for the genre: "There really would be no hip-hop as we know it today if it wasn't for Def Jam, but you don't get that respect without also being the label that single-handedly destroyed hip-hop ... Every time you think of what's wrong with hip-hop -- the lyrics, the commercialized music, one artist being played on the radio all day, things like that -- that's all Def Jam."

Triple C's released its debut album on Def Jam earlier this year. The group sold around 12,100 copies in the record's opening week.