LL Cool J Blames Himself For Beef With Canibus, Says His 'Brain Was Not Developed'

LL Cool J has taken full responsibility for the beef that kicked off between him and Canibus in the late ‘90s and attributed it to his immaturity at the time.

During his recent Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast appearance, Uncle L reflected on his feud with Canibus, where they hurled diss tracks and subliminal shots at each other over a line mentioned on a song they were both featured on. According to the Queens rap legend, the beef was all his fault, and he couldn’t take the high road at the time because he wasn’t in the mental space to do so. 

“With him, I think it was more my fault because I could have addressed him a little differently,” LL said. “He wanted to get a tattoo like mine. I could have said, ‘Good luck with that,’ but I didn’t understand that path at that time.”

On the 1997 track, “4,3,2,1” (also featuring DMX, Method Man and Redman), Canibus referenced LL’s famous microphone tattoo with the line: “Yo L, is that a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that.” LL took offense to the verse and asked Canibus to remove the lyric, only to diss him back with his own verse. 

“I wasn’t there yet mentally, so I was like, ‘The fuck you mean you gonna get something like me?’,” LL added. “That shit sounded crazy to me at that time. I did not understand that. My brain was not developed.”

He continued: “Now I understand it was a compliment, he was just showing love and, you know, admiration. That’s why I don’t go at him now or try to hurt these dudes. I’m not gonna play that.”

In an interview with MTV in 1998, Canibus revealed he removed the verse from the final track but was confused when he figured out LL did his whole verse dissing him. What resulted was one of the best diss tracks in hip-hop history with Canibus’ “Second Round K.O.” that featured Mike Tyson. 

Thankfully, the former enemies buried the hatchet during LL Cool J’s annual “Christmas In Brooklyn” event at the Barclays Center in 2014.