KXNG Crooked took issue with Special Ed’s recent comments on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s “Drink Champs” podcast. On the show, the “I Got It Made” rapper claimed that N.W.A. “ushered in the age of destruction” as pioneers of gangsta rap.
Ed also shared, “N.W.A. came out, and their s**t was hardcore, and I said, ‘See, they can say what they want.’ But the label didn’t want to market me that way, and I had hard s**t. They didn’t want that. They wanted commercial music. We all wanted to be original. Now, it’s a bandwagon effect. Now, it’s all about cloning.”
Crooked shot back during an appearance on TMZ on Monday (Sept. 25). He noted, “Let me talk to you, my brother. We did not live in a utopia until Straight Outta Compton dropped. Straight Outta Compton is a masterful, street-conscious album. We gotta really listen to it. Ice Cube said, ‘If you smoke ‘cane, you a stupid motherf**ker.’ That’s not glorification.”
Elsewhere in the clip, the Long Beach MC added, “JAY-Z said, ‘Do you really listen to it, or do you skim through it?’ This destruction has always been here since we touched this soil, and art imitates life, my brother. That’s what happens. I don’t think NWA brought the destruction age. I think they highlighted it; that was it. We love you, Special Ed, but f**k no.”
Crooked‘s comments seemingly aimed to reframe the conversation, emphasizing that N.W.A.’s work was more about shedding light on existing issues rather than creating new ones. He cited slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the destruction of two-parent households, among other topics, as things that destroyed the Black community.
Meanwhile, Ed also spoke about a unique experience with Tupac during his “Drink Champs” episode earlier this month. He explained, “I wasn’t really supposed to be in the [Juice] movie at all. What happened was I read for the part because I wanted to be in the movie at the time… So when I went to the set, I went to the set to go f**k with Pac… When I saw who they [cast] for the part I read for, I was like, ‘How the f**k y’all get a lookalike. Why y’all aint get the real n**ga?’”