Big Daddy Kane and Rakim are celebrated as critically acclaimed emcees, but the two have not always seen eye-to-eye. Recently, Big Daddy Kane addressed his rivalry with Rakim and explained why the two never battled, despite their feud.

“Me and Rakim were always clear that we were rivals,” Kane says in an interview with MySpace. “Eric B. is a personal friend of mine and that’s probably the only reason why me and Ra never really battled.”

Big Daddy Kane Says Rakim Comparisons Were “Always Beautiful”

In the interview, Kane also explains how he’s felt about Rakim, their rivalry and comparisons that have been made. 

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“Rakim is a great lyricist,” Kane says. “To me, it was always beautiful to be compared to him.” 

In August 2013, Kane said Eric B.’s brother, Ant Live, helped him squash his feud with Rakim. 

“Back then I didn’t really know Ra like that,” Kane said at the time. “It was like me and Eric was the ones that was cool…Because of that it was a type of thing where I would never go at Eric’s emcee. It was something that I know people wanted to see and I would have loved to have seen it happen, but Eric was my man so I wasn’t gonna go at his emcee. And Rakim never went at me.”

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“But then one day, what happened was this girl gave me a photo,” he continued. “I remember it like it was yesterday. And it said, ‘Dear Kane, I want to set it off and get R.A.W. Ain’t no half-stepping’ because I’m gonna break your wrath in half.’ So, I handed to the picture to my man Ant Live, who’s Eric B.’s brother. And he asked her about it and she said, ‘Yeah, Rakim got this song called ‘Break The Wrath In Half.’ You ain’t heard it? Eric B. played it for me’…So, we laughing about it, but at that point Ant was like, ‘Yo, this is just getting too out of hand, man. Y’all really need to talk.’ So, Ant Live called Rakim and he told me that he had a line he was gonna put in a song, but he took it out. And I told him I had something that I was gonna put in a song, but you know I took it out. And we just squashed it and left it alone.”

RELATED:Big Daddy Kane Says Eric B.’s Brother Helped Squash Rakim Feud