Hot 97 radio personality Funk Flex started maniacally laughing as he pushed play on Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth’s 1992 classic “T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You)” on Thursday night (July 14). The 53-year-old sounded like he was nearly frothing at the mouth as he prepared to unleash on Rock, something he’d been promising all week.
After briefly addressing Conway The Machine — who sparked the entire beef with his “gatekeeper” comments on Monday (July 11) — Funk Flex proceeded to bring up Rock’s pending lawsuit with Nas and another one he allegedly has against Heavy D’s former DJ Eddie F. At the same time, he praised Rock’s talent and admitted his comments struck a nerve.
“C.L. Smooth I appreciate you, I respect you and I love you, my brother,” he began. “Shout out to Mt. Vernon, I see you. Rest in peace Heavy D […] Pete Rock is also suing Eddie F and he’s suing Nas. I’m going to tear you apart tonight. Yes! Don’t get it twisted New York.
“Pete Rock is a Top 5 greatest producer of all time, and this is one of my Top 5 favorite albums [Mecca and the Soul Brother]. Before Heavy D passed away, Pete Rock did not want to do any beats for him. He wanted to get his advance early, before he did any beats for the person that put him on.”
But then Funk Flex took a more serious tone and said he thought they were friends. As he explained, “I’m a fan of Pete. I want to let you know I sat with it for a little while ’cause it’s not something I really wanted to do. I’m being very honest. This is a person that I love and respect, and I know when you hear me joking and hear me throwing my little darts and stuff, I’m being entertaining. But I want to be so official.
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“He hurt my feelings at first. I want to really like reel this in a little bit because I considered him a friend. He’s a person who’s a producer, a radio DJ, an artist, a thing of that sort and I’m a huge fan of his music. I was disappointed. I was going to just scrap with him in his comments and then he feels like he wants to take it further and say what a rotten person I am and a DJ and I’m taking payola and everything. So, he wanted to give his opinion of me and now I’m taking my platform to give my opinion on him.”
Funk Flex Snaps On Pete Rock As Conway The Machine Squabble Continues
On Thursday afternoon, Funk Flex said he had proof Pete Rock filed a police report against C.L. Smooth, which he addressed on the show.
“C.L. Smooth is the reason you even exist,” he said. “[…] Those producers always gave the best material to they groups. You, bozo, gave it out as remixes to be spiteful. What happened now in 2022? Guess who’s broke? You wanna sue the people who helped you like Nas and Eddie F. This guy also went to the precinct on C.L. Smooth. His partner that he’s known for 30 years went to the precinct, filled out a report, went on record.
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“The police came to arrest C.L. Due to a technicality, they could’n’t arrest him. He did this in the U.K. He did not care if he was put in a jail overseas where the rules are totally different from New York. He went to the precinct, filled out a report and cooperated. What type of guy is that? And you talk to me about the game and integrity? You have none. You have zero. Don’t you ever, you hear me, bozo?”
Elsewhere in Funk Flex’s diatribe against Pete Rock, he alleged he didn’t write any of his verses. As an example, he brought up Run-DMC’s 1993 smash “Down With The King,” which Rock produced and featured both C.L. Smooth and Rock rapping.
“You produced a ton of songs, a ton of records and ton of good records,” he said. “No. Iconic, great records, including yours and your album. But you know what I found about you, my brother? You didn’t write those verses. Grand Puba wrote all your verses on your album and C.L. Smooth wrote yours on ‘Down With The King.’ That also makes you a fraud, my friend. So you say that you want to upkeep Hip Hop and you are all for Hip Hop and preserving the culture, but you didn’t write your own bars. You, my friend, are a buffoon.
“Best verse of your life and you didn’t even write it. You end up doing a whole lot of remixes, but your friend DJ Eddie F is the one that put you in power. All of those remixes that you got were really for Eddie F, he passed them to you. Now you’re suing them … crazy. Allegedly. That’s what I heard. So you’re suing Nas. He’s suing Eddie F. Eddie F is Heavy D’s DJ from Heavy D and the Boyz. He put that buffoon on and now he’s suing him.”
At the end of the day, Funk Flex believes Pete Rock is angry because he’s struggling financially. He speculated Rock’s production was no longer in high demand once Diddy stepped on the scene in the 1990s.
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“So ’90s, right? You hot,” he said. “I’m going to tell you the exact time you were out of business and no longer relevant. This song should explain what happened to your career. This song right here is the reason, you sir, you were finished, no longer mattered and weren’t relevant. [He then played Craig Mack’s 1994 classic “Flava In Ya Ear” produced by Easy Mo Bee and released on Diddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment label.]
“When that song came out? What was that ’93, 94? Somewhere in there, you no longer mattered. Your beats became garbage. And you mad at Puff Daddy ’cause he changed the game, so now you want to attack him, taking his name, taking whatever. You didn’t take nothing. OK, then bozo?”
