Philadelphia, Pennsylvania veteran emcee Jakk Frost spoke with HipHopDX recently in the rapper’s West Philly studio. A respected pillar of the city’s Hip Hop community, the leader of the “Beards” spoke to DX about his development in the 1990s, and crossing paths with another esteemed lyricist in Atlanta: Canibus. Although Jakk was cautious to state who won, the two engaged in a competition that may still have spectators talking.
Also, Frost, who’s yet to deliver a nationally-distributed album, spoke about the strong likelihood that he and another local vet, Freeway, could be teaming up to deliver Jakk Frost and Freeway: The Beards in the Building on independent label titan, Duck Down Records.
Jakk Frost: I’ma be real with you. The [“The Ripper Is Back”] beat that LL [Cool J] chose was wack. I hated that beat; I was disgusted at the beat. But take away the beats, and LL said some basic shit that kinda shut Can-i-Bus [era Canibus] down…
HipHopDX: “99% of your fans…
Jakk Frost: …don’t exist.” That’s my line right there! That shut it all down. If you keep this footage, and people see it on DX, they ain’t gonna believe me. But Canibus can look right in this fuckin’ camera—and what I’m about to say ain’t no disrespect to Canibus. Look right in my face, Canibus. Look at me. An hour outside of Magic City, in ’96…I had hair and I didn’t need glasses yet. You was with Charles Suitt, and I was with one of my homies from Virginia. We had a bet that if your man could beat my man, I’d get you a meeting at MCA [Records]. Long story short, we went outside and battled, and I gave Canibus hell for like a hour. Y’all niggas would’ve had to flip a coin.
I got over on him because I can freestyle. You know how a lot of people claim they can freestyle? I literally can freestyle and start digging in your ass. All of the verses that you heard, I heard all of those verses before they even hit the mixtapes. Those same verses from the tapes with DJ Clue and all that, he battle me with those same verses. And I tightened his ass up! I ain’t gonna say I beat him, but I put him in a position to where I was freestyling, talking about his clothes and stuff while mixing in written rhymes. He tried to do it back, and he got stuck. He said, “You fat. You fucking fat! Uh…Uhh” and, boom. That was it. He couldn’t go no more. I said, “Battle over, man. Good battle. I’m cold as shit.” Shout out to Canibus, man.
DX: You recently started working with Smif-N-Wessun, Sean Price and a lot of people at Duck Down. How did that relationship start?
Jakk Frost: Dru Ha called me, and Buckshot called Freeway, so they we’re calling us from every angle. If Dru and me can work it out, we came up with Jakk Frost and Freeway: The Beards in the Building. It’s gonna be just for one album on Duck Down [Records]. Then if it sells, you never know—you might see another Jakk Frost project on Duck Down, but that’s later. Dru’s actually just waiting for me to get him the songs. I’m just trying to get the right songs together. I’ve got songs, but when you have a meeting with a dude like Dru Ha, you don’t wanna just send the first shit just because you’ve got songs with Freeway. You want to send him the shit to make him say, “Alright, let’s set a little budget to the side for these dudes.”
Last year Frost and Freeway released the mixtape Best of the Beards, which was subsequently made into a limited edition retail release.
RELATED: Jakk Frost & Vitamin D Mekka & The Sole Brother (hosted by DJ Peter Parker) [MIXTAPE]
Video Edited by Omar Burgess. Additional Reporting by Jake Paine.
Jakk Frost is Straight Cheeks SON LETS BE REAL. I heard Jakk Frost is a small-cocked bastard who gets bent over on the daily and has his sweaty ass cheeks frosted by large men.
if canibus battled you wit his old freestyles …..then you lost ……
Obviously you dont know or understand the art of battling. Just b/c someone has “sicker” written rhymes in a battle doesnt mean they will win, sometimes a a person who can actually “freestyle” and talk about what your wearing, your hair, physical things about yourself will have the upper hand. Most of these battles nowadays arent even that great anymore b/c its all written shit, battles are way more exciting when emcees come off the top, but hey times have changed. Shoutout to Canibus & Jakk Frost, 2 dope emcees.
Canibus stays on DX’s mind.
To me the 99% of your fans don’t exist was one of the wackest lines I ever heard. When canibus says 99% of your fans wear high heels he’s talking about how LL was a sellout who rapped for the girls. When the game got real hard and LL came with 14 shots to the dome everyone knew he was out of his element. Saying 99% of your fans dont exist about the guy who had the biggest buzz in the game at the time made no sense. Canibus did himself in with those wack beats on his first album. How that whole Canibus LL beef went down is some of the craziest revisionist history you will ever hear. Second round knockout was #1 on the top five at four or whatever they called it for over a month on hot 97 when it came out. Thats on the biggest commercial rap station going. I used to be driving to work waiting for that to come on. Nobody cared what LL had to say, Canibus bodied himself with that first album.
How can you say “99% of your fans dont exist” didnt make any sense??? B4 the whole incident with LL Cool J, no one knew who Canibus was, when LL had been an icon in hip hop for years. To this day more people know who LL is in hip hop then they do Canibus, thats just a fact. I am not saying Canibus didnt go in on “2nd Rd KO” but to say that line doesnt make sense, DOENST MAKE SENSE. LL asked him to be on 4,3,2,1 and it started from there, yea everyone heard “2nd Rd KO” but before that and pretty much after that, Canibus doesnt really have a huge fan base. Thats just facts. And i am a fan of Canibus and LL and Frost. But for the majority, they are not.
LL > Canibus all day.
Career, legacy, icon, money, fans, classics, etc..
Come on! 1 cool diss track. LL eats canibus’s entire exsistance!
@ViciousTrampe: yo you are so wrong. Canibus already had alot of buzz well before the song 4321. Hell the fact that he was on the song was because he was a hot item at that time. LL may have been a legend but everyone else (Method Man, Redman, Canibus) had way bigger buzz going on than LL. LL was trying to get some of their shine by asking them to get on a track with him. He wasn’t on hardcore fan’s radar anymore and that is why the “99% of your fans wear high heels” diss carries so much weight on the diss record.
I am not saying Canibus was a no body and no one on the face of the earth knew him, all i am saying is that Canibus “buzz” or “fanbase” was never even close to LL’s. Like i said, im a fan of both of them, but at the end of the day to say that “99% of your fans done exist” doesnt make sense, is just flat out crazy. Just trace the track record of each artist, performances, awards, album sales, etc…..Its obvious that LL is more well known. I am not arguing who won that battle, thats a whole different convo. I am just aruging that one line, b/c it definitely makes sense, and i believe was a great comeback to “99% of your fans wear high heels”. Either way, that battle was one of the best for hip hop. And for everyone not knowing who Frost is, do your research. Frost can freestyle, like really freeestyle. Most of these emcees that are crazy writers, cant freestyle, and that can effect a battle. Frost isnt trying to get any publicity off of this, we were talking about LL’s pink cookies record and i brought up the battle, not him. He has mad respect for Canibus, b/c Canibus is an emcee not a waste of space like most of these rappers nowadays. Do hip hop a favor, support all 3 of these guys, b/c they all do great things for hip hop, real rap.
Duck Down’s still making major moves and signing ridiculous talent, their roster is monsterous.
I’m really looking forward DD’s futer released this year.
Random Axe, Pete Rock & Smif-N-Wessun, Black Rob and Hopefully the album alluded to in this article.
While major labels scramble to sign crews of sissy tweens in Fruity Pebbles T-Shirts and nuthugger girl pants, Duck Down is putting together an unstoppable cadre of established mic wreckers.
Let’s get a Duck Down Presents compilation with all of these dope motherfuckers that’ve been welcomed into the family over the past few years.
And of course, the almighty Boot Camp Clik.
Peace to Duck Down, their hustle is imacculate!
good to see another dope philly mc doing good…sidenote, Canibus beat LL, even if you don’t like his music, HE FUCKING WON
Jakk Lost….you can’t just assume that Canibus used those verses in person too. In my opinion, this dude is beating around the bush and if he believes that he actually won, then he should FUCKING SAY IT. lol Canibus 15 years ago = dope
I don’t even know who this guy is and he’s acting like “99% percent of your fans don’t exist” was such a cold line.
This dude is probably lying about beating Canibus in a battle. Just trying to get some publicity.
yeah lying about beating the most monotonous rapper ever is the way to get publicity
Canibus won the battle with LL Thats why LL payed every to say he won
he probably did battle canibus. im pretty sure canibus battled alot of people. but just because he’s saying it went down this way doesn’t mean its true. there’s always two sides to a story, and then there’s the truth.
….btw who is this dude?
you can tell he’s lying.. this guy never had hair!
That Mekka & The Sole Brother MIXTAPE is serious. He does his own thing, all the way live from 215!