Canibus @ Club Red

Canibus is probably best remembered for his feuds with LL Cool J, Wyclef Jean, and Eminem, but the Jamaican-born rapper has kept busy in the years since those famous tiffs of the late '90s and early '00s. Outside of a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, Canibus has remained prolific...

By Mike R. Meyer

February 24, 2011

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Canibus is probably best remembered for his feuds with LL Cool J, Wyclef Jean, and Eminem, but the Jamaican-born rapper has kept busy in the years since those famous tiffs of the late '90s and early '00s. Outside of a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, Canibus has remained prolific even as his popularity has waned. Last year alone, he released two studio albums — Melatonin Magik in February and C of Tranquility in October — and there are YouTube videos already hyping his forthcoming 11th release, Lyrical Law. When he's not serving up dis tracks aimed at significantly more famous MCs, Canibus backs up his hip-hop bravado with a formidable vocabulary. "The highest professorship, my English etiquette / compels me to not say it if I can't spell it, bitch," he raps in 2002's "Master Thesis." Then, as if to prove his point, he breaks out a line like "You have a modest case of scaphocephalous / I prescribe some neo-gothic antibiotics." Sure, LL may have 25 million albums sold and Slim Shady may have 13 Grammys and an Oscar, but let's hear either one of them rhyme "Guadalajara" with "Qabalah."

Mike R. Meyer

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