But overall: Nothing Special.


Great documentary on the history of MC battles   May 4, 2006
Trevor Cotton (Penzance, Cornwall, England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Beef is a documentary which chronicles the hiphop battle from it's earliest days to the industry driven beef that you generally see these days. Several significant battles in the history of hiphop are included starting from the very earliest, Kool Moe Dee v Busy Bee, the most serious, Pac v Biggie up until recent battles such as 50 Cent v Ja Rule. What is great about this dvd is that it clearly shows how battles have changed over time becoming increasingly violent, obviously culminating in the deaths of Pac & Biggie. It is also very informative for anyone not up on their hiphop history, instead of going with what is popular now it sets out in great detail key battles between KRS-One and MC Shan, various LL Cool J Battles and also the break up of NWA and everything that followed. You also get to hear several of the greatest diss tracks ever including my personal favourite Cube's No Vaseline.

Basically Beef covers the most significant battles ever in hiphop, if you even have a slight interest in hiphop you should pick this up. Most of the battles have interviews from both sides, giving a balanced account of the beef, and several other industry heavyweights are interviewed on the documentary. It doesn't spend the whole documentary on Pac & Big or the supposed West/East Coast beef, which is probably a good thing as this is well documented already. What beef does well is show in time how the battle has changed and for thst purpose it is an excellent dvd. There are also some decent extras, best of all being the golf club incident with Nate Dogg & Dresta out of Eazy's crew. The only criticism I had was it spent too much time on the Tru-Life v Mobb Deep beef, as most people won't have heard of Tru-Life I just didn't see how it was that relevant to the rest of the dvd. It was interesting to see that Tru-Life did regret the situation a couple of years later though, so he definetley changed from what he was saying earlier. Anyway as I said before this is essential for anyone with any interest in hiphop, pick it up now if you haven't already.


The effects of "Beef"   August 24, 2004
J. Elyshevitz (jamaica, ny)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

"Beef" is a great documentary about the importance,reality,and history of the large competition and rivalry in Hip Hop that we call beef. If you want to really dig into the specifics and background about the effects in each one from Busy Bee vs. Kool Moe Dee to 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule, this documentary is a must have. It's interesting to see how MC's beef has changed over the years in Hip Hop history and the realization that it can leave a positive yet negative effect. It brings across a great message of how especially from the tragedies that have occurred during the East vs. West coast rivalry, things have gone way too far in certain situations (50 vs Ja) and that it can be even life threatening. I do believe though that in some cases the dvd doesn't explain each side of the story that well,but it's still great and informative. Go and buy this dvd and you'll be very pleased. 1


"Beef" Review   November 28, 2005
Crazy Jim (Massachusetts)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Hip-hop's most infamous feuds (on and off wax) are explored in great detail in this entertaining documentary. Such battles as Tupac vs. Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre vs. Eazy-E, Nas vs. Jay-Z, 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule, and Westside Connection vs. Common are chronicled. There's a lot of interesting information on here including an in-depth investigation of the infamous Hit Factory incident involving 50 and Murder Inc. Tru Life reflects on some poor choices he made involving his feud with Mobb Deep (complete with a rather intriguing robbery story). You'll also get to see the infamous golf club incident involving Nate Dogg and Gangsta Dre'sta (of Ruthless Records). If you're even the mildest hip-hop fan, "Beef" is a very entertaining documentary.