As old-school “Original Gangsta” Ice-T and Atlanta’s Soulja Boy (pictured) have traded barbs online earlier this week, it's been hard to know who to feel worse for: The 17-year-old “Crank That” phenom, clearly out of his league, giggling at his own jabs at Ice-T’s age, or the 50-year-old “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star, lowering himself to a rambling, nearly eight-minute diatribe aimed at a teenager. Of course, it was Ice’s assertion on a recent mix tape that Soulja Boy is killing hip-hop that started the whole thing.
Neither performer has come out of this "feud" looking very good, and neither has Atlanta-born Grammy winner Kanye West, who took Soulja Boy's side in the debate. (Since you've been dying to know, I'm more inclined to take Ice-T's position, as he's clearly an artist who's proven his talent and longevity. Except that "Crank That" doesn't, strictly speaking, strike me as hip-hop: It's just a dissonant, slurred pop novelty, and attacking it as "garbage" inflates the song's pop-cultural status beyond what it deserves.
It’d have been better for everyone involved had the Iceberg taken a cue from NBA superstar LeBron James, who back in March dismissed an insult from Washington Wizard DeShawn Stevenson, saying that to respond would be like Jay-Z acknowledging a diss from … Soulja Boy.