a Kobe filet mignon

Since this is gradually turning into a hip hop blog, I suppose I'll comment on the hot breaking news: Cam'ron vs. Jay-Z is the most epic beef since (at least) Nas vs. Jay-Z. [Check it: you can hear Cam's first blow, "You Gotta Love It," pretty much anywhere on the web or Soulseek.] I've been getting sick of the usual shit. Perhaps, the Game and 50 have some legitimate shit between them, and Joe Budden certainly is ambitious in taking on the entire industry, but I really don't need to hear Lil Wayne calling out any and everyone he's ever heard on a mixtape.
This new shit, however, is serious. Sure, Cam starts the track by calling Hov out for being "42 years old" and the fashion faux pas of wearing sandals with jeans, and he certainly plays the ugly card to a hilarious degree in comparing Jay to both Joe Camel and Fraggle Rock, but there are deeper issues here. To enumerate:

• There's an entire Dame Dash-Cam'ron-Jay triangle regarding (among other things) Hov's split from Roc-A-Fella, Kanye, and Roc-a-Wear. In recent articles in both the New York Times and Rolling Stone, Jay has been less than completely discreet in his lack of love for Dame, and Cam has clearly joined the side of the new Roc-A-Fella.
• Cam claims someone was throwing up the Jay-Z diamond when Lance "Un" Rivera got stabbed, a few years back. Were this true, and not simply a rap beef accusation, Hov could be vulnerable to criminal prosecution.
• Cam also claims that "all [Jay-Z's] publishing should go to Ms. Wallace." I'm assuming he backs this up with the fact that (unlike 2Pac), very little of Biggie's tapes have been released posthumously, and he connects the dots to finger Jay as a biter of one of hip hop's most canonized figures.
• Finally, and most personally, Cam'ron boasts he'll take Beyonce "back." If you remember, she sang the hook on a song of his several years back, and Cam makes a huge point of saying he could get her back at any time, even dropping her chorus lines at the very end of the track.

All told, "You Gotta Love It" is a MOAB of an opening volley. Were this any other beef, the "best rapper alive" would have no problem putting the offending party away with a simple cameo verse. However, considering the extremely personal attacks and accusations Cam is putting forward here, and the history of the two, this has very high potential to be the most fruitful beef since KRS-One and MC Shan (no exaggeration, and if you don't know your history, you better recognize). Cam says this is only Round 1 of 15, and if that's the case, it'll be a dramatic 2006 in the hip hop world.
[UPDATE: I just thought of this. Considering, as I said, how personal Cam is getting, and how intense this beef may get, let's not forget 1997-98. Keep it to the vinyl.]