Things looked incredibly promising for New Jersey rapper Canibus back in the day.
After developing a reputation for bodying verses, like on Common's "Making a Name for Ourselves" or LL Cool J's "4, 3, 2, 1," he was considered one of the game's top lyricists.
Of course, his verse on "4,3,2,1" sparked a beef between him and LL that would go down in history.
But suddenly, Canibus enlisted himself in the Army and was totally gone from the rap scene. He explained why that decision was made, which had to do with his 2001 album, C! True Hollywood Stories.
"It was right after September 11," he told Bootleg Kev. "That experience, at that time I made a record, C! True Hollywood Stories. The album was satire. It was just done to kind of, like, allegorically make an album that was, you know, to get under the skin of folks that were saying that, 'Yo man, I want the records to be hard! I want you to spit harder. The beats, the lyrics, I want more.' And then I gave them less."
"It wasn't serious but it was something that was still palatable," added Canibus. "We paid 25 bands for The Source ad and The Source was scared to run the ad because of the relationships that they were saying could have been ruined, and they did it for the money. And then after that, they turn around and blackball me further. And took money to blackball me. The way I felt at that juncture was like, 'You know what? Rap ain't it. I'm still young enough to go out and make a difference.'"
Do you feel any way about Canibus leaving rap back then?