“No,” answered answered Drizzy when asked if he'll continue the war of words. “Because despite how it's been worded by him that situation is not a ‘Hip-Hop moment' or a ‘battle for the sake of musical integrity – it's a ploy for attention around the release of an album. More than anything it was just disappointing cause what kid isn't a fan of what Common has done for our genre.”

Drake, who gamely responded to Common's initial barbs on “So Sweet” with response on Rick Ross' “Stay Schemin,” is at least seemingly affected, and continued with, “A guy who made such an incredible career for himself based off expressing genuine feelings about life and love is now targeting me for sharing my story.”

One controversial lyric on Drake's “Stay Schemin'” feature was a line framed around the now finalized divorce between NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and ex-wife Vanessa Bryant. The infamous quip, “B*tch, you wasn't with me shootin' in the gym” became an inadvertent highlight and apparently caused Drake some grief.

“That line came from a conversation about being this young and making this much money and the fear of losing it all,” explained Drake. “I just used his potential situation to address my own life. I never intended to offend Vanessa or anyone else.”

Drake said in the interview he's continually working on new tunes while on tour and hopes to make a return to acting.

Campbell took the peace treaty one step further by sending out a sugary tweet to Drake, further solidifying the end of their disagreement. "@drake Nice talking to you buddy," he wrote. "Glad everything's cleared up. It's good that something positive came out of this whole fiasco. Stay up." The 25-year-old has yet to respond but from the looks of it, Campbell has gotten over the fact that Drake allegedly sent a security guard to his tattoo shop for a confrontation, while he waited in the car.

When he first heard about the fan getting his name permanently etched on her body, Drake was pretty upset. “I want to meet her and understand what happened," he said in an interview with LA's Power 106 radio station. "The guy who tatted is a f---ing a--hole though, I will tell you that. I don't f--- with that guy. F--- you to that tat artist by the way. And you should lose your job and should never do tattoos again. If I ever see you, I'm a f--- you up. But real s--- though, I really like…I want to talk to this girl and understand it all. It's surreal.”

Interestingly enough, Drake has a portrait of late singer Aaliyah tattooed on his back, so he should be able to slightly relate to the fan's dedication. Either way, we're still waiting to see if he's able to dismantle his on-again, off-again Common issues with such ease.

Let's not kid ourselves here, Common can and will rap circles around Drake. In an even test of skills and a catalogue comparison, Common will always reign supreme over Drizzy and 99 percent of the rappers you listen to on a daily basis. From the minute Common sent out his opening jabs at his Canadian foe, the Internet began instantly calling for a first round KO. But even though Drake may receive a lyrical beat down at the hands of Southside Lonnie, he still can't lose.

If Vegas were putting odds on the Common/Drake beef, Common would be a double digit favorite. He's been dissing rappers for 20 years and even put Ice Cube to shame back when Are We There Yet? was just a twinkle in a crappy director's eye. Com cut his teeth by battling rappers in Chicago and he definitely has a mean streak. Drake? He harmonizes songs about his feelings and menstrual cramps. With that said, Common has to totally obliterate Drake for it to be a victory.

Common's victory would have to be of Jay-Z/Prodigy proportions for it to be a prohibitive win. If Drake is able to put up a good fight and throws some respectable jabs then it would make Drake look all the better. See, Common is supposed to win. He's Hip-Hop. Drake is playing with house money. But people are forgetting one key element: Drake can still rap his a$$ off.

Yes, Aubrey has turned a lot of people off with his actions over the past year. Take Care sounded like an Aaliyah album from someone with a slightly deeper voice and it's full of man law violations. Drunk dialing a chick to steal her from her man? Digging through his girl's purse to see who she's texting? It's like he was channeling the most suspect qualities possible and putting them on wax. There was more singing and heartache than rap on Take Care, which solidified Drizzy's soft moniker. However, people are forgetting that Drake has proven to be a superb rapper.

Drake's verse on “Stay Schemin” was a reminder that the Canadian can construct some stellar bars as it was the first time he was UNLEASHED © Skip Bayless on a track in a very long time. It was a reminder that Drake was once revered as one of the most talented young MCs in the game. Just go back to Comeback Season or So Far Gone for a reminder. So, while the rest of the Internet may be expecting Drake to respond to Common with sad songs about how much the disses made him want to hug his momma, Drake is penning responses that—while they probably won't be on the same level of Common's forthcoming assaults—will turn heads. Drake's diss will also have some zingers because, face it, he's got plenty to work with.

For all of Common's legendary releases and pedigree of greatness over the past 20 years, he's still got a few moments in his career that give Drake plenty of ammo. For as soft as Common says Drake is, Com Sense was a Snuggie equivalent for a few years. Let's not forget that Com shed his more rugged Southside Chicago persona for sweaters and Gap commercials. While Com's never been a singer, his catalogue has as much Charmin-worthy melodies as Drizzy's. And then there's the abomination called Universal Mind Control, which is a veritable “Kick Me” sign. Finally, if things get out of hand for Drake, there's always the Serena card where Drake goes the Jay-Z/Carmen route and talks about how Common is just mad Mr. Young Money was serenading that a$$ on center court.

Again, please don't get it twisted. Common should and probably will beat Drake in a track-for-track war of the words. As good a Drake is on the mic, he doesn't hold a candle to Common and he hasn't had a high-profile feud to show he can handle a “beef.” But nobody expects him to win. The bar is set so low that if Drake can come out of the feud with his career intact and a few clever barbs, he'll emerge no worse for wear. Common, the legendary vet, is the rapper with more to lose. And this battle may cost him more than he or his loyal fans care to admit.

Earlier in the year, 50 Cent and T.I. had a short lived spat stemming from comments the G-Unit honcho made on Twitter. Tip didn't take too kindly to Fif saying his wife Tiny should take a charge for him, and let his feeling be known in the Dec/Jan 2012 issue of Vibe Magazine.

However, before any real beef could commence, in the video below, 50 described to VIBE how the two MCs settled their differences.

“We got mutual friends and I was actually in conversation with one of them, and they was around him, so…” 50 explains of how he and T.I. managed to have a conversation. “I didn't tell him to get [T.I.] on the phone and [T.I.] didn't tell him to get me on the phone. They was just there and they was like, ‘Yo you need to talk to him because you don't know where it's coming from.'”

According to 50, their discussion manage to quell any fires before they could really start.

“We get into it and he had a lot of legitimate points,” says 50. “When you going through something, the press will ask you questions about things; they'll ask other artist that are relevant to the culture things about artists that are going through something and your response impacts harder than it will at any other point. The people that want the fight, they'll start to champion that.”

Although any real conflict was avoided, 50 made sure to note that he didn't fold under any sort of pressure when he says, “When you know me to back down.”

Guest columnist Dart Adams contemplates about when and why rappers battling for their spots on the Hip-Hop map became passé.

Competition Is None © Rakim Allah by Dart Adams

This current Rap era infuriates me to no end. Essential cultural elements have been systematically removed by corporate interests thus doing irreparable damage to Hip-Hop music itself. Recently, Common admitted publicly that the second single, “So Sweet,” from his new album The Dreamer, The Believer was aimed at Drake, as many heads already speculated. Common actually came under fire for this from some people. My thoughts? WHY? Why does my view on this subject counter most modern day Rap fans? I'll explain.

Hip-Hop is a competitive culture by nature. Hip-Hop culture was steeped in the battle, it's how you earned your name and proved yourself to not only your peers but to fans and listeners alike. Hip-Hop was partly born out of the rich gang culture of the Bronx before Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation found a way for the youth crews in NYC to wage war and compete in the same matter without bloodshed.

Whether we're dealing with graf writing, DJing, B-Boying or emceeing there was no way around it, you had to throw down at one point or another. It's what made you sharp. It's how you earned stripes. It's how you gained respect. Steel sharpens steel and your mettle was tested constantly in the early days. Even when emceeing was chiefly about rocking a party from the break of dawn rather than direct lyrical battles, it was about whose DJ was the best and which crew rocked better. Groups never shied from battle then, to do so was seen as an affront to the culture. What happened between then and now that made this all change?

Many legendary MCs and groups held in high regard either gained their name or earned their stripes from battling or going at known artists. KRS One went at MC Shan and the Juice Crew when they were near their zenith. A 13 year old girl named Shante dissed UTFO when they had “Roxanne, Roxanne” blasting out of every boombox from Queens, NY to Quantico, VA. Unknown girl group Super Nature dissed the biggest act on the radio, Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew featuring Slick Rick, when they were getting spins nationwide. We now know them as Salt N' Pepa.

Battles were never seen as a headache or an overall distraction to the music. If anything else, it made it that much more fun to see rappers compete with each other directly. Imagine someone saying that MC Shan should avoid responding to BDP and instead focus on his album and “getting that money” in 1987?

Think of all the legendary battles essential to Hip-Hop culture. Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy Bee. Cold Crush vs. Fantastic 5. LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee. Roxanne Shante vs. The Real Roxanne. What's the last REAL good beef this generation of Rap fans even remembers? Jay-Z vs. Nas? 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule? Roc A Fella (Beanie Sigel) vs. D Block (Jadakiss)? Why are beefs being suppressed nowadays? Why is Hip Hop encouraged to be so non-confrontational and non-competitive now?

I think I know why.

Everything is everything. We live in a world where schools have removed dodgeball from gym classes because kids that were slow and uncoordinated would get hurt or embarrassed. Back when I came up, kids used to fistfight. Once the Crack Era jumped off and guns became commonplace no one was willing to take an L in a fair one for fear of losing face. After the 2Pac/Biggie beef escalated into the so-called East Coast/West Coast beef and they both died, Hip-Hop has been tentative about beefs in fear of them getting violently out of control. The truth is that we still had a fair amount of serious Hip-Hop beefs between 1997 and 2005.

In this era lyrical skills and overall talent aren't as important as sales, spins and “relevance.” Remember when Method Man & Joe Budden couldn't battle each other simply because they were both too busy promoting their respective albums a few years ago? This current era of fans is largely unfamiliar with their favorite artists beefing as a result. When Ice Cube was beefing with N.W.A. I never felt the need to pick a side. When Jay-Z and Nas beefed in 2001 that generation of fans were simply conflicted by liking the both of them simultaneously. Weird.

Given this current era of Short Bus Rap, most mainstream rappers simply don't have the lyrical ability, creativity or necessary skill to execute a compelling diss leading to many of the modern diss tracks being underwhelming. I grew up on “Jack The Ripper” and “No Vaseline” so maybe it's for the best they all just beef on Twitter now? They can't afford to hurt that money, after all!

Machine Gun Kelly came forward to clear up a misunderstanding between he and Yelawolf after the Shady Records rapper challenged him last week over statements he made on a radio show.

The Ohio rapper claimed that there is absolutely no beef between him and the Yela and insisted that he was misunderstood.

“[Do] I have a problem with Yelawolf? No. I don't think Hip Hop needs that. I think it's corny when it's two white guys. Especially when we're cut from the same type of cloth,” he said.

“I think that I'm young and I'm wild and I say some things, things just fly out of my mouth that are taken a different way. The thing with Yelawolf didn't start with the Cypher thing. It started with me doing an interview - more like multiple interviews. I always get the Yelawolf question, comparisons and stuff like that. You start answering in a different way - it's hard to explain.”

The Bad Boy signee said the perceived misunderstanding started with his impersonation of Yelawolf during an interview with The Breakfast Club, but says his words weren't meant to anger the rapper.

“The interview that they were referring to when Yelawolf did do the interview and he saw the stuff was when I was drunk and talking stuff. It wasn't bad what I said. I just think it's a Yelawolf impression - I don't know where it went wrong. Honestly, everything I'm doing is all in good fun, man. I think people took things the wrong way. We never had the chance to speak,” he said. “I'm 21, man. I'm going to say some stuff that people aren't going to understand.”

Peep the entire interview below:

Yelawolf recently sat down with BootlegKev to promote his upcoming LP and respond to comments made by Bad Boy artist Machine Gun Kelly.

Apparently MGK took offense to the bars from the Alabama rapper's Shady 2.0 freestyle where he spits, "Plenty of white boys to pick from this year/But before you pick a pepper you better pick up your heater."

"He's being sensitive. He thinks I'm talking about him [when I'm not]," he explained. "The best thing that he could do is if he has a problem or if he has something he needs to say to me, just say my name, dog. This is Hip Hop, if you've got something you want to rap about, just rap about it. At the end of the day - this is the God's honest truth, on the Bible - I haven't heard any of his songs...just because a rapper is white, I don't feel the need to attack them; part of my crew is white rappers...that's not at all my aim...at the end of the day, it could all be boiled down to records...put it on wax...Machine Gun Kelly, if want it, come get it. Drop your verse, do whatever you want to [do]. If you want to take it there, we can take it there - and that goes for anybody else, too. If you're feeling froggy, jump mothaf*cka."

"I've worked really hard for a long time to create a style and a sound that's all my own taken from the inspirations that I've pulled from, from the Beastie [Boys] and Redman, and as far a live shows go Cypress Hill and Triple 6 [Mafia], just trying to give a rebirth to that energy, so I heard there were some [comments]...after the BET Awards...[where Kelly] was going on about how no one needs to be doing [crowd surfing and other stage antics]...like, 'We started this, when no one else was headbanging, we were headbanging.' I really was in awe, I couldn't believe he had the audacity to say that. Not even on my behalf - take me out of the equation - this is Hip Hop, man. This music is very broad. I have people in my crew that are straight hardcore [music fans] that came off of the [Vans] Warped Tour...[and] they were offended."

Peep the entire interview below: