Talib Kweli stays incredibly active on Twitter — that’s no secret. But what may come as a surprise is he and Project Blowed OG Ellay Khule (also known as Rifleman) have been beefing for over a month.
Ellay unleashed his first Kweli diss track “Clap Emcees” on August 15 after getting into it with the Black Star MC on — yep! — Twitter.
Now, Ellay has returned with a second round called “Hiphopcrisy,” which (as the title suggests) revolves around Ellay’s asseration Kweli is a hypocrite.
He begins the 4:23-minute video with a clip of Kweli on stage explaining his side of the story.
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“Shut the fuck up white boy,” Kweli begins. “Shut the fuck up. This is my show. Rifleman is a rapper that had a problem. He said 14 years ago I stopped him from giving a woman a flyer at a party. I don’t remember doing that, but I sound like the hero of the story. So, niggas come at me with this Rifleman shit. I’m 44 years old. I’m already Talib Kweli. I don’t have shit to prove. I do this for fun. I don’t do this for money.
“Rifleman threatened my family. Rifleman is a fucking asshole. If you’re down with Rifleman, you’ve got to get the fuck out the club. Fuck you. Get the fuck out. Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! To everybody on social media, I kicked their funky ass out the fucking club.”
It all started last month when someone on Twitter accused Kweli of talking tough online but not when Ellay Khule allegedly “checked him” several years ago.
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Ellay tells HipHopDX he attempted to squash it privately, but it turned into a online spectacle.
“I got on there and just simply said I don’t have any issues, just keep me out the tweets,” Ellay explains to DX. “He went on for seven hours tweeting me and getting more flagrant. In 2005, we were promoting my Califormula album release. The homies had a show so we went down there and were passing out flyers. I tried giving the flyer to this one female. She didn’t want it but instead of just moving on, she started going off.
“I said, ‘You don’t have to talk crazy to me just move on.’ She said, ‘I do what the fuck I want to do. Who the fuck you think you are?’ type stuff. So Talib runs from across the street acting tough. When he came over, I started talking crazy to him because it’s a guy and with the lady, I really couldn’t say or do much so folks held me back and then they left.”
Ellay continues, “This was like a random chick he was with it. There were actually a few of them. That was the original story, but I’ve never told anyone ever. I’ve even kicked with him recently at his show. So after I kept saying I’m not aware of any problems and keep me out of the tweets, he just keeps getting more arrogant per tweet.
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“So he told me tell the guys he’s a liar because the story isn’t true and I’m enabler. I eventually say well, there was an altercation that initially involved a female about a flyer and he came over and interjected.”
The veteran Hip Hop artist explains he was cool until Kweli made light of Ellay’s shooting incident last year. Ellay was hit with three bullets in July 2018 while riding around Los Angeles and required surgery on his neck.
“So he says, ‘You sound soft,” he adds. “You’re one of those guys who called women ‘females’ or ‘chick.’ You’re a misogynist.’ So I’m like, ‘Damn.’ And I still don’t go off. I kept telling him I’m not going to say anything disrespectful to him publicly, check his DMs. We can talk in private. He said he didn’t have time for that, then he eventually said I begged him to talk to him, but he doesn’t owe me anything.
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“I was simply trying to squash anything before it turned to a public spectacle. Then he says he doesn’t know who am I. So I posted a picture with him me, Myka 9, Mister C, Planet Asia and Agallah. He even turns that around and says everybody in that picture would have his back over mine. It was just no talking to him or reasoning with him. He kept changing everything around. But the moment I lost it is when Kweli said, ‘Didn’t you just get shot in the neck?'”
Ellay claims Kweli tried to have him banned from the Annenberg Space For Photography in Beverly Hills where the 10th anniversary celebration of the Ava DuVernay film about The Good Life Cafe scene, This Is The Life, was being held. He was allegedly afraid Ellay would mess with his photo displayed as part of the Contact High exhibit.
“He tried to call the Annenburg museum on me and get me banned,” he says. “That’s when Ava caught wind because they called her, but she had my back so it didn’t work.”
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DuVernay supported Ellay on Lush One’s Twitter account following the first diss track.
“Having problems with @ellaykhule is the last thing somebody should want,” Lush wrote on August 10. “One of the the coolest and most humble OGs, stylistic auteurs, and pillar of the south central community. bro definitely not the one to press lines on lol.”
DuVernay replied, “Say. That. Again.”
DX has reached out to Kweli for comment.
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In the meantime, check out Ellay’s “Hiphopcrisy” video up top.
