The streamer wars continue. Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed are two of the most popular streamers on Twitch, and they've decided to capitalize on the rap beefs dominating pop culture by staging a beef of their own. iShowSpeed struck first with a diss that saw him leak Cenat's phone number. He followed it up with another diss, Drake style, but Cenat finally responded on April 26. The streamer went all out with the production design, and actually dressed up as a samurai to bomb on his opponent.
Cenat performed his diss during a live stream, over a booming drum beat and pitched up vocal sample. He goes after iShowSpeed's intelligence (or lack thereof) multiple times, with bars about getting horrible grades in high school. He also clowns his fellow streamer for striking out with a girl. "She was in college, and you had no knowledge," he asserts. We're not dealing with wordsmiths here, and it shows. Kai Cenat does bring the showmanship, though. In addition to his samurai costume, he decks out his background with flowers and fake grass. He even urges iShowSpeed to go outside and "touch some grass" while pointing at his prop.
The diss tracks between Cenat and Speed have been flying back and forth for months. The former actually started it by dissing Speed over the beat to 50 Cent's "In da Club." Speed responded quickly, then ran it back with a second diss in which he brings up phone numbers (get it). "What's your number, Tyla," Speed mockingly sings in reference to Cenat's failed attempt to woo Tyla. Cenat tried to ask the singer out on a date during a live stream, and she turned him down. "She said no! She said no, Kai," he adds. Speed's second diss and Cenat's response actually dropped within hours of each other.
Kai Cenat has been getting it from all directions lately. The streamer was recently called out by Kanye West for criticizing his clothing line, and dubbed an "industry plant" by the rap icon. Cenat denied these claims and defended his stance on Ye's clothes. "Ye, just send me some new pants bro," he said on a recent stream. "Like no cap… I’m far from an industry plant. I done got this sh*t out the mud." Both men are engaged in rap beefs, though, so there probably won't be much more to the Cenat vs. West saga.
NEWS
Russell Simmons has come to the defense of Diddy (real name Sean Combs) despite the sexual assault allegations both men are currently facing.
The embattled Def Jam co-founder took to Instagram on Monday (May 6) to share his thoughts on Diddy, imploring people to “see the good in things.”
He began: “When you tear someone down or you watch someone tear someone down, try not to get so excited. I know it’s fun to watch for some people. If I had a nickel for every nasty meme sent to me by people whose lives were enhanced and built by Sean Combs, it’s like, it seems a bit hypocritical since the only reason you have a life is ’cause you worked for him, or he gave you a job or lifted you up somehow.”
He then urged his followers to uplift Diddy: “Watching our brothers fall is hurtful. Having everybody get together and laugh at our brother’s fall or supporting the tearing down of our brothers is tough.
“You may think it’s, you know, entertaining. Some of the memes are funny, right? But, we gotta look up, train our minds to see the good in things and not the negative.”
Check out the clip below:
Simmons may also subtly be asking for grace regarding his own legal troubles.
Earlier this month, he was accused of falsifying a settlement document with the plaintiff in the sexual assault case that was filed against him earlier this year.
According to an amended complaint filed on Tuesday (April 30) and obtained by HipHopDX, he reportedly admitted to plaintiff that he was “sorry for what he’d done,” and that he wanted to settle the case without attorney involvement.
But the Jane Doe in this case has also accused the embattled mogul of falsifying a settlement document and submitting it to the court.
“The document is an Adobe pdf file titled “Agreement – Jane Doe v. Russell Simmons,” although the words “[Doe] – Executed Document.pdf” also appear in the body of the file at the top of each page. The metadata for the file states “Created: March 24, 2024.” The document is dated “January 9, 1997” at the top of each page, but states “[Jane Doe] 1-6-97” at the bottom of each page,” read the complaint.
“In addition to the discrepancy with the date and file name, a completely different employee’s name is listed at the top of page 3. The initials on each page are not Ms. Doe’s handwriting. The document is on Rush Associated Label letterhead as opposed to Def Jam’s letterhead. There is no date accompanying the signature of Russell Simmons or Lyor Cohen (President of Def Jam in 1997).”
Diddy, for his part, has remained defiant even after being sued by multiple people for alleged sexual assault and misconduct.
Earlier this month, the mogul shared a video montage that featured him in warm embraces with his loved ones before cutting to a shot of him standing on the beach and welcoming a storm with open arms.
The captionless clip featured audio from a 2022 sermon by Bishop T.D. Jakes during which he said: “Not hysterical, not frantic, not anxious, not fretful, but steady in the storm — looks bad, looks tough, but remain steady in the storm.”
