Method Man Says the 'Competition' Part of Rap Beef Is 'Absolutely' Good for Hip-Hop: 'It Keeps People on Their Toes'

In an interview with 'Vanity Fair,' the rapper also discussed the "uncomfortable subject" of Wu-Tang Clan's coveted album 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin'

• Method Man opened up about why "competition" in hip-hop is important in an interview with Vanity Fair

• The Wu-Tang Clan rapper described how rap beef keeps artists "on their toes"

• He also addressed J. Cole's role in the Drake and Kendrick Lamar rap beef

Method Man believes rap beef and diss tracks are "absolutely" good for hip-hop.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, the rapper/actor (born Clifford Smith, Jr.) discussed why the "competition" aspect is important in the genre.

"It keeps people on their toes, and the younger cats are watching," Method Man, 53, told the outlet. "They’re learning that the things these guys are saying are actually their credo. And we’re watching who they really are play out in real time."

Related: What's Been Going on with Drake and Kendrick Lamar (and Several Others): A Timeline of Recent Disses

He continued: "It’s always been like that in a jungle setting. You’ve got the alphas and then everybody else falls in line. There are a lot of people who are going to come and claim the throne, because someone put it there. The difference now is nobody is going on record saying, 'I’m going to kill you.'"

"It’s just braggadocio—'You ain’t got this, and you getting f---ed out of your record deal, and you over here and ain’t had a hit.' All that doesn’t cause fights in the club [Talking about Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Drake], I honestly believe these three guys respect each other, or they wouldn’t have mentioned each other," Method Man said, prior to the escalation of the beef between Lamar and Drake.

The Drake-Lamar feud really heated up in early May when the latter, 37, dropped the Jack Antonoff-produced "6:16 in LA," which questioned Drake's inner circle and teased seemingly being in cahoots with members of Drake's crew.

The Canadian rapper, 37, quickly hit back with "Family Matters," where he accused Lamar of domestic violence and claimed that one of Lamar's children was not biologically his.

The "DNA." performer then immediately responded with "Meet the Grahams," accusing Drake of having an alleged secret daughter., which Drake quickly denied. What followed was another track from Lamar called "Not Like Us," which accused the "Hotline Bling" hitmaker of pedophilia and called him a "colonizer."

Speaking on Cole's part in the beef, Method Man added to Vanity Fair that the "MIDDLE CHILD" artist, 39, "doesn’t like the drama."

"I don’t know how to describe Cole — you’re looking at someone that’s very calculated, smart as hell, and he knows that it’s chess, not checkers," the Power Book II: Ghost star said.

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Related: Why Method Man Says Rare Wu-Tang Clan Album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin Is an 'Uncomfortable Subject' for the Group

Elsewhere in the interview, the rapper/actor opened up about how Wu-Tang Clan's coveted album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is an "uncomfortable subject" for his group and how he felt about the album being auctioned off in 2015 for a reported $2 million to entrepreneur Martin Shkreli.

"I don’t know. I thought it was some circus spectacle," Method Man told the publication. "I never really spoke to RZA about it; it’s an uncomfortable subject to most of the guys, so we don’t really discuss it too much."

He then explained that the rap icons were in the dark about "the process" of the album.

"We were never told what it was," Method Man recalled. "It was never supposed to be a Wu-Tang album. We were recording and being paid to do a certain amount of records by a guy whose name I don’t want to mention."

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