Mos Def has said that he doesn't think Jay-Z is as great as everyone thinks he is.
Well, his beef seems to be that someone - possibly Jay himself - is trying to trademark the line 'Greatest Rapper Alive', seemingly for exclusive use with Mr Z's name. That, Mos Def says, is a 'trade claim', and just not justified. I can't actually find any evidence of Jay using this phrase in reference to himself, but whatever.
Here's what Mos Def said, in our second hip hop ramble of the day: "My response was to me seeing an article where was referred to, with trademarks following it, as the 'Greatest Rapper Alive'. Now that don't have nothin' to do with me, but if you saying that, that's a trade claim...If you saying that, you saying you better than Slick Rick, who's still very alive and well? You saying you better than Rakim? You saying you better than Black Thought? People making that claim have never been in a position to defend that in an open forum. I'm not talking about making a diss record or trying to go in on somebody's girl...When people start coming out and making claims they're gonna have to defend, like, who have you had to defend them against? It's certainly been with people not on your level".