Rap's monopoly money

I'm having trouble believing that hip-hop's latest feud, between 50 Cent and Ja Rule, is much more than a ploy for increased record sales. While I doubt the two rappers are on each other's Christmas card lists, I get skeptical when looking at it from a business standpoint. 50 Cent is signed to Shady Records, whose parent company is Aftermath Records, whose parent company is Interscope Records, whose parent company is Universal Music Group. Ja Rule records for Murder Inc, whose parent company is Def Jam, whose parent company is... Universal Music Group. The two rappers may roll with different crews, but they pay the bills for the same family.

As a matter of fact, Universal is really the Microsoft of rap music. Earlier this month, Puffy Combs announced that his Bad Boy records was entering into a new deal with Universal, which means Universal now has almost every big-name rapper under it's tent. The Universal roster now includes 50 Cent, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Nelly, P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Ludacris, DMX as well as the 2 Pac catalog. Ahh, the beauty of corporate consolidation.