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There's no need for rappers' mothers to put on the Kevlar just yet, but their MC sons are spewing a lot of venom at each other these days. Jadakiss has been beefing with Beanie Sigel. Sigel has made it clear he's not feeling DMX. DMX may have it in for Jay-Z; Nas definitely does. Nas is also going at it with Sigel, Cormega, Freeway and Memphis Bleek.

"The industry ain't like that," said Jada, whose solo debut, Kiss Tha Game Goodbye, was released Tuesday. "Most of the beefs you hear about ... are phony because the people you hear talking about each other, you can catch them downtown having a [hand]shake over some seafood, and it's not that serious.

"It's music," Jay-Z said last week, on the set of the video to "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" (see "Jay-Z Gets Serious, 'Soulful,' On New Video And Album"). "It's rap music. Rap music was built on being competitive — MCs from back in the days battlin' and trying to be the best. But now you've got money involved, so you take that competitive fire and you add it along with money, and you got a lethal combination. But it's good for rap music."

The most talked-about quarrel right now finds Jadakiss and fellow LOX member Styles going at it with Beanie Sigel — who is part of Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records stable. That fight has been a featured attraction on the mixtape circuit in the past few weeks.

"You 'bout to make me really hurt you, Kiss… The reverend gonna have to get a hearse for Kiss," Sigel warned on a freestyle he recorded in late June for DJ Envy's latest offering to the street, the Roc-A-Family-hosted Empire Strikes Back. Rapping over Jada's beat for "Put Ya Hands Up," Beans goes on to send a shot at DMX, referencing the Dark Man's character in the movie "Belly." "I leave it up to Hov to X-out Tommy Buns."

Kiss came back full throttle on DJ Kay Slay's Return of the Jada mixtape. On a freestyle titled "Fók Beanie," the Yonkers MC claims that his Philadelphia nemesis copied his rhyme style and that Beanie's professed thuggery is a façade. "Sigel's not real to me; therefore he doesn't exist," he raps. "So poof, vamoose, son of Kiss."

"It's not gonna go on," said Jada, who added that he spoke to Sigel to iron everything out. "It's not gonna be no more disrespectful songs made. If it is, it's gonna be handled differently than making a song about it. [Making dis records] can be good and bad; they help it if you need the hype. I need it, then I don't need it because I'm doing good anyway. I'm about to cash in real big this year and I ain't about to let nobody or nothing stop that."

Even before the disses hit the streets, Sigel said, "Somebody must have been feeding some sucker sh-- in [Jada's] head or telling him something. It's all gravy though. I got respect for him; hopefully he got respect for me so I won't lose the respect I got for him."

Jadakiss' album is at the center of another battle. After a bootleg copy of the LP hit the streets in July, hip-hoppers inferred there was beef between DMX and Jay-Z because of X's guest appearance on "Un-Hunh!" (which is called "Here We Go Again" on the bootleg). X, whose fourth album, The Great Depression, comes out just a week after Jigga's The Blueprint hits stores next month, barks, "I only gave you the crown to shoot it off your f---in' head." (Jadakiss, meanwhile, throws a mild jab at Sigel, saying he "ate too many Beanie Macs.")

Nas piles on the Jiggaman on his new dis record, a freestyle called "Stillmatic," on which he also spits fire at Cormega, Freeway, Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel.

"I rule you, before you used to rap like the Fu-Schnickens," Nas raps. "Nas designed your Blueprint; who you kiddin'? It's H-to-the-izzo, M-to-the-izzo ... the rapper version of Sisqó."

"[Nas] is definitely gonna bring out the best of me; he's gonna put me at the top of my game," Jay said of his fellow lyrical giant. "It's like playing basketball with a guy. He's gonna put me on top of my game; I hope I do the same for him. I don't want to hurt the guy. It's just verbal sparring. No one is fighting. It's just records."

"Now it's more at stake," he said. "People are going five platinum. It's ex-drug dealers in the game, like myself. I went to college and all that, but right now this is my loophole to get some good money. You can't let nobody step on your ego, dismantle your whole image for no reason. Too much is at stake here. I got kids, I got a mother I got n---as in a jail. I can't let no one man or no team come and try to take that away from me."

"Anything is possible," Jay-Z said. "That's just part of life, but I'm not a dummy. I'm not a stupid guy. I'm sure if we wanted to do something to each other we wouldn't be talking about it on music."

The record spinners, who have been playing the vendetta-filled music to the masses, told listeners last week that they were going through inner turmoil, trying to give the fans what they want to hear, but at the same time trying not to amp the beefs.

"If I don't have these freestyles on the show, I wind up looking moist," Flex said on his Hot 97 show. He stopped the music to call for a cease to the disses.

"I don't want this to get ugly," Flex said. He said the rhyming between all the factions was getting disrespectful and "this is not gonna be good ... I can't see those people seeing each other [in public] and it not being a problem."

The inspiration behind the title of DMX's upcoming The Great Depression is plain and simple: The author of "Stop Being Greedy" has been telling the people who work with him that after his LP drops on September 25, all the other rappers are going to starve.

"You thought I'd let you have this sh--?," he screams on the album intro, "Sometimes." "You thought this rap sh-- was yours? You muthaf---ers done lost your mind!"

He calms down just a little to give a shout out to all of his friends and family who have been influential in his life on "School Street," named after the block he grew up on in a Yonkers, New York, project.

Perhaps the person who most touched his life, his grandmother, is remembered on "I Miss You," featuring Faith Evans. The first song he recorded for the album is produced by newcomer Kid Kold, and finds X asking his grandmother, "Why couldn't I come when he came to get you?" Then he says he would do anything to have one more hug. DMX also recollects some childhood events, like his grandmother teaching him about religion, and speaks to her in heaven about how every member of the family is doing since she's been gone. On the chorus, Evans sings what X remembers his grandmother used to say to him: "Baby it's gon' be OK."

The mood shifts about 180 degrees on "When I'm Nothin." Here, the Dog flips Stephanie Mills' '80s hit "What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin' " to help him talk about fake friends and admirers who might not be behind him in times of need. Despite the subject matter, the song still gets the party going.

According to a source close to X, Mills was so much in love with how X — who co-produced the song with Dame Grease — used the sample, she requested to sing on the track. She retools her old lyrics to "What you gonna do when I'm nothing?/ You're crazy about my style/ What you gonna do when I'm nothing/ Please don't have me acting wild/ Tell me now!" X later chimes in with ad-libs, yelling "What! What!" while Mills barks back "Tell me!"

Dark Man, who spent some of his childhood in Baltimore, recently went there to shoot the video for the song, which replaced the even rougher, and less danceable, "Who We Be" as the first single.

The rapper decided to go with "We Right Here" after driving around to various neighborhoods, playing the album, and asking people which song they thought should be the leadoff single, according to the source close to X. He is planning to follow the same procedure for the second single, for which he plans to shoot a video in a couple of weeks.

"Trina Moe" is a spastic-paced, synthesizer-heavy DMX tangent. Here, as he often does, X uses his intense growl to get his point across, saying that it's his "fourth album and still he'll still get in that ass!" He also encourages (OK, he downright threatens) rappers to stop bragging about ice and help out the 'hood. "Trina Moe" has a dual meaning — it's a dance he does and it's also the name of one of his friends.

The third installment of the "Damien" song series appears on The Great Depression, and, as on all his albums, X takes time out to speak to the Lord on "Prayer IV." His main collaborator from the last LP, Swizz Beatz, only put in work on two songs; this time around X chose to go with a more diverse attack of menacing beat makers — Grease, PK, Kold and newcomer Black Key.

Just Blaze provides the track for the guitar-laden "I'ma Bang." Basically a rock song, X sprays a ferocious freestyle at "ni--as who ain't got the balls to say to his face what they think behind his back." Kold also incorporates live rock guitars and drums on "Bloodline Anthem," where X's lyrics reiterate what he's trying to get out on this album: He's going straight back to the top.

The dog is ready to bark again. DMX is gearing up for the September 25 release of his fourth album, now titled The Great Depression, with two video shoots in eight days.

X, who's been relatively quiet since last summer (this is a guy who released his first three albums between May 1998 and December 1999, mind you), will film the clips for the first two singles, "Who We Be" and "You Must Be Blind," starting this week.

"Who We Be" will be a two-day shoot and start production on Wednesday in Baltimore, according to Def Jam. J. Jesses Smith, who directed the upcoming movie "Crime Partners," featuring Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule, will helm the video, which is said to center around a barbecue.

No word on the plot of "You Must Be Blind," which Joseph Khan is slated to direct on August 7 and 8 in New York. Kahn, who has worked with Destiny's Child, Aaliyah, Britney Spears and Mobb Deep, will also direct DMX in his next movie, "The Crow: Lazarus," which begins production early next year.

DMX recently gave New Yorkers a taste of the upcoming LP, debuting the track "We Right Here" on Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 radio show. The song includes the hook, "We right here, we ain't goin' anywhere."

The rapper pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault and paid a $1,000 fine on Tuesday as prosecutors in Alden, New York, agreed to dismiss charges of contempt of court and assault.

DMX was charged with contempt of court on February 9 after turning himself in more than two weeks late to serve a 13-day jail term for a traffic violation he pleaded guilty to in March 2000. The rapper said he was contractually obligated to be in Los Angeles to promote his movie "Exit Wounds."

The assault charges stemmed from an incident at the Erie County Correctional Facility when the rapper threw a food tray across a room after learning he would be behind bars three more days than expected. The tray allegedly hit an officer.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark, who has prosecuted DMX since he was first arrested March 3, 2000 on the Kensington Expressway for traffic violations, driving with a suspended permit, and possessing marijuana was not available for comment Thursday.

It looks like that good ol town, Cheektowaga, NY doesn't want to leave poor DMX alone. The rapper was indicted for failing to show up to serve his jail sentence after he was found guilty of driving without license. When DMX arrived late to serve his 13-day sentence, he was slapped with the contempt of court charge. The rapper is likely to be arraigned on the new charges within the next two weeks.

In addition to the contempt of court charge, DMX is also facing felony assault charge after he got into a scuffle with one of the guards at the Erie County Correctional Facility while serving his sentence. No word on when he head to court to answer to those charges.

Sometimes when you talk to Jadakiss, it's hard to get a straight answer out of him. Take discussing the casting of the video for his next single, "Knock Yourself Out," for example.

"I might not get kids this time," explained the MC, who featured dancing children in his video for "Put Your Hands Up." "I might get midgets, or some fat girls to do the [Harlem] Shake."

Produced by the Neptunes, "Knock Yourself Out" features Jada "miseducating them like Lauryn Hill" as he promises one member of his harem a blank check to buy jewelry, among other things.

"I just called [the Neptunes] up," Jadakiss recalled nonchalantly of the cut's origins. "I needed them [to appeal to] the bitches and the clubs. It's still grimy, though."

The rapper is more serious when discussion turns to his first solo LP, Kiss Tha Game Goodbye. Originally scheduled for a May release, the album was pushed back to August 8 despite the strong buzz created by "Put Your Hands Up," the instant underground classic "We Gon' Make It," and his many guest appearances on R&B tracks. The delay is only helping to build anticipation, Jadakiss explained.

"The same thing happened with Big's [Life After Death] and it went seven times platinum," he said. "It's comin' now. The wait is up. I'm happy with it."

While he was not able to secure an Eminem appearance as planned ("Jadakiss Finishing Up Solo LP; Joined By Eminem, Nas, Dre"), 'Kiss recently finished a track called "Ugh Huh" with his longtime compatriot DMX, and Nas finally laid down his rhymes for "Show Discipline." "Dirty South Scenario" features Fiend, 8Ball and Yung Wun and was produced by Swizz Beatz. Swizz also supplied the haunting, piano-powered track "Jada's Got a Gun," with a chorus that plays off of Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun." Jadakiss, who spent a few weeks recording some tracks in Los Angeles, also teams up with Snoop Dogg, spreading California love on "Cruisin'." Here, Jada keeps the party going by scoping girls at the Beverly Center before spreading bullets around like chicken pox.

"We Gon' Make It," an underground hit last year, featured Jada and his fellow LOX member Styles interchanging lines about street mayhem. The two MCs plan to do a whole album following in the vein of that song.

"We sit there and write the whole thing together," Jadakiss said of how the track developed. "He says the parts he wants to say, and I say what I want to say. When we throw the beat on, we make the whole sh-- pop."

The song's beat caused controversy earlier this year when Ras Kass threatened to sue the track's producer, the Alchemist, claiming he had been sold the same beat ("Alchemist Responds To Claims Of Double Dealing").

"That controversy is with Alchemist and Ras Kass," Jadakiss said. "He played the beat for me, I paid him his money and I laid my vocals on it. I ain't got nothing to do with that other sh--. I ain't get a call from Ras Kass, no nothing, so I'm good. The album is my only concern for the next six to eight months."

Jadakiss will soon be heard alongside Prodigy and Butch Cassidy on "Livin' the Life" from the compilation Violator the Album: V2.0, due July 24 ("Busta Rhymes Leading Violator 2.0 Charge"). 'Kiss is also being rotated on Jermaine Dupri's white-label release "Hate in Your Blood," which also features Freeway.

DMX's commitment must have impressed Warner Bros. when he put off a jail sentence to promote last spring's "Exit Wounds." The studio has signed a new multi-picture deal with the rapper that will begin this fall.

DMX and producer Joel Silver, the man behind the DMX films "Romeo Must Die" and "Exit Wounds," will soon film an as-yet-untitled project inspired by the 1931 German crime thriller "M," a Warner Bros. spokesperson said Monday (June 18).

"M," directed by legendary filmmaker Fritz Lang, is about a child murderer who eludes an exhaustive police investigation. When the citywide search for the murderer interrupts organized crime, other criminals join in the search.

DMX's spokesperson said the rapper will also star in "The Crow: Lazarus," the fourth flick in the "Crow" franchise, as part of his deal with Warner Bros.

The film, which was slated to begin filming in the spring with video director Joseph Kahn at the helm (see "Kahn To Direct DMX In Next 'Crow' Film"), has been delayed while DMX finishes his next album (see "Arizona Desert Is Muse To DMX's Ears"), due in September.

DMX's upcoming autobiography, "A Dogz Life," has also been delayed, his spokesperson said. Originally slated for the fall, the book will now be published by HarperCollins at the end of the year.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. McCarthy rejected the Grammy- nominated rapper's appeal Thursday, according to the Associated Press, and DMX is expected to surrender within two weeks to begin serving time in the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden.

DMX, born Earl Simmons, was arrested March 3 on the Kensington Expressway for speeding, failing to signal a lane change, driving with a suspended permit and possessing marijuana.

The rapper, then touring on the Ruff Ryders/Cash Money tour, skipped a March 23 court date on the charges, and a New York State warrant was issued for his arrest. He turned himself in nearly a week later in Cheektowaga, New York, where Town Justice Ronald E. Kmiotek ordered the maximum 15-day jail term and $400 in fines after DMX pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of driving without a license. The rapper appealed the sentence.

DMX is nominated for two Grammys, including Best Hip-Hop Album for ... And Then There Was X. The rapper must begin his jail term by February 6 if he wants to make the Grammys ceremony, set for February 21 in Los Angeles.

According to a spokesperson, DMX has several upcoming projects in the works. The rapper is recording tracks for The Ear, his fourth studio album and the follow-up to the multiplatinum ... And Then There Was X. The new album has a tentative release date of May 22, according to the spokesperson.

A DVD set for release in March will include a 30-minute video for "Angel," starring Mary J. Blige and directed by Bill Duke; footage from the making of ... And Then There Was X; and videos for "What's My Name?," "Party Up" and "What These Bitches Want."

On the big screen, DMX will star with Steven Seagal in "Exit Wounds," which is due out on March 16, and will begin filming "The Crow: Lazarus," the fourth film in the "Crow" franchise, in the spring.

DMX, a brash rapper from Yonkers, New York, began his career guesting on tracks by LL Cool J and Mase before releasing his debut album, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, in 1998. The album debuted at #1 and featured the singles "Ruff Ryders Anthem" and "Get at Me Dog."

The rapper also has a long history in the courtroom. A Westchester County, New York, grand jury indicted him on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and unlawful possession of marijuana last summer. He was cleared of a stabbing charge by Denver authorities in 1999, and was exonerated of a rape charge by the Bronx, New York, district attorney in 1998.