The evolution of rap beef: 34 of the best hip hop diss tracks

Rappers started battling before the birth of boom bap. For half a century, the art of the diss track has evolved from braggadocios bar-slinging and lyrical punch-ups to careers being eviscerated in a couple of lethal lines. There's been mind-melting triple entendre, chart-topping Billboard beef, and AI-generated/meme-injected mediocrity. We've also witnessed verses ignite volatile rap feuds and harrowing tragedy with the murders of Biggie and Pac.

In recent years, no clash has conjured social media fanaticism, united hip hop heads or clocked global attention like the nine-track beef between titans Kendrick Lamar and Drake.

For the pioneers who set the pace, diss tracks started as a vocal alternative for Brooklyn crews and blocks to prove superiority with audacious bars or settle differences on the mic. Long before the dawn of the golden era in '79, Sugar Hill Gang were making shady moves, biting Grandmaster Caz's lyrics for 'Rapper's Delight' and then dropping the monumental hit with no credit to be found. By the late '80s, the art form gravitated into a verbal contact sport and touchstone of hip hop culture. Dissertations have been written dissecting the art of the diss track and how it provokes pummelling lexical prowess and visceral emotion.

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It's also been a tool to unearth revelations, fire bold accusations and entertain. Lines have been crossed, and the targets have been vast. No one is off limits, be it mums, managers, ghostwriters, wives, former lovers, or hidden kids; LL even took a shot at MC Hammer!

Our eardrums have been blessed, expectations blown, and our hearts broken courtesy of seminal diss tracks from a spectrum of hip hop's finest. While some MCs have built entire albums and fame off beefing with artists, conscious rappers like Common and Lauryn Hill used their pen game as ammunition. Cannibus called in Mike Tyson for backup while MF DOOM went bar for bar with his alter ego. At one point, Mariah got involved.

Over the decades, rap battles have expanded beyond street-level cussing to become big business, be it parody music videos, elaborate stage shows, viral dance crazes, GRAMMY nominations, or cold, hard bangers that will far outlive their beef.

One thing is certain: From the OG battles in the '70s, the 90's East Coast-West Coast rivalry to the juiciest feuds of the 21st century, diss tracks have pushed the boundaries of controversy as much as they have creativity in hip hop.

The great rap war of 2024 between K Dot and Drizzy might be over. But Kendrick's victory lap to mark the end was a cultural renaissance that's propelled the art of the diss to entirely new heights. His one-night-only, Juneteenth, haters' ball 'The Pop-Out' unified the West Coast, Bloods & Crips, and over two dozen LA artists, including Dr. Dre and Tyler, the Creator, into a rapturous chorus as he delivered 'Not Like Us' five times back to back, followed up with a sixth instrumental version for good measure. Ending the beef against Drake for good (whose since deleted all Kendrick content from his socials) Kendrick lamented that the community and pride on stage, and marked moment in hip hop history meant so much more than any song or fleeting feeling of triumph ever would.

Still riding high off the hype, here's a definitive deep dive into the evolution of rap diss tracks to explore the expanding precedents, weaving narratives, reworking of styles and modes of attack from the rawest cuts of beef.

The roots of rap beef run deep. Off wax, rappers were spitting live bars over breaks and disco loops for a burgeoning battle scene. The legendary battle between Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee still reverberates. Not only was it the earliest to be documented, but it transformed the role of the MC from the "hype man" to the centrepiece of hip hop performance.

At Harlem World, Christmas Rappers Convention in '81, Busy Bee, who was celebrated for his infectious party rhymes, started dissing prevalent rappers of the time during his live set. Unbeknownst to Busy, one of the names he dropped, Kool Moe Dee, was in the audience. After hearing his name, the maestro of lyricism grabbed the mic and fired back a sharp-tongued freestyle revered as a bodybag in battle rap.

Although rappers were already becoming the centre of hip hop culture, that "viral" moment elevated their place in the four elements of the genre.

At 14 years old, Queens rapper Lolita Shanté Gooden, AKA Roxanne Shanté, recorded ‘Roxanne’s Revenge’ in one single take and became the creator of the “response diss” or “answer song”.

Her move was prompted by a diss record ‘Roxanne, Roxanne’ by trio U.T.F.O. (AKA UnTouchable Force Organization) — a song degrading a young woman named Roxanne who rejected the rap crew’s advances. Shanté sniffed out the lyrical misogyny and penned a fierce rebuttal (produced by Marley Marl) that ignited the venomous “Roxanne Wars.” The most famous exchange of diss records in history led to over 80+ vitriolic ‘answer songs’ by 35 different artists.

‘Roxanne’s Revenge’ sold 250,000 copies and embarrassed U.T.F.O. so severely that they sent a cease-and-desist letter to Shanté’s team. Before Shanté, battle rapping was a competition about rocking the crowd—but she changed the game by popularizing direct attacks on your opponent.

In 1985, Roxanne flexed bar for bar with Busy Bee to be crowned “Best Freestyle Rapper,” a title that many fans argue she should have won. However, she lost due to Kurtis Blow’s alleged bias of not wanting to vote for a female MC or support aggressive wordplay in hip hop.

The Roxanne Wars fostered a new paradigm of diss records and soon other multifaceted narratives like The Bridge Wars (initially between South Bronx’s BDP vs. Queensbridge collective The Juice Crew), emerged – ostensibly about hip hop’s birthplace.

The James Brown-sampling ‘South Bronx’, is a history lesson peppered with insults. But BDP’s infamously crude ‘The Bridge is Over’ is the feud’s classic. A b-boy/b-girl belter and follow up diss that took shots at Juice Crew members, MC Shan, Marley Marl, Mr. Magic, and had lines so harsh for Shanté even KRS-One himself admits to regretting a few.

Throughout the 1980s, female rappers were often dismissed due to rap's patriarchal structure. However, a tenacious next wave of liberated "femcees" were on the rise—such as MC Lyte, Monie Love, Queen Latifah, and Queen Mother Rage who constructed diss songs with deeper metaphorical complexity.

In 1989, Monie Love and Queen Latifah delivered an articulate takedown of the male-dominated music industry with 'Ladies First'. The low-key diss championed sisterhood with empowering lyrics like "Strong, stepping, strutting, moving on" and offered an open invitation to battle without gender bias: "The next man, or the next woman, It doesn't make a difference. Keep the competition coming."

The feminist anthem also inspired the 2023 four-part Netflix docu-series Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop.

When Ice Cube famously left N.W.A over money matters, his ex-bandmates fired insults calling him a traitor over a series of blows and voice message samples from fans on their follow-up albums'100 Miles & Runnin'' and'Efil4zaggin'.

Cube clapped back with the controversial, "no lube" diss about industry bullshit. Going out with a bang, Cube plays soundbites of fans dissing N.W.A, and his own voice saying, “Here’s what they think about you.” on the intro. Then, he proceeds to take down N.W.A's weak attempts to shake him and took shots at Jeremy Heller's menacing business tactics and questioned Eazy-E's sexuality, throwing in an offensive portion of anti-Semitism and homophobic slurs. He questioned N.W.A's authenticity and street cred, Dre's talents and literally everything else he could think of.

Despite warranted criticism directed at Cube for the controversial content, it catapulted his career. Numerous acting gigs poured in (40+ to date) such as the seminal Boyz n the Hood, as did producer and film directing roles, while his debut solo EP 'Kill At Will' was the first in hip hop history to go platinum. 'No Vaseline' has since clocked up nearly 58 million streams on YouTube a decade on. Cube and his diss also feature prominently in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton.

Side Fact: 'No Vaseline' was later included on the ‘Death Row Greatest Hits’ album, after Dre had split. It’s widely believed Suge Knight released the track (and a related EP) as a dig at his ex-partner.

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When South Bronx rapper Tim Dog put out ‘Fuck Compton’ it’s difficult to imagine he envisioned it would become the precursor to the East vs. West Coast war. Irritated by Compton rappers getting more attention and respect than New York artists, Tim Dog waged war against the West Coast, and particularly N.W.A. He rapped bars that bragged he’d "crush Ice Cube" and "chew Eazy like tobacco and spit him in shit", all packaged with a video that parodied their look — one of the first diss tracks to do so.

By the time Dre linked with Suge Knight and Death Row Records, he had a huge budget and a plethora of pent-up bars that could propel the diss track format into brand new territory. The glossy video for 'Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')' made Tom Dog look like a clown.

Dre's was full of famous comedians portraying his most hated enemies, and a Richard James / Little Richie looking version of Eazy-E. It’s bold uniqueness clocked jaw-dropping amounts of airtime on MTV and BET. As an added bonus, the feature by then-protégé Snoop Dogg fired blows at Eazy-E and knocked Tim Dog. The single achieved Gold status after it peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Shanté squared up to every rapper in the game. Despite rumours that Big Daddy Kane wrote most of her verses, the pioneer of rap beef showed the world who's boss (again produced by Marley Marl) when she dropped 'Have a Nice Day'', blasting everyone from Run-DMC to LL Cool J to KRS-One.

But Shanté wasn't finished going off. She dropped 'Big Mama' dishing out provocative punchlines at each prominent female rapper on the scene, such as MC Lyte, Monie Love, Salt-N-Pepa, Yo-Yo, Isis and Queen Latifah, with bars "First up is Latifah / You roll up, and I'mma smoke that ass like reefer / Cause you ain't never in life been a star to me / Sold the fuck out trying to go R&B / Now that shit is shady / You say ladies first, well I'm the first lady".

Brooklyn's MC Lyte had a slew of solid diss tracks, including a trilogy that started with '10% Dis' that contains the iconic line "Hot damn ho, here we go again" aimed at newcomer Antoinette, who then retaliated with 'Lights Out, Party Over'. But MC Lyte killed her with the ridiculously good 'Shut the Eff Up! (Hoe)', after which Antoinette effectively did, never releasing another record.

But MC Lyte saved her most ferocious diss for Roxanne Shanté, who previously spit homophobic slurs about Lyte. In return, Lyte bared her teeth as the most feared woman behind the mic with her nasty as hell/BDP-sampling 'Steady Fucking’. MC Lyte dishes out low blows at Shanté verse upon verse and walks away as champ with lines "You a low-down dirty loser / Next time I see you, I'mma hit you with my Land Cruiser".

After Dre dropped ‘The Chronic’, the Godfather of gangsta rap couldn't snap back quick enough. Unsatisfied with a retaliation record, Eazy-E put together an entire EP dedicated to the beef titled 'It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa'. The EP slighted Dre as a studio gangster and included a picture insert of Dre in make-up and a sequin satin suit from his R&B days in World Class Wreckin' Cru, with lyrics to match "All of the sudden Dr. Dre is the G thang / But on his old album covers / he was the she-thang".

The track samples Eazy’s own ‘Eazy Duz It’ and ‘It’s Funky Enough’ by D.O.C. — Dre produced both during his tenure at Ruthless — and was Eazy-E’s most successful single to date peaking at No. 42 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Eazy-E also managed to get the last laugh by pointing out he was still making money on Dr. Dre’s publishing, which coined the phrase “Dre Day means payday”.

Rappers like Biggie and Pac possessed the lexical prowess that warranted coffee table books, scholars writing doctorates, and towers of Courvoisier to dissect their music. It's no easy task to choose which song impacted the culture most. Sure, Biggie's Screamin' Jay Hawkins-sampling 'Kick in the Door' is up there, blasting Nas, Raekwon, Jeru the Damaja, Ghostface Killah, and anyone else he could think of.

But 'Who Shot Ya?' went for Pac and only Pac with sinister, subliminal cuts that hit just as hard as straight-to-the-face blows. "Who shot ya? / Separate the weak from the obsolete / Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets / It's on, fuck all that bickering beef / I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek / Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet / Thundering, shaking the concrete" are lines theorised to confirm Puff and Biggie set up Tupac's shooting at the New York studio.

It's an idea the LA Times even followed up on before they had to revoke the piece due to false allegations. Described by critics as "using the art of music to make the art of war sound beautiful", Tupac never trusted the diss wasn't aimed at him, and regardless of its intended purpose, no other diss track penned for Pac would have the repercussions' Who Shot Ya?' did.

Winning a beef sometimes simply comes down to old skool playground tactics, and Three 6 Mafia’s ‘Live by Yo Rep’ is a classic example of the age old: “lesser known group” disses “fresh on the scene, hype group to get credibility” schtick.

Vexed by old videos that hinted Bone Thugs-N-Harmony might have copied their tongue twisting cadence and love for the occult, the demonic Memphis rappers Three 6 Mafia put out ‘Live by Yo Rep’ and started a menacing feud that catapulted them into hip hop limelight.

The pioneering horrorcore diss opens with a fake broadcaster asking what Three 6 Mafia would do if someone tried to duplicate their sound before they lay into a gruesome account "Take my pitchfork out the fire, soak it in their chest / Through the ribs, spines, charcoal the muscle tissue / And send what's left back to yo mammy / 'Cause that bitch might miss you”.

"E-I-H-T, now should I continue / Yeah you left out the G, 'cause the G ain't in you".

The great war between Compton rappers DJ Quik and MC Eiht harks back to the halycon days of comedic-fuelled battle rap. The rift, that began in '91, saw the rappers throwing clever disses back and forth, album after album, for close to a decade like two old hood grumps vying for the top spot on the block.

Quik destroyed Eiht on 'Dollaz + Sense', with a definitive G-Funk diss and one of most scathing records of all time. He claimed Eiht was soft before insulting his below-average acting skills in Menace II Society. The track landed Quik the top spot on Death Row's 'Murder Was the Case' soundtrack and a call to perform it live at the controversial 1995 Source Awards.

DJ Quik might have won the battle, but Compton's Most Wanted rapper MC Eiht won the war with his diss magnum opus and four-track series released under the 'Def Wish' title.

Delivered over six years, 'Def Wish I - IV' is a hilarious and meticulous masterpiece woven together by blissful stoner rap instrumentals and goofy gags, such as in 'Def Wish III' where Eiht teases Quik about being a perm-wearing clucker in a Khaki bikini.

Quik & Eiht's beef eventually spilt off wax when all hell broke loose at a concert in L.A. between their respective entourages. Quik proposed an end to the drama on his 1998 single 'You'z a Ganxta' and the two eventually reconciled and have since worked together on a string of singles.

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Opening with the lines “I ain't got no motherfuckin' friends / That's why I fucked yo' bitch, you fat motherfucker!”, Tupac Shakur’s ‘Hit 'Em Up’ is a boombastic diss that holds G.O.A.T status.

Flip the beat of your opponent's popular song? Check. Claiming relations with the baby-mama? Check. Poking fun at the opponent's physique and labelling him a biter? Check. Video parody? Check. Tupac perfected the art of the diss on ‘Hit ‘Em Up’.

Stinging after Biggie’s ‘Who Shot Ya?', a paranoid Pac delivered a caustic diss calling in as many homies as he could fit in the studio. Apparently the original cover for the single had Puffy's head on a snake's body, and Biggie's head on a pig's!

Tupac changed the face of hip hop forever with ‘Hit 'Em Up’, and in the wake, two of hip hop's greatest talents (B.I.G. and 2Pac) were tragically killed (both murders remain unsolved). A heartbreaking reminder of the horrifying consequences rap beef can carry outside the booth and off wax.

Biggie might have been Pac's most frequented opponent, but after he found out Mobb Deep shouted, "Thug Life, we still living it" in the middle of 'Survival of the Fittest' while he was behind bars, Pac took every opportunity to slam the NYC duo.

The majority of rappers would have been crippled in the wake of Tupac's barbarous Makaveli diss trilogy 'Bomb First', 'Hit 'Em Up' and 'Against All Odds' — but Mobb Deep were not.

In fact, when Mobb Deep came out with a joint as raw and diabolical as 'Drop a Gem on Em', even the most complex hip hop heads weren't ready. Laced with subliminal clues relating to Pac's NYC robbery, shooting, and even accusations that he was raped at Rikers Island prison, the track was viewed in some circles as tasteless and too soon when it was released two months after Pac's death.

When Ice Cube dissed Common on Mack 10's 'Westside Slaughterhouse' and called Common a "pussy-whipped bitch" for insinuating gangster rap was getting in the way of his craft on 'I Used To Love H.E.R', the conscious Chicago lyricist retaliated with an aggressive reminder (which no one saw coming) that he wasn't down to be clowned with.

Common spit: "A bitch with an attitude named Cube / stepped to the Com with a feud / now what the fuck I look like dissing a whole coast? / You ain't made shit dope since ‘AmeriKKKa's Most’", while labelling Cube a washed-up has-been in the process.

It prompted Minister Louis Farrakhan from the Nation of Islam to organise a peace summit and force a truce between the two. Since then, Common and Ice Cube have collaborated on a song called ‘Real People’ for the movie Barbershop: The Next Cut which they both starred in and Cube produced.

“Ladies Love Cool James” but back in the day, two time GRAMMY Award winner LL Cool J buried rappers in the ring with a handful of noxious diss tracks. On 'To Da Break of Dawn' (off his seminal album ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’) he took aim at Kool Moe Dee, Ice-T, and one seemingly innocent bystander...MC Hammer! He talked a tough game on records ‘Jack the Ripper’, and ‘I Shot Ya’, but in the end, LL Cool J looked like a weak little punk after Canibus tore him apart in ‘2nd Round KO’

After LL Cool J invited the freshest emcees to rap a verse on his record ‘4,2,3,1’, a sensitive LL caught feelings when talented newcomer Canibus wrote one that poked fun at LL’s microphone tattoo. Canibus edited the bars but when ‘4,3,2,1’ dropped...not only was he missing it, but his verse has been replaced with one from LL dissing him.

A veteran MC, Canibus crafted an obliterating response, regarded as one of the best-written battle raps of all time. ‘2nd Round KO’. which even features boxer Mike Tyson (a first), could have ended LL, and is a historically underrated diss track that bangs hard still.

Lauryn Hill flexed her skills at maximal on her debut solo album 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'. Using her pen game as ammunition on ‘Lost Ones’, she got shit off her chest about betrayal, aired her difference in opinion about financial clout, and dropped the knowledge that her love affair with Wyclef was over, for good.

She squashed any hopes of reconciliation, expressed hurt and defiance while spitting verses like a lyrical viper. “It's funny how money change a situation / Miscommunication lead to complication / My emancipation don't fit your equation" before stomping out any leftover hope for forgiveness with lines like “Now you wanna bawl over separation / Tarnish my image in the conversation / Who you gon' scrimmage, like you the champion? / You might win some but you just lost one”.

Pras and Wyclef fired diss tracks at each other but failed to land one in L-Boogies' direction. However, both separately divulged on radio, in interviews, and in Wyclef Jeans' autobiography that Lauryn was responsible for breaking up the band because she fabricated the paternity of her first-born son Zion.

After paying his respect with R.I.P. shoutouts to Notorious B.I.G and Tupac, 50 Cent flexed his gangster prowess and razor-sharp verbal dexterity by outlining how exactly "he'd rob" (as the title suggests) over 40 rappers one by one on his blistering debut single. The clever diss, rumoured to have been written by 50 Cent in his car in 30 minutes, blew up and put the rapper on the map.

Although 50 insisted it was all meant in fun, some failed to see the humour - including a riled-up Mariah Carey who threatened to leave her label if her verse with lyrics: "I'll man handle Mariah like 'Bitch, get on the ground' / You ain't with Tommy no more, who gon' protect you now?" wasn't removed and replaced with one about a much more forgiving Mary J. Blige.

After 'How To Rob' became an underground hit, 50 was shot nine times in a drive-by outside his grandmother's house. A horrifying experience for 50, though the violent attack only added to his street cred and made him even more popular.

It's hard to believe Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown were once high school friends, appeared side by side on the cover of The Source and nearly recorded an album together. Sadly, hip hop's fixation with forcing females to face off drove them into a savage rap beef.

No one knows the exact starting point. There's speculation it happened when Lil' Kim put out 'Queen Bitch’ from her prolifically raunchy album 'Hard Core', then followed up with the unapologetic 'Notorious K.I.M', both injected with disses for Foxy.

What's 100% certain is that Foxy was pissed when Kim's verse on Mobb Deep's 'Quiet Storm' came out. More than that, Kim's verse on 'Quiet Storm' cemented her rap capability without Biggie's help.

Rarely has a diss between women resulted in physical violence, but Foxy Brown’s verse on ‘Bang Bang’ is one of those anomalies. Starting off her feature with “Hot damn ho, here we go again” (a reference to Lil Kim’s opening lines on the ‘Quiet Storm’ remix and homage to MC Lyte), Foxy opens fire about Lil Kim’s affair and grief over the recently slain Biggie Smalls, with mafioso-inspired bars like “Let the n—a rest in peace, and hop off his dick, bitch do you”, bringing the feud to reach a fever pitch. It escalated to 20 shots fired days later at New York’s Hot 97 radio station, and continuing with Lil Kim doing jail time.

Lil Kim and Foxy’s verses clocked so much clout that they proved a beef could be born in a feature, and be so hot that it becomes the main attraction of the track.

A precursor to Kendrick and Drake, the longstanding rivalry between Jay-Z and Nas divided rap fans into two tribes who will most likely dispute whose classic diss is better until the end of time.

Jay-Z debuted 'Takeover' at Hot 97's Summer Jam in 2001, a lyrical punch-up that resembled an essay more than a battle rap. Hov's shots at Nas were brutal, attacking his descent from hip hop's top MC list to a guy out-rapped on posse cuts by his bodyguard and a finale line about hooking up with Nas' girl.

While he was at it, Jay-Z took swipes at Prodigy of Mobb Deep, his small stature, smaller record sales, and flashed the infamous picture of Prodigy in dance school dressed like MJ on the screen with the lines "I don't care if you Mobb Deep / I hold triggers to crews / You little fuck, I got money stacks bigger than you / When I was pushing weight back in '88 / You was a ballerina, I got the pictures, I seen ya / Then you dropped ‘Shook Ones’, switched your demeanour".

'Takeover' hit Nas when his fame and credibility were dwindling due to a run of mid albums that couldn't touch 'Illmatic'. If that wasn't enough, he was beefing with his Queensbridge homies Capone and Mobb Deep and was knocked for six by the death of his mother.

Jay-Z's diss woke a sleeping giant in Nasty Nas, and 'Ether' became a launchpad that would revive his career. Following a "Fuck Jay-Z" vocal sample, Nas proceeds to call Jay-Z ugly like a camel, accuses "Gay Z" of being a Nas stan, and shines a light on his use of recycled B.I.G. lyrics.

Nas' attack was so unrivalled and vicious that 'Ether' became a verb in the hip-hop lexicon. 'Ether' is often cited as a turning point in the rap diss culture, marking a shift from subtle jabs to direct attacks — despite the style of diss being pioneered by Nas' neighbour Roxanne Shanté. Nas set the record straight in 2020 and paid his respects to Shanté's influence on HipHopDX and in the Netflix biopic Roxanne Roxanne.

After independent LA rapper Sole dissed Brooklyn hip hop trio Company Flow and their frontman El-P (later of Run the Jewels) on 'Dear Elpee', El-P slyly recorded a phone conversation between the eager-to-apologise Sole and himself and began crafting a unique deep-cut diss track of his own.

On the phone Sole turned out to be more stan than enemy by famously waxing poetic about his love for Company Flow: "I don't want beef with you guys / This whole shit is bananas."

Company Flow then chopped up Sole’s plea into verses over a Björk sample. This "Linda Tripp" tactic (named after the Pentagon employee who secretly recorded phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky and led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton) was a first that would go on to be used many times over the course of hip hop history and haunt Sole long after.

Pop diva Mariah Carey got in on the rap beef game in the noughties and dropped a solid gold, one-of-a-kind diss aimed at Eminem. ‘Obsessed,’ the lead single off her twelfth studio album ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’, might sound like a saccarhine swipe, but Mariah lets Eminem have it with the accompanying music video where Carey plays both herself and the character of the male stalker, dressed in a bellhop uniform or a grey hoodie and sweatpants widely speculated to be Eminem. Mariah’s move stirred up a frenzy across the media and hip hop scene and sent the Detroit MCs into overdrive.

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After all, ‘Obsessed’ was released after Eminem referred to Carey in several of his songs in a negative light, feeling angered by her disowning an alleged relationship. He manipulated interviews Mariah had done in the past to sound like voice recordings. He played these on his Anger Management Tour, and after each one, he would pretend to be sick before launching into his song ‘Puke’.

Eminem’s pathetic ego played on. A month after ‘Obsessed’ hit the airwaves, he released his sixth studio album, ‘Relapse’, featuring a song titled ‘Bagpipes from Baghdad’ in which Eminem takes multiple shots at Carey and describes a near-sexual encounter with the singer, threatening to release voicemails and pictures he still has in his possession. It also disses her ex-husband Nick Cannon, who continued the beef by releasing his own diss track and challenging Eminem to a boxing match that never actually happened.

Side Fact: Throughout his career, Eminem also dropped a staggering output of derogatory disses at another pop star, Christina Aguilera, after she called him out for rapping about killing his wife Kim.

In 2004, MF DOOM unknowingly penned the first alter ego diss as Viktor Vaughn with ‘Fancy Clown’. Back then the hip hop sphere thought that only DOOM could possess the out-of-this-world mindset to compose a song by his alternate persona, where he’s firing low blows at his cheating ex-girlfriend, while threatening to punch her new lover's face in — the lover, of course being MF DOOM.

Alas, on ‘Roman’s Revenge’ (inspired by 'Roxanne’s Revenge'), Nicki Minaj responds to provocations from “queen bee” Lil’ Kim as her alter ego Roman Zolanski, joined by Eminem rapping as his alter ego Slim Shady (who he just announced the death of on his coup de grâce album ‘The Death of Slim Shady’.)

‘Control’ is a prolific posse cut that revitalised the competitive spirit of the rap game. Kendrick’s braggadocios bars sent shockwaves when he dissed every peer and collaborator he knew that could pose a threat from André 3000, J. Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale, Pusha T, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Big Sean, Jay Electronica (who’s on the track!), Tyler, the Creator, Mac Miller and loads more. It's a chef’s kiss diss. Kendrick’s bars led to an onslaught of response tracks from rappers looking to prove themselves while also inspiring many to elevate their game.

Hip hop veterans celebrated Kendrick for honouring the origins of battle rap. They pointed to rappers like 50 Cent and Tupac Shakur, who built part of their careers name dropping on the mic. Yet weirdly sidestepped Shanté, who pioneered the style dissing fools by name at 14 and never backed down from a battle, no matter how popular the foe.

Drake's 'Back To Back' is the first GRAMMY-nominated rap beef and the first to use memes as much as bars. It all started when Meek Mill (one of many in a long line) called out Drake for not writing his own rhymes. Drake snapped back in 48 hours with two disses that dismantled Meek's whole career.

The memes helped, of course, but the reason even Drake's hardest haters hyped the Toronto rapper was that Meek called him a fake. Drake rapped his ass off on 'Back To Back.' He tore Meek to shreds to the point that he's never really recovered, and Drizzy's diss was a hit for the clubs and the streets.

2018 was a banner year for beef and Drake haters. The feud between Drake and Pusha T had been bubbling for some time, but it reached boiling point when Drake dissed Pusha T on 'Duppy Freestyle', and King Push couldn't be happier to wage war.

'Story of Adidon' is an unrelenting exhumation of the skeletons in Drake's closet. The revelations begin with the cover artwork: an extremely awkward blackface photo of Drake in a high school play, a hidden love child, and worse yet, Drake's plans to unveil that child in a corporate sneaker rollout. The bars more or less forced Drake to admit his parentage of Adonis publicly, not via corporate greed.

Pusha T, a rapper who said, "If we all go to hell, it'll be worth it", goes for Drake's jugular regardless of repercussions and further disses below the belt blows at his parent's failed marriage, his dad's personal style, and his mom's loneliness. With a flow tighter than ever, from "tick, tick, tick-six-six-six" to the malevolent way that "Love that baby, respect that girl / Forget she's a pornstar, let her be your world" is the place Pusha chose to tag his trademark "yuugh."

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'Truth' is the critically acclaimed confessional diss in Gucci Manes's escalating war with Southern trap titan Young Jeezy. The beef began when the two collaborated on Gucci's 2005 track 'So Icy', which both rappers claim as their own song. Later that year, things took a deadly turn when Jeezy, in his song 'Stay Strapped', offered a $10,000 bounty on Gucci's ice cream cone chain. Not long after, five armed men broke into Gucci's house to snatch the chain. Gucci fired shots of defence, which killed one of his attackers, Pookie Loc, a rapper signed to Jeezy's label.

When the body was discovered buried by a middle school and Gucci Mane was charged with murder, Gucci took a trip down memory lane and unleashed 'Truth', a dark, disrespectful diss with an accompanying video where Gucci cruises around town in a Bentley, slinging lean and flashing his diamonds whilst recounting the break in.

Another nearby rap beef spiralled into fatal tragedy the following year. It originated with Gucci collaborator and Memphis rapper Young Dolph penning a diss track against Yo Gotti titled 'Play Wit Yo' Bitch' in 2017, leading to Dolph’s car being shot 100 times 24 hours later. Dolph stepped on stage, unharmed, moments later to spit a response with ‘100 Shots’ which would appear on his album 'Bulletproof'. Despite being set on retiring from rap beef to spend time with his sons, Young Dolph was shot and killed outside a bakery while buying cookies in 2021.

Megan Thee Stallion opened 2024’s rap beef season with her venomous diss ‘Hiss’ aimed at Nicki Minaj, Drake and Tory Lanez. but Kendrick ignited the war with one explosive verse.

In a few bars Kendrick asserted his finesse and dominance of the rap game on blistering levels fans hadn’t heard since K-Dot pushed the red button on ‘Control’ in 2013. He shits on Drake’s affinity for Michael Jackson with a clever bar about Prince then disavows the “Big 3” altogether (a rap throne of him, J.Cole and Drizzy), declaring "muthafuck the big three - it's just big me."

Metro Boomin “drums gave em some” and blew rap geeks' brains with rumours speculating that he used morse code in the production to diss Drake. Some deciphered as “Drake's a p*ssy.” ‘Like That’ was Metro Boomin’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held that chart position for three weeks.

In the wake of ‘Like That’’s success, conscious rapper J.Cole made an uncharacteristic move by dropping ‘7-Minute Drill’ aimed at Lamar, and then 24 hours later publicly apologised on stage, removed it from streaming services, and confessed that it was the lamest thing he ever wrote.

The war waged on. Drake responded to 'Like That' with 'Push-Ups', a flurry of shots for Kendrick and his tiny feet. But when Lamar didn't take the bait, Drake doubled down with 'Taylor Made Freestyle'.

The first of its kind, Drake's diss, was released on Instagram using A.I. to emulate verses by legendary West Coast rappers Tupac and Snoop over bedroom beats. Given that the latter is one of Kendrick's most significant influences and role models and Snoop is a frequent collaborator who's praised Lamar, Drake was out for blood. He fired lyrical entendre and blows at Lamar via his idols with palpable disrespect and contempt. The provocative play that came at a price. Tensions and drama escalated, and Tupac's Estate threatened to sue, forcing Drake to scrub any trace of the track off his socials and streaming.

Snoop has since commented on hip hop's historic beef, praising both rappers' bars and expressing his hopes for a future where mumble rap is no longer the norm and competitive lyricism returns.

In the evolution of the art of diss tracks, Kendrick constructed a masterpiece that honours every style and rapper that contributed to the form while catapulting diss tracks to otherworldly terrain.

After Drakes's double diss, Noble Prize-winning rapper Kendrick released 'Euphoria' packed with so many mind-melting messages that it crashed lyrics site Genius as fans rushed to decipher the cryptic bars. A feat no diss has managed before. Kendrick leaves Easter eggs at every turn to open and takes jabs at everything from Drake's relationship with his Blackness to various ghostwriter allegations.

Drake came back confident and correct, lobbing hefty accusations Kendrick's way on 'Family Matters' — the main one being that the Compton rapper has been allegedly physically violent toward his fiancée; more than that, Drake rapped like fire on 'Family Matters' and delivered one of his most impressive tracks to date.

That's when the gloves came off. Kendrick responded within an hour with the destructive diss 'Meet the Grahams', personally addressing each member of Drake's immediate family, from Adonis to his mom. He accuses Drake of having a substance abuse problem, being a sexual predator, abandoning an 11-year-old daughter and having a snitch on his team.

24 hours later, Kendrick beat Drake at his own game and attacked again with a club banger, the summer song, and a contender for best record of the year. 'Not Like Us' dismantled Drake's entire reputation with haymakers over West Coast bounce and a playful snipe about him being a paedophile ("Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A Minor"). It also cemented Kendrick's ability to cross over into the commercial landscape.

Before sundown, 'Not Like Us' was viral, pumping out of soundsystems at the NBA games, Red Bull USA street dance battles, and blasting out of lowriders across Compton. OVO stans had to yield to its electricity. Tom Hanks and numerous other celebs were co-signing it as the diss track stormed Billboard Charts as number one while breaking a multitude of additional records.

Drake immediately refuted these allegations and claimed he planted the maniacal information for Kendrick to use in his response 'The Heart Part 6' (very weird play). But the damage had already been done. As Drake threw in the proverbial towel and wiped his IG clean, Kendrick took the throne as the King of Rap and took their beef to higher ground. Memes have joked that "The Pop Out- Ken & Friends" was Kendrick's "Hatechella", a 'Haters Ball', but nah, it was a love letter to LA. Kendrick performed four out of five of his disses after he paid respect to all the West Coast OGs, departed, present and new gen.

Dressed like 90's Tupac, he delivered a diss-driven concert to a 16,000-strong crowd where he ended with 'Not Like Us' five times and one more as an instrumental version so the entire stadium could bellow out the bars in joyous unison. Folks all the way over in Harlem streaming “The Pop-Out’ live threw a block party with a jazz band in honour of the historic moment.

Posing for a mass picture, Kendrick grabbed the mic. "This sh*t makes me proud then a muthaf**ka, y'all don't know. This sh*t gets me emotional, dawg. We done lost a lot of homies to this music sh*t, a lot of homies to the street sh*t. For all of us to be on stage together, unity, from each side of muthaf*kin' L.A. Crips, Bloods, Pirus, that sh*t is special, man."

While the credits continue to roll, Kendrick's swinging at an owl piñata in the viral music video for 'Not Like Us' shot in Compton and “dancing on Drakes grave” with top-tier West Coast Krump dancers, as Metro Boomin's 'BBL Drizzy', a reprise to a Kendrick wisecrack that Drake had butt implants, plays on. There's even footage of couples walking down the aisle to it and ‘Family Matters’ vs ‘Not Like Us’ video games dropping.

The future sounds bright if battle rap could unify the diaspora in this way, and if diss tracks could reinvigorate lyricism, creativity, and the rap scene on this level.

As the applause and fandom fades, you can't ignore that as evolved as the art of diss and the future of hip hop would appear, there's a bad aftertaste lingering. While all four corners of the globe two-step to songs from a feud where direct accusations of paedophilia, misogyny and domestic violence were used as artillery (and the alleged victims, mainly women and children, were simply collateral), it’s evident one particular style in the art form needs to go. Music is supposed to entertain and be enjoyed by the masses, but it should also empower and elevate. Not take us back to the beginning, at those first diss tracks written bygrown-ass men using women as punchlines. Damn.

Tracy Kawalik is a freelance music journalist, follow her on Twitter