The other night a friend and I were discussing the current beef between Common and Drake and my friend made the assertion that it may be the worst beef of all-time.
“Every generation gets the rap beef it deserves, and this generation deserves this lameass Common/Drake beef,” he said. “The best beefs are always when a hungry upstart takes aim at the throne of an established king, and these two dudes are neither of those people.”
Point taken.
Anyway, the conversation got me to thinking about rap beefs. A couple came immediately to mind, the first being the Jay-Z vs. Nas beef — which started in the late 90s and carried over into the 2000s — over who was the undisputed “King of New York.” Can we go ahead and award a victory to Jay in this one?
The other one that really stood out to me was the LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee beef. I can remember being in junior high — it may have even been middle school — when Moe Dee’s “How Ya Like Me Now” album came out featuring a red Kangol hat being run over by a Jeep, a clear shot at LL.
Conversely, the worst, and most hilarious, beef of all-time to me (though one of the participants wasn’t a rapper so it probably doesn’t count) was Mitt Romney vs. LMFAO’s Sky Blu. Remember when they got into a fight on a plane? Holy crap that still makes me LOL when I think about it.
With all of that said, something we want to do in 2012 on UPROXX is to hold more discussion posts, live blogs, etc., and I figured this might be a good topic to get things kicked off. So please feel free to chime in in the comments: What are you favorite and least favorite beefs and why?
(ED. NOTE: In the coming days, you’ll be able to post images and videos in the comments, which will greatly enhance such discussions. Just wanted to toss that out there.)
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Third Bass vs. Vanilla Ice.
HOLY CRAP 3RD BASS!!!
They had a Vanilla Ice beef? If so, I think it qualifies as both best and worst beef ever for the sheer hilarity of it all.
Cajun, don’t even TELL ME you’ve never seen “Pop Goes The Weasel!” You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Henry Rollins dressed as Vanilla Ice and getting beaten with bats.
[www.youtube.com]
OMG I forgot about “Pop Goes The Weasel!” What a heaping spoonful of awesome that shit was.
I completely forgot about the NWA vs. Ice Cube beef after he left to go solo. So let me add that to the ones I already mentioned to form a top 3.
Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” is pretty epic.
I don’t know man. Nas’ “Ether” track was basically a knockout blow to that feud. However, Jay-Z did go on to make more records and money and knock up Beyonce while Nas is paying alimony to that Milkshake chick. So…yeah, maybe Hova did win.
I love how you came around to my point of view within the span of a sentence. With that said, Ether — which if I remember correct was a response to Jay-Z’s “Takeover” — was a solid gut punch, but I think Jay came back and ultimately emerged the victor if only for the largeness of the life he’s lived.
Depends on what you’re basing the W on. Nas kinda wins if it’s realness and street cred. Jay kinda wins if it’s yachts and knocking up pop stars.
LL Cool J vs. Canibus is hands down my favourite beef. It even had a guest appearance from Mike Tyson.
Damn I completely forgot about that one! [www.vh1.com]
LL with the mic hanging in the boxing ring – he eventually shut Cannibus down, youngin get poppin shit getting all ignorant on legend.
This one was without a doubt the classic upstart vs. king beef type.
Obvious, but Bad Boy-Death Row/Biggie-Tupac/East Coast-West Coast will always define rap beefing to me. Guess it’s what you grew up paying attention to (hint: that KMD album came out in ’87).
Still can’t believe Pac tooled on the dude from Mobb Deep for having Sickle Cell.
[www.youtube.com]
To this DAY, “Hit ‘em Up” is the most thug shit I ever heard in my life. He fucked yo’ bitch and they staff got guns in they muthafuckas belts! GOOD HEAVENS!
This is probably not the answer you are looking for, but recently I really enjoyed the Fabolous and Ray J beef. It was like the WWE.
My favorite part of that beef is that 50 Cent allegedly instigated the whole thing. Such a Fitty thing to do, in my opinion. [www.tmz.com]
Now what I really want to know about, that you MIGHT have some insight into, are underground beefs — stuff that never got out into the media back before the internet made it virtually impossible for stuff not to leak.
Underground beefs are more like 2 guys just being pissed off at each other – kind of like an episode of Larry David
Best Recent Best Rap Beef No Question: Rick Ross and 50 Cent. Lot’s of drama including 50 pimping out Ross’ baby mama.
Interestingly enough, Rick Ross’ seizures may have served to patch that one up a bit: [www.sohh.com]
Still, pretty great beef and hella more interesting than the one he had with Kreayshawn, that’s for sure.
Best Old School Rap Beef: MC Shan / KRS One
Gayest Beef: Jay-Z and R-Kelly – what a joke
call it whatever you want to be that Common diss track was cool as hell
I guess some people will never let it die(Jay Z Vs.Nas) Ether greatest diss record of all timeBravo. Guys, this can not be better!! Friends told me about Blackwhite’Planet.COMit’s the most wonderful community to meet black and white singles, athletes, doctors, lawyers, models, and even Hollywood celebrities. I have tried. It is fantastic. You wanna get laid tonight? Try it! You will find someone you like there
Best Beef Wrap is from the deli down the street. They don’t skimp on the sauce….
/gets pulled off stage by over-sized cane
Cue the siren noises from off-stage.
Best Example Of Who Gives A Shit About Rap Chick Beef: Foxy Brown and Jackie-O
I enjoyed the short lived Eminem-Will Smith beef. Big Willy silenced all with the “one line without a curse” rhyme. Then shortly after dropped roughly 200 f-bombs in Bad Boys 2.
“Dre Day” was pretty awesome because Luke gets boned in the arsehole in it, they call Tim Dog’s mom a dyke and Easy-E gets shot at in the video and it STILL got radio airplay. Now that’s talent!
Lil Kim has something to say about all of this!
One of the best but most forgotten beefs had to be LL vs. Kool Moe Dee. Good call there.
Bruh, that one was probably my introduction to rap beefs. I remember being heartbroken that two of my favorite artists detested each other. I was young and naive back then.
Favorite new beef of the day is Tina Fey vs The Roots’ Questlove
[goo.gl]
I came back in here specifically to post a link to that one. Beat me to it.
Nas won… Hence the term “ether somebody”… when somebody disses somebody and its a solid diss that action is referred to as being “ethered”…
Soulja Boy vs Bow Wow was and always will be the worst beef in hip-hop history. And the funny thing is Bow Wow took the L.
Man this thread is bringing back all kinds of memories. And I think you’re right — this may be the most pathetic of all, though 3rd Bass vs. Vanilla Ice is a strong contender.
Didn’t even realize this was a beef but…NEW FAVORITE. No contest.
Worst beef ever: Coolio vs. Weird Al Yankovic.
Jada’s “Checkmate” directed at 50 was pretty dope. I forgot about that shit til right now. Did 50 come back at that one?
How is the beef lame? call it whatever you want to be that Common diss track was cool as hell
I guess some people will never let it die(Jay Z Vs.Nas) Ether greatest diss record of all time
I think we can all agree that Ether was the greatest diss record of all time, but who won the beef is another topic in my mind. Yeah Nas got him at the time, but then he went on to record as an artist for Jay-Z while Jay presided over Def Jam as president. If we add even more time to their beef it becomes more clear, Ether aside, that Jay came out on top.
Best beef ever: Lynyrd Skynrd vs. Neil Young
Another underrated one: Axl Rose vs Kurt Cobain
That was a great one-sided feud. Kurt was more amused by it than anything because he lived with a beast 10 times more dangerous than Axl, and Axl’s lucky Courtney never handed Kurt her earrings and charged the lil’ feller.
Savage vs. Hogan? Hogan couldn’t even respond!!!
BE A MAN
Fascinating reading. Glad not to see Kurtis Blow vs. an insulin pump.
Flavor Flav vs a crack pipe
LOL. Dumb ass.
ICP fans versus Uproxx
cmon people .. nobody mentioning PAC VS BIG ? seriously? hahaha
Too mainstream.
and heart breaking. AND Biggie never said nothing on wax. So it wasn’t really a rap beef.
Wuh? I brought it up in the 5th primary comment.
Eminem vs. Benzino was entertaining. Obviously very one-sided but Em’s disses were brutal and hilarious.
Agreed that Em vs Benzino was pretty funny. Benzino actually made some some good jabs off wax
bs….. common is def an established king
i think nas lyrically killed jay but jay became a successful businessman tru
& LL ended moe dees career
Man, remember when LL was like, the shit? I can still recite “Bristol Hotel” word for word like it was yesterday.
Rev. Run vs. jay-z anyone lol!
Victory to Jay….nah the battle, and I mean strictly the war of words on record was won when Jay got ethered. He was the first MC to get ethered. The whole term ether was invented at the end of the battle and he effectively lost.
Eminem/G-Unit/D-12 etc. were responsible for pretty much ending Ja Rule’s career, and making Benzino jobless and broke. The Source magazine basically chose Eminem over their own employee. Also, Eminem pretty much ruined Everlast too. These beefs were pretty entertaining (although one-sided) because it brought out the best years of lyrical talent from Aftermath/Shady/G-Unit records. Also resonates more with me bc it happened during my college years.
Resulting in Ja Rule spelling murder wrong and Eminem recruiting his daughter for Do Rae Me. But “Go To Sleep” is still one of me favorite diss tracks ever. So much anger…
yes, those were definitely the days.
-Go To Sleep
-Nail in the Coffin
-Do Rae Me
-The Sauce
-Bully
-bump heads
amongst a great string of diss tracks
Ice Cube/Common – “Bitch In Yoo” is one of the best dis records of all time.
That fact alone, makes this Drake/Common beef worth keeping an eye on. The problem with the Drake/Common thing is that most Common fans hate Drake and vice versa, so I think it’s going to be hard for there to be an undisputed winner. That’s assuming that Drake even decides to respond.
Bitch In Yoo is prolly my favorite diss track ever behind maybe some of the ether 2pac spit b4 being hit.
Nelly and KRS-One hahaha
I bought that KRS ep just for the diss song alone. “If you want to give hip hop a lift, don’t buy Nelly’s album on June 25th”. Unfortunately, since there are only 8 living people who heard the KRS One song, Nelly might have won just for the fact he sold 5 million albums after that.
I don’t mind Common going after Drake for being soft, however I’m confused why Comon never said a thing about Pack FM for calling him soft (*waits while everyone googles Pack FM*)
Com diss at 2:16
[www.youtube.com]
To be fair, if Common went after everybody who called him soft during his Erykah Badu/Electric Circus phase, he wouldn’t have much free time.
It’s not a discussion, beef is stupid, we all saw what happed, with 50 and game, tupac and biggie, please, we alreeady know that beef story, it’s not appealing anymore, cause game made it boring after still shooting 50 when he is already dead, or at least his credibility, and i honestly loved when it was real, game knew how to do it.
But you will not see real rappers, at least for now, beefing each other, i mean it’s ridiculous, imagine currensy beefing with wiz or lilwayne, it would be ridiculous, he would never do that, or any other real artist, already saw what beef brings, and common, he looks like he really really wants attention, sad to see what i tought it was a real man playing with kids, i learn that we don’t discuss with kids, we just slap’em whehn they miss behave, that’s call education, maybe common it’s just an old kid after all.
Beef is dead, and giving it this much discussion is disappointing, to say the least. Listen to Yasiin and Talib explain the situation:
[www.goldmic.com]
50 Cent vs Jadakiss and 50 vs Cam had some pretty fuckin good songs
50- Animal
Kiss- Ms. Jackson
Jada- Problem Chile
Cam- Curtis!!!!!
very entertaining stuff here
South Park Mexican vs. Under-age Girls
Houston vs. his eye
Bizarre vs. any refrigerator
Amil vs. Chris and Neef
Gangsta Boo vs. Crunchy Blac
Hitman Sammy Sam vs. JT the Bigga Figga
Black Rob vs. Black Dave
Plaxico Buress vs. his leg
Ying Yang Twins vs. Burt and Ernie
Tindall vs. Hubner
Jin vs. Hello Kitty
Milkbone vs Lil Wyte