Disses have been a part of hip hop as long as hip hop has existed. Whether it's calling other rappers soft or insulting their style, rappers haven't been shy when it comes expressing their opinions about their fellow artists. After reading more into this topic of hip hop, I've seen many authors claiming that feuding in hip hop is dead. I disagreed with this so I thought I would illustrate some of the most recent feuds in hip hop music in this blog post.
Jay-Z vs. Noel Gallagher
Jay-Z was set to be the headliner for the Glastonbury music festival in England in 2008. Noel Gallagher, a guitarist in Oasis, thought that having a hip hop artist at the festival would be in poor taste and disgraceful to the event. Gallagher said “People ain't gonna go” and “Sorry...I'm not having hip hop at Glastonbury.” Jay-Z caught wind of these comments and decided to have some fun with this. Jay-Z opened his set with his own sing-a-long version Oasis's hit, “Wonderwall”. In the August following the concert, Jay-Z released the song “Jockin' Jay Z” in which the opening line says “that bloke from Oasis said I couldn't play the guitar, somebody shoulda told him I'm a fuckin rock star.
The intro video to Glastonbury that year:
Jay-Z's “Wonderwall” cover:
Jay-Z, “Jockin' Jay Z” (skip to :35 for the line):
Common vs Drake
Common released the song “Sweet” with the lines “Singing all around me man, la la la
you ain't muthafucking Frank Sinatra” which he later confirmed was a diss towards Drake's perceived “softness” because he sang on his tracks. Drake told Common to say it to his face during a show in Las Vegas. But the beef didn't end there, Drake's verse on the Rick Ross song, “Stay Schemin” featured the lines “back when if a nigga reached it was for the weapon, nowadays niggas reach, just to sell they record.” Common responded to Drake with a remix of “Stay Schemin” in which calls out Drake by name and says that Drake only makes “hoe music.” The song ends cleverly with a sample of Destiny Child's “Say My Name” encouraging Drake not be hesitant to call Common out by name.
Common, “Sweet” (skip to 1:20 for the lines about Drake):
Rick Ross, ft. Drake and French Montana, “Stay Schemin” (skip to 1:34 for Drake's verse):
Common, “Stay Schemin Remix” (3:30 for Common verse):
50 Cent vs Rick Ross
Rick Ross's song “Mafia Music” called out 50 Cent by saying “I love to pay her bills, can’t wait to pay her rent/ Curtis Jackson baby mama, I ain't askin for a cent.” Rick Ross called out Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent) for asking for rent from his child's mother. 50 Cent responded immediately the next day with a video response. In 50 Cent's video response, he says “I'm gonna fuck your life up for fun.” 50 Cent later released the song “Tia Told Me.” “Tia” is Tia Kemp who is the mother of one of Rick Ross's children. Tia told 50 Cent that Rick Ross's rap career was all lies because of Ross's former career as a correctional officer. 50 Cent even posed on the cover of Smooth Magazine with Tia. Rick Ross's label Def Jam eventually put a gag order on Ross which prevented him from speaking publicly about the feud. The gag order did not end the beef between the two though. Recently, Rick Ross was the target of a drive by shooting. 50 Cent took to twitter calling it “staged” and a ploy by Rick Ross to try and improve his image as a thug.
Rick Ross, Mafia Music (3:05 for the line):
50 Cent's video response:
50 Cent, Tia Told Me:
Smooth Magazine Cover:
Image Source: http://cdn.nahright.com/news/m.php/2009/09/50-sm43cvr1small.jpg
Insulting someone through music is one of the most clever ways rappers use their rhyming skills. Being able to put someone down through a verse puts a rapper's true skills to the test. The beefs of today's music industry are just as intense as the original hip hop feud between Boogie Down Productions and The Juice Crew. It will be interesting to see how social media changes the way artists talk and interact with each other. Will social media sites, like Twitter, kill the diss track?
I feel like everyone knows about the older feuds, but I didn't know about any of the feuds you talked about in this post. It was really interesting. It's funny that 50 cent did a magazine cover with someone elses baby mama!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing to surface a feud involving Jay-Z that I was never aware about. It just goes to show that these disses do not exclusively resonate in the hip hop regime, but can spread to other genres of music as well. Another example, is Eminem and Limp Bizkit, who are a medal band that found themselves beefing with the hip hop mogul in Eminem.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with you when you say that you don't believe that hip-hop feuds are dead, excellent point but in any case they're just getting softer and softer. I mean, Biggie and Tupac extended as far as East Coast-West Coast, now a day we have Chris Brown and Frank Ocean fighting over a parking spot. Pathetic. Good looks on The Oasis and Jay-Z feud, had no idea about that and it was interesting. The Common and Drake feud is a joke, Drake needs to go back to Degrassi... no offense. He's smooth with the ladies and whatnot but without the crew he's like play-dough. LOL @ Rick Ross, a correctional officer? C'mon bro! I always use that as the perfect example of a hip-hop fraud. And I think I'm with 50 when he says the shooting was staged.
ReplyDeleteThis post is amazing! I had never heard anything about any of these recent feuds, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them. It seems that these feuds address issues about each artist that were known, but never really addressed. Even though I watched most of all of the videos, I really appreciated how you put the time in the video in which the shit hits the fan, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteThat is an excellent question to pose; hip-hop has developed in a time where technology is advancing at more radical rates than ever before. It's interesting to think about whether or not this will have an impact on hip hop's longevity (e.g., look at other genres that came and went without the presence of the Internet, will technology have an affect on how long we as a culture focus on hip hop).
ReplyDeleteI don't think that social media such as Twitter will make the diss song extinct. At the end of the day, status in hip-hop is most efficiently quantified in terms of skill; if an artist has an issue with another artist, the diss track is hip-hop's formal assessment of that issue. Any other moves somebody makes at a feuding artist (such as Twitter beef) will be remembered as nothing but child's play compared to something like "Exodus" from Pusha T. Far more people are going to remember a diss track rather than a Twitter post.
I really liked your post! I've heard some of the songs mentioned and had no idea that they were used for beef between two rappers. Although i didnt know about the feuds that you mentioned above, i completely agree with you that feuding in hip hop is not dead! It can be seen is rappers music all the time. I find it really interesting that when rappers have beef with someone they simply just address that person in a song. I do think that feuds today are a little different though (as someone above said) artists are fighting over stuff like parking lots or girls.
ReplyDeletehahahahah I thought this post was great it was so funny reading about all these "disses." I have to say though I definitely think that some of these could be staged for the sake of selling records and making rap I guess more "hard." Especially the one involving Drake like c'mon now it's Drake hhaha Regardless though what 50 Cent did was pretty bold posing in the magazine with Rick Ross's baby mama but I wonder what made Rick Ross call him out to begin with?
ReplyDeletei totally think rappers need to rap about more productive things in life.
ReplyDeleteYaaay Andrew! I love love this post. I think you picked some great disses to write about. The Drake vs. Common one is one that I've had so many aruguements about (via Twitetr also). I wish you would've covered the Jay-Z vs. Nas beef because it was really one of the biggest beefs next to Pac vs. Biggie. Also in case you guys didn't know there is a documentary called "Beef" which talks about more disses including the 50 Cent and JaRule one along with others such as Nelly vs. Chingy. It's on Netflix if you want to check it out! Again I LOVE THISSSSS POST lol :)
ReplyDeleteGood post, another great diss song is Real Compton City G's - Eazy-E
ReplyDeleteI didn't know how often current rappers called each other out compared to Biggie and Tupac days, I learned a lot from this post!
ReplyDeleteYour post is really interesting because I never knew about the beefs you discussed. I am so use to hearing about Biggie and Tupac, Nas and Jay-Z, or 50 Cent and Ja Rule. I was caught off guard by the Drake and Common beef because I can't picture either of those rappers dissing anyone. This post really exposed me to some new beefs in hip hop. I enjoyed this blog and the examples you included especially Common's "Stay Schemin Remix."
ReplyDeleteTo me, dissing is a major, yet disrespectful part of HipHop. I don't see why someone would go to such lengths to demean someone else for their own gain. Maybe I'm just "soft" but I don't like this practice
ReplyDelete