The Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud has reinvigorated people's taste in hip-hop beefs of all time. Although it has been quite a while since the release of Lamar's Not Like Us shattered a plethora of records, it seems the right time to rank the greatest hip-hop feuds of all time.
From the East Coast vs. West Coast War between Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. to Machine Gun Kelly switching genres because of Eminem's diss track, here are the greatest hip-hop feuds of all time, ranked from damn to hot damn!
It was 2018, and the title of "Rap God" was challenged by Machine Gun Kelly. The tension simmered for years after MGK made a comment about Eminem's daughter, Hailie, on Twitter back in 2012. Eminem finally addressed it on his 2018 album Kamikaze.
On the track Not Alike, Eminem dissed MGK for his earlier comments. MGK responded with the song Rap Devil, a track that mocked Eminem's age with the line "You're old and your beard is weird." For a moment, people thought that MCK had won the beef. However, Eminem dropped Killshot one week later. It wasn't just an ordinary diss. It was a lecture. HE dismantled MGK's career stats, his look, and his ability with the line "I'd rather be 80-year-old me than 20-year-old you."
Killshot broke YouTube records for the biggest hip-hop debut in history at that time. Although Rap Devil was catchy, Killshot was lethal. Shortly after the beef, MGK pivoted almost entirely to the Pop-Punk genre, leading to the long-running joke that Eminem dissed him so hard that he had to switch music genres just to survive.
A recent rap battle that was overshadowed by the Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud, Megan Thee Stallion had a feud with Nicki Minaj. After years of subliminal shots following their collaboration Hot Girl Summer, Megan released Hiss. She included a line about Megan's law (a law regarding s*x offenders), which Nicki took as an attack on her husband and brother.
Both men have had legal histories regarding s*xual misconduct in the past. Nicki spiraled on social media for 72 hours and released Big Foot, which attacked Megan's dead mother and her shooting incident.
Hiss was a precise, flow-heavy track that hit #1 on Billboard. On the other hand, Nicki Minaj's response with Big Foot was more of a spoken-word style rant that was widely panned by critics.
In the end, the winner was decalred to be Megan Thee Stallion. Hiss went #1, and the general public viewed Nicki Minaj's reaction as a crash-out rather than a strategic move, leading to Stallion's victory.
One of the many feuds that Drake was involved in, Drake and Pusha T had been trading jabs for years. When Drake mentioned Pusha's fiancée on a track, Pusha T went nuclear. He did investigative journalism.
On The Story of Adidon, he revealed Drake was hiding a secret son named Adonis with a former adult film star. He also went on to mock Drake's producer for having Multiple Sclerosis. Although Duppy Freestyle by Drake was a solid diss where he invoiced Pusha T for promotional help, The Story of Adidon by Pusha T was a track that shocked the world.
The winner came to be Pusha T. Drake never responded and was actually forced to issue a press release confirming his son's existence. It was a tactical masterclass by Pusha T., and another moment for Drake to lose a feud.
It was 2015. Meek Mill became upset that Drake didn't tweet his album. Going on Twitter, Mill claimed that Drake didn't write his own raps and named "Quentin Miller" as a ghostwriter for Drake.
It was a massive allegation that could have ruined Drake. Instead, Drake turned Meek into a meme. He released Back to Back, a club banger that mocked Meek for being less famous than his girlfriend at the time, Nicki Minaj.
The result? Wanna Know by Meek Mill was a clunky, disjointed reveal of the reference tracks. Drake's Bakc ot Back was the first diss track to be nominated for a Grammy! The winner was, of course, Drake since he proved that the modern audience cared more about a hit song than "purity."
Meek Mill took a massive L, though he eventually rebuilt his respect and career years later after the feud.
From 1999 to 2002, the feud between 50 Cent and Ja Rule continued. The stakes were the heart of commercial rap. The feud started over a robbery and a stabbing, but played out on the charts. Ja Rule was the biggest pop-rapper in the world, dominating radio with R&B collaborations. 50 Cents, the new hungry challenger, painted Ja Rule as a "fake thug" who sang too much.
50 Cent didn't just want to win; he wanted to destroy. Mocking Ja's voice, Cent continued to diss his lyrics and his label (Murder Inc.). The result? 50 Cent's Life on the Line proved to be the early warning shots. His other songs Wanksta and Back Down, proved to be the definitive "career-ender."
50 Cent became the biggest star on the planet, while Ja Rule's credibility evaporated, and he essentially disappeared from the A-list.
The "King of New York" title was left vacant by Biggie. Jay-Z, rising to commercial superstardom, felt Nas had fallen off. On Takeover, Jay-Z delivered a cold, analytical breakdown of Nas's career, famously counting out how many "garbage" albums Nas had released.
The hip-hop world thought Nas was finished. Then Nas dropped Ether. He attacked Jay-Z's soul, calling him a sellout, a copier, and "ugly." Jay-Z's Takeover was a calculated, factual understanding of Nas' business and stats.
However, Nas' Ether was a raw, playground-style insult fest that was so effective, "Ether" became a verb in the dictionary. Although Ether is considered the better diss track, but Jay-Z went on to become wealtheir, more dominant mogul. They eventually reconciled and are friends today.
The "GOAT" status of the 2010s/2020s was up for stake when the Cold War finally went hot. Kendrick Lamar decided there was no "Big Three" (which consisted of Lamar, Drake, and Cole). Being the "Big Me" guy, Kendrick Lamar dropped multiple tracks over a weekend in May. Drake responded with the track Family Matters in which he put some serious allegations on Lamar (though the song was quite catchy).
Kendrick Lamar replied with Meet the Grahams, wherein it was a haunting, horror-movie psychological breakdown of Drake's family. Lastly, Kendrick Lamar dropped Not Like Us, which served as the victory lap in the feud.
Accusing Drake of being a predator, a culture vulture, and a bad father, Not Like Us broke streaming records and united the culture (and the West Coast) against Drake. Not Like Us became the song of the summer, effectively dancing on the grave of the beef.
It was from 1994 to 1997 when coastal dominance and life itself were at stake. Perhaps the most tragic feud in music history, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were once friends. Their relationship was shattered after Tupac was shot in a NY studio in 1994 and accused Biggie (and P. Diddy) of setting him up.
The media fanned the flames, turning a personal dispute in a "East Coast vs. West Coast" war. It escalated from lyrics to real-world violence, resulting in the murders of both icons within six months of each other.
Biggie released a song titled Who Shot Ya? and claimed it wasn't about Tupac, but the timing seemed suspicious. In response, 2Pac released Hit 'Em Up, which is widely accepted as the most disrespectful diss track ever. Pac claimed to have slept with Biggie's wife (Faith Evans) and threatened the entire Bad Boy staff by name.
No one emerged as the victor, as both men died at 24 and 25 years old. The feud serves as a permanent reminder of how dangerous hip-hop "feuds" can become when the lines between art and street life blur.
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