Top 10 Iconic Hip Hop Feuds
These hip-hop feuds are the stuff of music industry legend! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most infamously legendary beefs in the history of hip-hop!
Transcript
00:00 Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the most infamously legendary
00:12 beefs in the history of hip hop.
00:19 Number 10.
00:20 Gucci Mane vs. Jeezy The year was 2005 and the rapper then known
00:25 as Young Jeezy was working on his third LP Let's Get It Thug Motivation 101.
00:36 That same year, Gucci Mane was readying his debut album, Trap House, which featured a
00:40 collaboration with Jeezy titled Icy.
00:48 Then apparently without warning and without paying Jeezy, the song would be the subject
00:53 of royalty disputes when it appeared on Gucci's album.
00:56 This conflict quickly escalated to a deadly point when Gucci was the focus of a home invasion
01:01 that left one Jeezy associate, Pookie Loke, dead.
01:05 The feud continued from there.
01:07 However, a shared performance on Versus in 2020 indicated that those two Atlanta legends
01:12 still have each other's admiration.
01:22 Number 9.
01:23 Eminem vs. Benzino There is no denying the influence that magazine
01:27 The Source has historically possessed over hip hop's meteoric rise within the public
01:32 consciousness.
01:33 However, the founder of said magazine, Benzino, was eventually himself part of one of the
01:41 art form's most brutal beefs.
01:43 The opposition?
01:44 None other than Eminem, who has never been shy about entering a war of words with just
01:50 about anyone.
01:57 Tensions rose after The Source gave Em's Marshall Mathers LP "Negative Press," resulting
02:02 in a back and forth between both parties.
02:05 Benzino's diss track "Pull Ya Skirt Up" may have been an opening volley, but Eminem's
02:12 "Bell in the Coffin" proved to be a proverbial, self-fulfilling prophecy for Benzino.
02:22 Number 8.
02:23 B.D.P. vs. Juice Crew The acronym for B.D.P. stands for Boogie Down
02:27 Productions, an early force for hip hop greatness back in the 1980s.
02:36 This group from the South Bronx beefed with the Queensbridge Juice Crew, headed by DJ
02:41 Marley Marl.
02:42 Marl and MC Shanz "The Bridge" helped give this feud its eventual name, "The Bridge
02:47 Wars," evolving over a dispute that attempted to firmly nail down the birthplace of hip
02:51 hop.
02:52 B.D.P.'s South Bronx was a callback for the ages, and pretty soon, rappers from all
03:04 across New York were getting in on the action.
03:12 Ultimately however, it was fans of the genre that won out, since so many of these songs
03:17 went on to become stone cold classics.
03:23 Number 7.
03:24 Lil' Kim vs. Foxy Brown There were a lot of questions on the minds
03:29 of hip hop fans back in the late 90s, but one of them almost certainly had to be who
03:34 would come out on top in 1996.
03:37 Lil' Kim or Foxy Brown?
03:43 Both were fast rising female stars within a world that was historically speaking, not
03:48 the best in its treatment of women.
03:55 Yet here were two lady MCs following in the footsteps of giants like Roxanne Shante and
04:01 MC Lyte.
04:02 Would they beef?
04:03 The short answer would be yes, and quite viciously at that.
04:12 These former schoolyard friends traded insults in song, while real world bullets rang outside
04:17 of the doors of New York's Hot 97, allegedly in response to a Brown diss track.
04:27 To this day, the pair still have yet to formally reconcile.
04:36 Number 6.
04:37 LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe D The entertainment world can often be like
04:41 a competitive sport, in that the new blood will always rise to take place of an older
04:45 guard.
04:51 Kool Moe D is certainly a legend within the medium, and perceived the rise of LL Cool
04:55 J back in the 80s with an aura of disrespect.
05:02 LL in response didn't shy away from calling out Kool Moe D, and defended himself against
05:07 accusations that his flow and visual aesthetic had been copped from this hip-hop elder statesman.
05:16 Thankfully, this rivalry didn't end up with any fatalities or anything serious of that
05:22 nature.
05:23 But the feud did provide LL Cool J with one of his best known hits, "Mama Said Knock
05:28 You Out."
05:33 Number 5.
05:34 Drake vs. Pusha T Superstar rapper and one time Degrassi actor,
05:38 Drake has been the subject of multiple feuds over the course of his career.
05:47 His beef with Meek Mill was certainly notable, but it's perhaps this conflict with Pusha
05:52 T that proved to be the most explosive.
05:55 This was thanks primarily to Pusha T's scorched earth comeback track.
06:04 Not so much a song as it's a verbal conflagration.
06:07 The story of Adidon-schooled Drake with such viciousness and skill, there wasn't much
06:12 else he could say in response.
06:19 Everything from cover photos of Drake in blackface to the revelation that the Canadian
06:23 actually had fathered a child in secret have become the stuff of hip-hop legend.
06:28 Talk about a mic drop!
06:35 Number 4.
06:36 Eazy-E vs. Dr. Dre The hip-hop mega force known as N.W.A. burned
06:40 too brightly to last, resulting in an explosive breakup that served as the smoldering embers
06:46 to new feuds and rivalries.
06:52 One of them was a public war of words with Ice Cube, but it's perhaps the spat between
06:57 Eazy-E and Dr. Dre that stoked those fires even higher.
07:05 There are allusions to Cube within the lyrics to the hit "Dray Day," but the song primarily
07:09 targets Eazy, while the accompanying video depicts him as a useless has-been.
07:14 Eazy-E, in retaliation, used Dre's real-life association with the more glamorous and very
07:25 80s-looking group World Class Wrecking Crew as a means to expose the doctor as a tourist
07:30 to the streets rather than a real G.
07:36 Number 3.
07:37 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule A lot of hip-hop fans of a certain age will
07:41 remember where they were back in the 2000s when this legendary beef was going down.
07:49 It was almost comical to watch the video disses and lyrical insults hurl between 50 Cent and
07:54 Ja Rule during this time, primarily because the end results were so personal.
08:05 The pair have never really given up the ghost either, with memories of songs like "Wanksta"
08:10 and "Loose Change" still reverberating within hip-hop's cultural zeitgeist.
08:19 Does anyone, Ja Rule or 50 Cent included, even remember what they were beefing about
08:25 in the first place?
08:33 Number 2.
08:34 Jay-Z vs. Nas There might never be another hip-hop feud
08:37 in history that's given the genre's fans such a varied embarrassment of musical riches.
08:49 That's because this beef between two industry icons, Nas and Jay-Z, was both powerful and
08:54 creative, perhaps underlying how this rivalry potentially fueled both men's creativity.
09:06 Nas for his part, will always be celebrated for his landmark Illmatic LP, while Jay-Z
09:11 continues his reign as one of the genre's most successful entrepreneurs.
09:20 This is another beef with nebulous historical evidence as to its true origins, with its
09:25 legacy ultimately tying more into the music that was created during this time.
09:29 Want proof?
09:30 Just check out the Nas track "Ether" as an example of the diss track taken to a level
09:34 of high art.
09:41 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
09:45 Cardi B vs. Nicki Minaj A war of words
09:48 50 Cent vs. The Game Nobody's playing nice
10:03 Cannabis vs. LL Cool J New School meets old school
10:07 Redux Ice Cube vs. Common
10:15 A coastal disagreement Roxanne Shante vs. The Real Roxanne
10:25 A.K.A. The Roxanne Wars
10:49 Tupac vs. Biggie There was a laser focus brought down upon
10:53 this feud between one-time friends turned into bitter rivals, Tupac Shakur and the notorious
10:57 B.I.G.
11:04 This feud was a wake-up call to how the fantasy of music industry artifice can sometimes possess
11:09 real-world consequences.
11:11 It was a beef that was more than just about Tupac vs. Biggie, East vs. West, or even Shakur's
11:17 class with the East-Queens duo Mobb Deep.
11:19 Instead, it signified hip-hop as an art form in flux, with a lot of moving parts, a lot
11:24 to gain, and a lot of attention paid to all of its chess pieces.
11:33 It's so tragic that the end results were two of hip-hop's leading voices silenced in their
11:39 prime.
11:45 Which hip-hop beef still gets you all riled up?
11:48 Let us know in the comments down below!
12:01 [Music]
12:10 (upbeat music)