Where's the Beef? The Greatest Diss Tracks in Hip Hop
May 9, 2024 1:59 PM Subscribe
The Ringer- Greatest Diss Tracks of All Time, Ranked As the Kendrick Lamar/ Drake feud continues (apparently won by Kendrick at this point), the Ringer looks over their listing of great diss tracks in hip-hop. At the Root, Noah McGee provides a different list. Alex Petridis also weighs in on the subject at the Grauniad.
Just as a note: the security guard, it says in CCBC’s note, is in ‘serious condition’. I couldn’t find anything speaking of his/her death.
posted by kfholy at 2:23 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
posted by kfholy at 2:23 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
Wikipedia calls Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" a diss track aimed at Hank Williams. I'm skeptical but open to being convinced.
In that spirit I think of Flatt and Scruggs' "Pearl, Pearl, Pearl" as an early bluegrass diss track.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:26 PM on May 9
In that spirit I think of Flatt and Scruggs' "Pearl, Pearl, Pearl" as an early bluegrass diss track.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:26 PM on May 9
That's quite a list on the Ringer link.
Late night TV personality, social media influencer, celebrity DJ, and former college radio artist Questlove said "hip hop is dead" in response to the Drake/K Dot beef which . . . doesn't make sense? Look at this list? Beefs make up half the lore of the genre. And the genre is a pretty mean genre to begin with. I don't understand the pearl clutching.
(Also I don't think we should assume the shooting at Drake's place was necessarily linked until an investigation decides so. There was a surely unrelated break-in attempt at his house the next day. Bad things happen, sometimes celebrities are the target of those bad things.)
posted by kensington314 at 4:02 PM on May 9 [2 favorites]
Late night TV personality, social media influencer, celebrity DJ, and former college radio artist Questlove said "hip hop is dead" in response to the Drake/K Dot beef which . . . doesn't make sense? Look at this list? Beefs make up half the lore of the genre. And the genre is a pretty mean genre to begin with. I don't understand the pearl clutching.
(Also I don't think we should assume the shooting at Drake's place was necessarily linked until an investigation decides so. There was a surely unrelated break-in attempt at his house the next day. Bad things happen, sometimes celebrities are the target of those bad things.)
posted by kensington314 at 4:02 PM on May 9 [2 favorites]
Also I didn't realize that "Hit 'Em Up" was the consensus #1 diss track. That would have never occurred to me. I mean, definitely one of the primary cultural moments in the 90s, up there with like, Beanie Babies and two terrible Woodstocks just in terms of Things That Definitely Did Happen In the 1990s. But it rates over "The Bridge Is Over" or "Ether?" I like the song but was surprised to see it in the top slot in multiple lists.
posted by kensington314 at 4:05 PM on May 9
posted by kensington314 at 4:05 PM on May 9
Well, there is now a homicide. How does that score in the World of Diss?
Rappers That Died After Making Diss Songs.
posted by Pendragon at 4:11 PM on May 9
Rappers That Died After Making Diss Songs.
posted by Pendragon at 4:11 PM on May 9
Pickman's Model: Not Williams, but Hank Thompson who had a song with the line, "I didn't know God made honky-tonk angels."
posted by CCBC at 5:34 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
posted by CCBC at 5:34 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
former college radio artist Questlove said "hip hop is dead" in response to the Drake/K Dot beef
Oh wow, i really want to read that. I had mourned hip hop after P Diddy arose as the first Rap Capitalist by dancing on 2pac s grave. All about the Benjamins,, to me, is Hip Hop's death knell. But now his empire is falling, or at least his institution is in decay.
Drake's ascendance as a hip hop arttist, 100% unaccountable to any community, seems like another signifier that hip hop might mean nothing.
I had taken Kendrick Lamar's social discipline of Drake, the current Uber vulture of hip hop culture, as a sign that hip hop might yet live. Am I fooled?
posted by eustatic at 5:35 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
Oh wow, i really want to read that. I had mourned hip hop after P Diddy arose as the first Rap Capitalist by dancing on 2pac s grave. All about the Benjamins,, to me, is Hip Hop's death knell. But now his empire is falling, or at least his institution is in decay.
Drake's ascendance as a hip hop arttist, 100% unaccountable to any community, seems like another signifier that hip hop might mean nothing.
I had taken Kendrick Lamar's social discipline of Drake, the current Uber vulture of hip hop culture, as a sign that hip hop might yet live. Am I fooled?
posted by eustatic at 5:35 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
CCBC: good catch, it was indeed Hank Thompson not Hank Williams. Mea culpa, I done mixed up my Hanks.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 5:37 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 5:37 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
It's a good list but to my mind Adidon and Ether are 1 and 2.
posted by saladin at 6:25 PM on May 9 [2 favorites]
posted by saladin at 6:25 PM on May 9 [2 favorites]
As the Kendrick Lamar/ Drake feud continues (apparently won by Kendrick at this point)
Apparently, I'm an aging white Gen X'er whose formative hip hop experiences were in the 1990s & even I know that the Kendrick vs. Drake feud is more mismatched than Bambi vs. Godzilla. Apparently won? More like, "Stop Kendrick, he's already dead."
D. R. A. K. E. = Don't. Rap. Against. Kendrick. Ever.
posted by jonp72 at 10:05 PM on May 9 [5 favorites]
Apparently, I'm an aging white Gen X'er whose formative hip hop experiences were in the 1990s & even I know that the Kendrick vs. Drake feud is more mismatched than Bambi vs. Godzilla. Apparently won? More like, "Stop Kendrick, he's already dead."
D. R. A. K. E. = Don't. Rap. Against. Kendrick. Ever.
posted by jonp72 at 10:05 PM on May 9 [5 favorites]
won?
posted by fairmettle at 11:20 PM on May 9
posted by fairmettle at 11:20 PM on May 9
Honestly Drake's song "Push Ups" is the best Drake song I've heard in ... five years? Eight years? I think I understand the urge to hate on Drake but it is the same urge that was in 50 vs Ja Rule, or Kool Moe Dee vs LL. The beautiful thing about rap music is there's a place for everyone and authenticity, while cherished, is a weird game that no one wins. Kendrick is better than Drake in all ways except the pocketbook ways, though.
posted by kensington314 at 12:43 AM on May 10
posted by kensington314 at 12:43 AM on May 10
I had mourned hip hop after P Diddy arose as the first Rap Capitalist by dancing on 2pac s grave
He was probably most literally dancing on Biggie's grave, however mournfully over a Police bassline.
But rap was always capitalist. Find me an early BDP song where KRS isn't talking about selling drugs, or even sex. Or an Eric B and Rakim photo without large bills, chains, or cars being flaunted. Rap music is a funhouse mirror reflecting America back to itself. "Oh you have your boot on my throat? Fuck you, I'll succeed on your own terms, spit in your face, and tell your children all about it."
posted by kensington314 at 12:49 AM on May 10
He was probably most literally dancing on Biggie's grave, however mournfully over a Police bassline.
But rap was always capitalist. Find me an early BDP song where KRS isn't talking about selling drugs, or even sex. Or an Eric B and Rakim photo without large bills, chains, or cars being flaunted. Rap music is a funhouse mirror reflecting America back to itself. "Oh you have your boot on my throat? Fuck you, I'll succeed on your own terms, spit in your face, and tell your children all about it."
posted by kensington314 at 12:49 AM on May 10
Vikings dissed each other in many forms, among others in song (nidvise in modern Norwegian spelling). It most often ended with bloodshed, so modern hip-hop is quite tame by comparison.
posted by Harald74 at 1:51 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]
posted by Harald74 at 1:51 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]
No mention of Go Your Own Way vs. Dreams/Silver Springs?
Nothing like making your enemy accompany your diss track on stage while you stare daggers through their soul.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:17 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]
Nothing like making your enemy accompany your diss track on stage while you stare daggers through their soul.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:17 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]
My favorite rap diss track is Eminem vs Will Smith, even though I generally like Will Smith's music better than Eminem's. But this line is funny.
My favorite rock diss track is Warning Parental Advisory by John Wesley Harding and Steve Wynn, which disses Richard Marx, Phil Collins, Heart, LA Guns, Poison, Warrant, and Elton John, who they get a offensive with.
Warrant also with Ode to Tipper Gore, which drove both of the songs above as she and a bunch of busybody Congressional wives were trying to get music with offensive lyrics banned, but were crushed by Twisted Sister and John Denver and had to settle for 'explicit warning' stickers. Also why not all of us were pissed he lost to GW Bush, especially since Clinton had just enacted an legislative policy agenda that should have made Republicans extremely happy, but instead was impeached. It's was certainly clear it's not about policy but about sides, even then. This isn't even a song, it's just a minute of swears from Warrant Live Shows.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:26 AM on May 10
My favorite rock diss track is Warning Parental Advisory by John Wesley Harding and Steve Wynn, which disses Richard Marx, Phil Collins, Heart, LA Guns, Poison, Warrant, and Elton John, who they get a offensive with.
Warrant also with Ode to Tipper Gore, which drove both of the songs above as she and a bunch of busybody Congressional wives were trying to get music with offensive lyrics banned, but were crushed by Twisted Sister and John Denver and had to settle for 'explicit warning' stickers. Also why not all of us were pissed he lost to GW Bush, especially since Clinton had just enacted an legislative policy agenda that should have made Republicans extremely happy, but instead was impeached. It's was certainly clear it's not about policy but about sides, even then. This isn't even a song, it's just a minute of swears from Warrant Live Shows.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:26 AM on May 10
Final diss track:
Soul Asylum wrote a song and had a video about runaway children, with actual public service bumper pictures of missing children.
Seaweed took the low road, and made a diss video about stolen bikes, with the same bumpers of missing bicycles, and a Bevis and Butthead duo out stealing them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:56 AM on May 10
Soul Asylum wrote a song and had a video about runaway children, with actual public service bumper pictures of missing children.
Seaweed took the low road, and made a diss video about stolen bikes, with the same bumpers of missing bicycles, and a Bevis and Butthead duo out stealing them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:56 AM on May 10
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posted by CCBC at 2:06 PM on May 9