Top 10 Iconic Hip Hop Feuds

WatchMojo

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)

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