- 7 weeks ago
When professional rivalries cross the line, things get messy fast. Join us as we explore the music industry's most explosive feuds that became deeply personal! From legendary hip-hop battles to pop star showdowns, these conflicts involved family drama, lawsuits, and tragically, even violence. Some ended in reconciliation, others in courtrooms, and the most devastating in unspeakable tragedy.
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00:00Do you go jogging like Madonna to keep fit?
00:03Well, you mean like my best friend Madonna?
00:06Yeah.
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:09And today, we're counting down our picks for times when the music industry's biggest professional rivalries went too far.
00:16It's like saying, Frasier and Ali, like, you know, things were said then.
00:21But, you know, it's in the spirit of competition.
00:25Number 10, Madonna and Elton John.
00:27Although it's more of a one-sided feud, this one got awfully mean, awfully fast.
00:33Since when has lip-syncing been live?
00:38Sorry about that, but I think everyone who lip-syncs in public on stage when you pay, like, 75 quid to see them should be shot.
00:44Elton John made several comments about Madonna throughout the years, starting with his dig at her James Bond theme, Die Another Day.
00:52Every few years, John would emerge like a shade monster, awakening from hibernation to accuse her of lip-syncing, going after Lady Gaga, and looking like, quote, a fairground stripper.
01:04He would preface this by saying he's a fan.
01:06If Madonna had had any common sense, she would have made a record like Ray of Light, stayed away from the dance stuff, and just been a great pop singer and make great pop records, which she does brilliantly.
01:16But no, she had to prove that she was like...
01:18Madonna, in response, kept it classy by thanking him for being a fan.
01:23As of 2025, the two have made amends since John asked for forgiveness.
01:28What I said should never have appeared in public.
01:30She was very gracious, she accepted my apology, we bought her dinner, and that's over and done with.
01:35Number 9. Zayn Malik and One Direction
01:39I love those guys. They're my brothers. Niall, Liam, Louie, and Ringo.
01:51First assembled on The X Factor, One Direction was still immensely popular when they began to fracture. Zayn Malik abruptly quit the group in 2015.
02:00I wanted to be the first to go and do my own thing. That was the reason. And then there was obviously underlying issues.
02:05It was like, within our friendships too. We'd been together every day for five years, and we got sick of each other, if we're being completely honest.
02:13The story was that the separation was amicable. But fans watched sadly as the group's conflicts played out on social media.
02:20Malik's comments about the band's output particularly rubbed them the wrong way.
02:25Social media posts between him and bandmate Louis Tomlinson got tense in 2015, with Malik accusing Tomlinson of making harsh comments about his life.
02:35I've never been very good at biting me tongue. Maybe I get it off my mum. But it's just one of those things, you know, Twitter's great for connecting with the fans.
02:44But also, if you feel like saying something that you probably shouldn't, it's also good for that as well. Or bad in this case.
02:49All seemed forgiven after the 2024 death of Liam Payne, when all four of his former bandmates gathered for his funeral.
02:57Number 8. Axl Rose and Slash
03:00Substance use and hard partying sowed division within Guns N' Roses from the outset.
03:05Then, artistic differences crept in when Slash crossed genres to be a session guitarist for pop superstar Michael Jackson.
03:12Rose felt this was at odds with the group's artistic direction, leading him to pull in the reins on the group.
03:25He even tried to get them to sign contracts, giving him total control.
03:29As Axl took over the band and reformed it under Guns N' Roses under his direction, and I chose not to join that configuration. Simple as that.
03:39So you formed another group, right?
03:41I formed another group. A bunch of other bands since then.
03:44Slash would later say that one of the last straws was Rose bringing in another guitarist to play on their cover of the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil.
03:52It felt like the ultimate betrayal.
03:54The two bad-mouthed each other in the press for years before reuniting in 2015.
03:59Every time they bring it up, it just automatically makes you say negative stuff.
04:03And so it's partly my fault, because I generate a lot of ill will just by going out there and saying all kinds of negative stuff.
04:09So at this point, I'm just like, you know, I don't really want, I'm not really bitter about it, and I haven't been for a while.
04:14So I'd just rather not talk about it.
04:16Number 7. Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher.
04:20Right, what question do you think Liam is the most tired of being asked?
04:23Top three answers. One, when's Oasis getting back together? How's your brother Noel? All that nonsense.
04:29Co-founding the British rock band Oasis, the Gallagher brothers have made headlines for years over their fraught relationship.
04:37Their fights became so well publicized that they actually released one of their arguments as a two-sided record.
04:43But it wasn't all fun and games. The feud got physical more than once.
04:47The beef continued even as the band continued its run into the 2000s, becoming a marketable part of their image.
04:52You slap each other on Twitter and then you phone each other up afterwards and have laughed.
04:56Oh God, no, that's well for real, man.
04:58Is it really?
05:00We don't like each of them, man.
05:02The band ultimately broke up in 2009 when the Gallaghers got into another brawl backstage.
05:08Noel left the tour and the group as a result.
05:10Though Oasis got back together for a reunion tour in 2025,
05:15the brothers' decades-long history of trading quips in the media loomed large in everyone's minds.
05:21Oh, who would win most?
05:23Um, it was pretty even towards the end. I did leave on a high, though.
05:29Number six, Ice Cube and NWA.
05:32This one cut deep for a lot of reasons.
05:35It wasn't just a standard professional rivalry.
05:38Once Easy was against me, you know, Jerry convinced Easy I was a troublemaker.
05:43So then Easy started to talk to everybody and then, you know, pretty soon I was the odd man out.
05:49Ice Cube was once a member of NWA, along with original members Dr. Dre and the late Eazy-E.
05:56Disputes over earnings and songwriting credit led to Ice Cube departing the group in 1989
06:01at the very height of their stardom.
06:04The more you look, the more you find.
06:06And, you know, I confronted them and they'd rather, you know, make me the enemy
06:12instead of rectifying the situation, and so I left.
06:18The bad blood was immediate, and so were the diss tracks.
06:22The culmination of their war of words is probably Ice Cube's scathing No Vaseline.
06:26Dr. Dre and Ice Cube eventually reconciled after the death of Eazy-E in 1994.
06:40They've since collaborated again, including on the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton.
06:45It's hard to listen to those songs now, because we cool, you know.
06:48I love Dre and Ren and Eazy and Yella.
06:51Yeah.
06:51You know, they're my guys.
06:52Number 5.
06:53Nas and Jay-Z
06:54You know the beef is bad when somebody's mom has to step in.
06:58Jay was like on the radio, and he was like, yo, you know, mom said chill.
07:03His mom was telling him it was like, and my mom, bless her, was listening.
07:09And I was like, wow, that's what I knew.
07:12We both went too far.
07:13Jay-Z and Nas' beef was a professional competition that got out of hand.
07:17Throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, the rappers engaged in a back and forth of referencing
07:23each other in increasingly insulting lyrics.
07:34Nas' Aether is still considered a legendary diss track, but Jay-Z's response made things
07:40really personal.
07:47On Super Ugly, Jay-Z didn't just take issue with Nas, but also dragged Carmen Bryan, his
07:53own one-time lover and Nas' child's mother, into the feud.
07:57Jay-Z's mom, Gloria Carter, told him he needed to apologize to Nas and Nas' entire family for
08:04that one.
08:04Luckily, they've since patched things up.
08:07We really have a good relationship.
08:08We laugh.
08:09We don't even, that thing is so far past.
08:11And I understand why, you know, even today, that thing is, I guess it's 11 years old, maybe
08:18longer.
08:19And like, people still fascinated with it, but it's so far removed.
08:23It's so far in the background that it's, that, nah, we're not, we're not awkward around
08:28each other at all.
08:28Number four, Kanye West and Taylor Swift.
08:31No one's getting excused from this narrative.
08:33In 2009, Kanye West created a huge splash when he interrupted Taylor Swift's VMA acceptance
08:39speech and declared Beyonce the real winner.
08:42I'm really happy for you.
08:44I'm gonna let you finish.
08:45But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.
08:51One of the best videos of all time.
08:56Things just spiraled from there.
08:58Even President Obama weighed in, calling West a, quote, jackass.
09:03Despite some reconciliations over the years, West continued to mention Swift in his music,
09:07while Swift kept her references a bit more subtle.
09:10There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take
09:17credit for your accomplishments or your fame.
09:21His controversial video for the track Famous, which includes a nude Swift lookalike, became
09:26another sticking point.
09:28Swift's knowledge of the song's content became the topic of controversy involving West and
09:33then-wife Kim Kardashian.
09:35West's political extremism and public antics have reignited the feud, with Swift filing a
09:41lawsuit against him as recently as 2025.
09:44The rapper dropped around a 100 unfiltered post, serving up apologies, accusations, and
09:50a truly wild, fictional threesome featuring Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Harry Styles.
09:57He also claimed that Swift is behind his Super Bowl halftime show snub.
10:01Number 3, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj
10:04She's had beef with Mariah Carey and Lil' Kim.
10:12Things even got physical with Cardi B at New York Fashion Week.
10:16But Nicki Minaj's clash with former collaborator Megan Thee Stallion was the most vicious.
10:21Although their beef had been brewing as early as 2021, it became inflamed by Megan's mention
10:27of Megan's Law in her track Hiss.
10:29This was seen as a dig at Minaj, as her husband and brother are both registered sex offenders.
10:41Minaj launched a war, making social media videos about Megan and referencing the recent death
10:46of her rival's mother.
10:53Minaj's response track, Bigfoot, also publicly mocked Megan's shooting in 2020.
10:58The single was not as critically acclaimed, but fans are still taking sides.
11:04Number 2, Drake and Kendrick Lamar
11:06Although this beef exploded in 2024, it was years in the making.
11:18It was originally a diss track war involving Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole, who had the
11:24good sense to bow out before things got heated.
11:26Things took a turn when Drake dropped Family Matters.
11:29Could have left the kids out of this, don't blame me.
11:32You a dog and you know it, you just play sweet.
11:35The song sees him questioning the paternity of Lamar's son and accusing him of abuse.
11:40This led to an all-out nuclear war, with Lamar dropping some of the most damning, incendiary,
11:46and hilariously catchy diss tracks that had the whole world wrapping along.
11:52The end result?
11:58Lamar won five Grammys and headlined the Super Bowl halftime show, and Drake filed a lawsuit.
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12:20Number 1, The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur
12:24In 1994, rapper and actor Tupac Shakur was the victim of a robbery and shooting.
12:40He accused Christopher Wallace, known by his stage names Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls,
12:47of having known about the attack beforehand.
12:49Wallace's song, Who Shot Ya?, was interpreted as a diss track about the incident.
13:00The feud came to a tragic end when both Shakur and Wallace were murdered in separate drive-by
13:06shootings within six months of each other. Their deaths are believed to be a major catalyst for
13:11the end of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry. Despite at least one arrest and the
13:16identification of several murderers, the lives and deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls
13:22still spark curiosity nearly 30 years later.
13:26I think this is the most effective way to tell the story. It's a convoluted and complicated story,
13:31but at least this helps to put faces to names and put it together.
13:34Did any of these beefs shock you? Let us know in the comments.
13:38I was sitting here thinking about it as I was looking up this story, and I'm like,
13:41it's been going on for so long, since 2019, 2020. I don't know what the issue is.
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