The best rap beefs? Been there. The most memorable diss tracks? We’ve done that.
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Now it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty and highlight what makes a good diss track—the bars.
What an MC says on a diss track decides who comes out on top in their respective beefs. It’s not whether it can be played in the club or if you can dance to it. It’s about what a rapper says.
Being that we are about words here, we decided to examine the most scathing and disrespectful lines in beef history:
“My .44 make sure…”
Sorry if anyone gets mad or disagrees, but “Hit ‘Em Up” is still the greatest diss track of all time, and it’s because of bars like this one. “My .44 make sure all your kids don’t grow.” Pac is literally threatening the lives of children. It doesn’t get more brutal than that.”
“OVO 40 hunched over…”
It’s easy to understand why Drake didn’t respond to Pusha T’s “Story of Adidon.” The Toronto rapper’s close friend, OVO 40, has multiple sclerosis and Pusha had no problem counting down the days Drizzy’s close friend has to live. He rapped, “OVO 40, hunched over like he 80, tick, tick, tick/How much time he got? That man is sick, sick, sick/I got the devil flow, n***a, six-six-six/Surgical summer with it, snip, snip, snip.”
“Yella Boy’s on your team, so you’re losin’…”
There’s a reason not many people (other than Common) have gone at Ice Cube. He even admitted that he was shocked that N.W.A. dissed him on “100 Miles and Runnin” and “Niggaz4Life.” As a result, Cube gave them a little warm up on “Jackin’ For Beats” and then ended them on “No Vaseline,” go at each member of the crew.
“Yella Boy’s on your team, so you’re losin’/Ay yo Dre, stick to producin’ / Callin’ me Arnold, but you been-a-d**k/Eazy-E saw your ass and went in it quick,” and “Half-pint bitch, f****n’ your homeboys / You little maggot, Eazy-E turned f****t.”
“When these streets keep callin’, heard it when I was asleep…”
You know someone did their job on a diss track when their song turns into a verb. Nas did his thing on “Ether” and attacked Jay-Z’s entire character, including questioning his sexuality. “When these streets keep callin’, heard it when I was asleep/That Gay Z and C*ck-A-Fella Records wanted beef”
“You’s a pop tart sweetheart…”
The hate 50 Cent holds for Ja Rule has to be studied, and he let it all out on “Back Down.” I know everyone is caught up in how much Kendrick hates Drake, but 50 takes it to another level. “You’s a Pop Tart, sweetheart, you soft in the middle/I eat you for breakfast, the watch was exchanged for your necklace”
“Used to be my homie, used to be my ace…”
Dr. Dre did not like how Eazy-E tried to keep him on Ruthless Records despite his desire to be with Suge Knight on Death Row. He let out all of his frustration on “Dre Day,” telling Eazy, “Used to be my homie, used to be my ace/Now I wanna slap the taste out yo’ mouth/Make you bow down to the Row/F****n’ me, now I’m f****n’ you, little h*.”
“You love her, then you gotta give the world to her…”
Drake straight up clowned Meek Mill on “Back to Back,” taking shots at the Philadelphia rapper’s then-relationship with Nicki Minaj, saying, “You love her, then you gotta give the world to her/Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?”
He later added, “Yeah, trigger fingers turn to Twitter fingers/You gettin’ bodied by a singin’ n***a/I’m not the type of n***a that’ll type to n****s/And shout-out to all my boss b*****s wife’n n****s.”
“A b***h n***a wit an attitude named Cube…”
I know everyone sees Common as a nice, respectable guy, but boy did he walk down Ice Cube on “The B***h in Yoo,” saying, “A b***h n***a wit an attitude named Cube/Step to the Com wit’ a feud/Now what the f**k I look like dissing a whole coast/You ain’t made s**t dope since AmeriKKKa’s Most.” If anything, you just gotta respect Common for dissing the man who created “No Vaseline,” and coming out on the other side.
“Don’t one of you n****s…”
Like what was said earlier, “Hit ‘Em Up” is the greatest diss track of all time, so it’s only right we include another line on this list. He didn’t even rap these bars, Pac just simply took a shot at Prodigy’s condition, saying, “Don’t one of you n****s got sickle cell or sum’.
“You are hiding a child…”
How could we mention “The Story of Adidon” and not include the biggest revelation on this track? Pusha T surprised hip-hop fans everywhere when said, “You are hiding a child let that boy come home/Deadbeat motherf****r playing border patrol.
“I c**e in your Bentley backseat…”
There’s a reason Hov’s mother asked him to apologize for releasing “Supa Ugly.” He said many x-rated lines, including, “I c**e in your Bentley backseat, S*****d in your Jeep/Left condoms on your baby seat/Here, n***a, the gloves is off, the love is done/It’s whatever, whenever, however, n***a, one/And since you infatuated with saying that gay s**t/Yes, you was kissing my d**k when you was kissing that b***h.” I know Nas was considered the winner of this beef, but damn those are scathing bars toward the Queens legend.
“I think the n***a just mad ’cause I f**ked his ex…”
I get it, Gucci Mane may not be as lyrical as other MCs, but he still gets the job done with these extremely direct bars on “Truth,” which was aimed right at his rival, Young Jeezy. “I think the n***a just mad ’cause I f****d his ex/And I’m a big dog, he got the lil boy complex/Go dig your partna up, n***a, bet he can’t say s**t/And if you looking for the kid I’ll be in Zone 6.”
This is the type of beef that many rappers do not want to get into.
“See, you’re a wannabe…”
People tried to play in Eazy-E’s face, saying that he didn’t write his own rhymes. Although it was true, he was tired of hearing the criticism and silenced Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and all of Death Row with “See, you’s a wannabe Loc and you’ll get smoked and I hope that your fans understand when you talk about sprayin’ me/the same records that you makin’ is payin’ me.”
”That fat n***a thought ‘Lean Back’ was ‘In Da Club’…”
50 Cent is one of the best rappers at creating diss tracks. So it’s only right that he’s on this list multiple times. This time around, he gave Fat Joe the work in his long-time feud with Ja Rule and many others, saying, “That fat n***a thought ‘Lean Back’ was ‘In Da Club’/My s**t sold 11 mill, his s**t was a dud/Jada, don’t f**k with me if you wanna eat/’Cause I’ll do yo little a*s like Jay did Mobb Deep/Yeah, homie, in New York n***as like your vocals/But that’s only New York, dawg, yo’ a*s is local.”
”So why don’t you wise up, show all the people in the place that you are wack…”
Gotta recognize the OGs. In one of the earlier diss tracks on record. KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions took aim at the Juice Crew and the entire Queensbridge borough, saying, “o why don’t you wise up, show all the people in the place that you are wack/Instead of tryna take out LL, you need to take your homeboys off the crack.”
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