How hip-hop rivalries are fueling the genre Kendrick Lamar’s recent release of a music video for his track “Not Like Us” has gained immediate acclaim, amassing over 13 million views on its debut. Known for his award-winning progressive rap albums, the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist has made waves yet again. This time, it’s for throwing a multitude of diss tracks toward Canadian rapper Drake.
Diss tracks are songs that often come as a result from heated rivalries between two artists. Rivalries resulting in music aren’t new, listen to Paul McCartney’s “Too Many People” and John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” during their post-Beatles careers. Hip-hop has managed to elevate it to the next level with tracks that tend to deepcutting and personal.
In hip-hop’s 51 years of existence, the first known diss record was attributed to Roxanne Shante in 1984, with the release of her “Roxanne’s Revenge.” In the track, Roxanne responds to hip-hop trio U.T.
F.O.'s "Roxanne, Roxanne," wherein the group went into detail about a woman who kept ignoring their advances.
. As a response, U.T.
F.O. released another track to respond to Shante’s song.
Fearless as ever, Shante fought back with more tracks aimed at the group. Eventually, other artists started to make their own tracks centering around the feud, leading to the beef to be referred to as the “Roxanne Wars.” These events were enough to inspire a musical drama film, 2017’s Roxanne, Roxanne, where we followed Sh.
