Evolution of Hip Hop Diss Tracks Part 1 (1985-1995)

(1985) The Roxanne Wars: A battle started when UTFO made a song that seemed to slander The Juice Crews Roxanne Shanté

(1986-1988) The Bridge Wars: Mr Magic had reportedly dismissed KRS and his producer, DJ Scott La Rock and called them wack before they got popular. KRS actually used a cover up saying the beef started because of MC Shan’s song, The Bridge, where KRS supposedly misunderstood Shan saying hip hop originated in Queens. But again, that was KRS’ cover up, the real reason being what Mr Magic did. Blaq Poet and his producer, Rockwell Noel diss BDP in defense of Queens.

(1987-1991) Kool Moe Dee vs LL Cool J: Moe Dee is petty and disses LL for supposedly stealing his style

(1988) Bridge Wars Continued: Scott La Rock is later killed in a shooting after trying to save fellow BDP producer, D-Nice, but the beef resumes when Butchy B does the same as Poet

(1988) MC Lyte vs MC Antoinette: Antoinette sampled Lyte which at the time was considered very disrespectful. Fun fact, the hook in 10% Dis was actually used in 2Pac’s, Hit Em’ Up, on E.D.I. Means verse

(1988) NWA vs the police: police brutality ig

(1989) Kool G Rap vs Ex Gf: idk if this is a true story but he disses an ex that left him for a supposedly gay drug dealer

(1989) Cool C disses The Juice Crew cuz of BDP dissing them but its kinda irrelevant at that point

(1990-2006) MC Eiht vs DJ Quik: Eiht’s group, Compton’s Most Wanted, releases Def Wish where DJ Quik misunderstands a bar and believes they dissed him. He then throws shade on a song I can’t find, CMW responds, this is actually the longest beef, lasting 16 years, they didn’t constantly diss in this time frame, they just never squashed it for 16 years

(1990-1991) NWA vs Ice Cube: NWA’s manager, Jerry Heller, sells Cubes contract, Cube leaves, drama starts

(1992-1997) Tim Dogg vs Compton and Quik: ig he doesn’t like the west and Quik defends it, also this started West vs East

(1992-1995) Ruthless vs Death Row: NWA breaks up, Dre forms death row records, Dre and Eazy-E then diss each other on a big back and forth, probably cuz Heller sold Dre’s contract as well

(1995) Tha Dogg Pound vs CNN: not the news station, basically Tha Dogg Pound is mistaken for dissing 2Pac. Out of respect, Capone-N-Noreaga, Mobb Deep, and the mentors of the groups, Tragedy Khadafi, release a diss track on Tha Dogg Pound out of respect for Pac. This actually ended up with Pac dissing Mobb Deep, ironic

(1995-1996) Common vs Westside Slaughterhouse: Common says west coast rap influenced gangsta rap, this causes Cube’s new group to diss Common


Verdicts:

Roxanne Wars: hard to say who won considering just how much diss tracks their were, plus it eventually got difficult to tell who was dissing who. But I would say the East Coast Crew won because they managed to end the entire thing with just one track

The Bridge Wars: Bronx absolutely takes the win here. First of all, KRS had to deal with multiple top tier rappers, Shan, Poet, and Butchy B, all he had help from was Cool C who was okay, as well as the other two of BDP’s 3 core members, D-Nice and Scott, both of which weren’t even rappers but producers. Not to mention he also had to deal with the death of Scott while still managing to put out two great albums with great diss tracks. Also, The Bridge is Over is arguably the most influential diss track ever as it’s what really pioneered diss culture

Kool Moe Dee vs LL Cool J: difficult to say who won. I might give the win to LL because he was able to make some amazing disses at such a young age while also going at Ice T and MC Hammer, but then again Kool Moe Dee was ruthless and straight vicious

MC Lyte vs MC Antoinette: Lyte wins easily

NWA vs The Police: seeing as the police never made a diss track and the fact that Fuck Tha Police still stands to this day with cold hard facts, NWA 100% wins

Kool G Rap vs Ex girlfriend and drug dealer: Kool G Rap obviously won

NWA vs Ice Cube: Cube wins obviously, who tf would diss their own (former) song writer

MC Eiht vs DJ Quik: the longest hip hop feud, its very tough. I would say DJ Quik made the best diss track in that beef, that being Dollaz + Sense, but overall i would say Eiht was more consistently hard hitting with his tracks. Quik for individual, Eiht for in general

Tim Dogg vs The West
Seeing as Dre and Quik only took a few shots at Tim, but other than that no one gave a full response, maybe it’s my east coast bias but i say Tim wins here

Eazy-E vs Dr Dre: close but Eazy takes this as he was able to make money off of Dre’s own disses as well really rip up the gangster image of Dre and Snoop

Death Row vs Ruthless: its close but i say Ruthless

West Duos vs East Duos: west duos never gave a full response, plus L.A. L.A. was very good, again, may be my east coast bias, but East wins

Westside Connection vs Common: Common wins, he was able to really go hard at WC and Mack 10 and especially Cube, showing that Common wasn’t one to fuck around with