Top 10 Most Notable Music Beefs and Feuds
A lot of artists get into beefs or feuds with each other. It can be because of jealousy, an embarrassment, a fight, an argument, a rap diss, dishonesty, and many other things. Some feuds turn out to end when both or one of them dies, or never became friends.
It was the biggest feud the music industry had seen, escalating the West Coast-East Coast rivalry into violence, and also fueling the Death Row-Bad Boy beef. Initially, Tupac and Biggie were friends, but this changed quickly. On November 30, 1994, Tupac was supposed to meet Biggie and Puff Daddy, but he was shot five times and robbed. As Tupac was taken out, he gave the finger to the Bad Boy staff. Two days later, Tupac was convicted of sexual abuse. Tupac interpreted the song "Who Shot Ya" from Biggie's Ready to Die as a taunt directed at him, even though it was recorded before the shooting.
When Tupac's All Eyez on Me album was released in 1996 by Death Row Records, it featured disses targeting many East Coast rappers, including Nas. When the song "How Do U Want It" was released as a single, the B-side was "Hit 'Em Up," a track aimed at Biggie Smalls and the rest of the Bad Boy crew.
On September 7, 1996, Tupac was shot in a drive-by shooting and died six days later. Shortly after his death, Biggie told an interviewer that he never hated Tupac. A year later, Snoop Dogg and Puff Daddy held a press conference calling for an end to the feud, which had claimed Tupac's life. However, the efforts were unsuccessful, as Biggie was shot and killed a month later, ending the feud and changing hip hop forever. After their deaths, they became hip hop legends, and their legacy will live on.
It all began in 1982 when Michael Jackson's Thriller outsold Prince's 1999. Prince then released his biggest hit album, Purple Rain, which also served as the soundtrack to the movie he starred in. Before that, he and Michael were called up to perform by James Brown, who was Michael's biggest influence.
When Jackson started the project for "We Are the World," featuring mostly artists from the Columbia/CBS, Universal, and Warner Bros. labels, it was a charity single for Africa. The supergroup was named USA for Africa because Africa was struggling to afford food, shelter, and other necessities.
Michael invited Prince to join the project, but Prince refused. He also refused to do a duet and a music video for "Bad." One of Jackson's friends, Will.I.am, said he tried to make peace in 2006 when they were working on a project that was never finished or released. Jackson called Prince "a meanie" for playing an aggressive guitar solo in front of his face. Three years later, Michael died, and Prince passed away seven years later.
The two met in 1986 and were already friends before the formation of N.W.A. In 1991, Dre was having problems with manager Jerry Heller, so he told Eazy-E that he had to choose between Heller and Dre. A couple of days later, Eazy-E called Jerry and said he wanted to keep him as his manager. As a result, Eazy-E was forced to release Dr. Dre and The D.O.C. from Ruthless to help form Death Row Records. When Dre's first solo album, The Chronic, was released, he dissed Eazy-E in the song "Dre Day," which angered him. Eazy then struck back with "Real Muthaphuckkin G's," challenging Dre's street credibility.
In 1995, Eazy-E contracted AIDS. When Dre heard about it, he visited Eazy-E to discuss collaborating together, wanting to create good memories instead of bad ones. However, their time together was cut short when Eazy-E died. A year later, Dre told the staff of Death Row that he was leaving the label to form Aftermath Entertainment.
Such an infamous beef that gave birth to some great diss tracks. However, it wasn't much of a contest.
The feud began at the 2009 VMAs when West infamously interrupted Swift, saying "Imma let you finish" on the mic in front of millions of viewers. The rapper admitted he was "being rude." When he released the song "Famous" in 2016, he rapped about Swift, saying, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b**ch famous." West was mentioned as one of Taylor's enemies in "Look What You Made Me Do," released the following year.
In 2003, rapper Benzino, also a co-owner of The Source, released a diss track called "Pull Your Skirt Up" aimed directly at Eminem, accusing him of being a tool of the music industry. Eminem was discovered by The Source in the "Unsigned Hype" section by writer Rigo Morales in March 1998.
The following year, Eminem's old demo tapes were found and sent to The Source, featuring his insults towards black women and use of the N-word. The demo included a song called "Foolish Pride," recorded in the late 1980s after Eminem was "dumped" by his African-American girlfriend. Eminem responded with two tracks titled "Nail in the Coffin" and "The Sauce." Benzino also responded with more tracks. As a result, Shady/Aftermath ads were pulled from hip hop magazine XXL, which had also been dissed by Eminem in the song "Marshall Mathers" from The Marshall Mathers LP.
After the tapes were released, Eminem apologized, explaining that there weren't many black people where he grew up and that his old demos were childish. He was forgiven by the hip hop community and his fans but criticized The Source for releasing the songs without his legal permission. A judge ruled that only 30-second clips of two songs from the demos could be released. They were included on a CD extra in The Source's February 2004 issue.
It began in 1996 when Jay-Z asked Nas to rap on one of his tracks, but Nas never showed up. Jay considered it a snub, leading to years of diss tracks between the two. In 2001, Jay-Z released a freestyle about sleeping with Carmen Bryan, the mother of Nas' daughter, Destiny. Even Jay's mother was upset and demanded her son apologize to Nas. The two finally became friends in 2005 when Nas appeared on stage with Jay-Z. They performed a few songs together, delighting their fans.
When Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson, the couple already known for their infamous bootleg-released sex tape, filed for divorce in 1998, Lee took Anderson's phone and harassed Kid Rock. Rock said that next time, they would come face to face.
This happened at the 2007 VMAs when Lee allegedly jumped into Rock's seat while he was in the restroom. The two had a physical fight during the broadcast, and Rock punched him until security intervened. Lee was immediately kicked out of the VMAs, and Rock pled guilty to assault.
The feud began in 1999 when Ja Rule was robbed and believed that 50 Cent was behind it. It was also around the time when Ja Rule became popular, while 50 Cent was about to achieve breakthrough success after signing with Eminem and Dr. Dre. Shortly after the incident, 50 released a diss track targeting Ja Rule and the rest of the Murder Inc. crew.
The following year, 50 was stabbed in a recording studio and later shot nine times in front of his grandmother's house. Authorities later believed it was a plot planned by Murder Inc. to kill 50.
When Nirvana first came on the scene, Axl Rose, the lead vocalist of Guns N' Roses, was a big fan of the band and their new alternative and grunge rock sound. However, Cobain badmouthed him and his band, which led Rose to fight back.
During one of Rose's shows, he called Cobain "a f***in' junkie with a junkie wife." The feud ended when Cobain committed suicide in 1994.
Why did Chad even start a feud with Corey? Corey is awesome and a lot better than him.
This was a big feud back in the early '90s, as both of these guys were quite problematic back then. It started when GnR rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin made a pass at Vince Neil's girlfriend. Axl came into the picture after Neil punched his bandmate, and the two frontmen began a long feud. Neil offered to fight it out with Rose, but guess what? He never showed up, and that's pretty much how it ended. For all we know, it may have just been a publicity stunt. What's certain is that the whole thing was childish.
