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Furious, funny and potentially fatal: hip-hop’s 20 greatest diss tracks – ranked!
As Drake, Kendrick Lamar and more continue their high-profile beef, we run down the most inspired – and vicious – attacks in rap’s history
Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Shante may have single-handedly invented the hip-hop beef with 1984’s UTFO-bashing Roxanne’s Revenge, but Have a Nice Day – provoked by a sexist insult from “featherweight” KRS-One in Boogie Down Productions’ The Bridge Is Over and actually written by Big Daddy Kane – is the better track, lyrically and musically: “Step back, peasants!” Eazy-E’s response to shots fired by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg throughout 1992’s The Chronic isn’t just brutal – it’s also perceptive, at least with regard to the grim atmosphere around Suge Knight and Death Row Records: “Gotta follow your sergeant’s directions / Or get your ass popped with this Smith and Wesson.” Photograph: New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images Another diss track with plenty of vituperation and a plethora of great lines, but no particular target, Kick in the Door takes on Nas, Jeru the Damaja, 2Pac (possibly) and sundry members of the Wu-Tang Clan.
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