Rap beef is essential for the betterment of hip-hop.
In today’s rap culture, it’s easy for artists to caught up in the habit of pumping out songs driven by catchy hooks and generic beats rather than sophisticated lyricism. Feuds require rappers to keep pushing their limits because, let’s face it, no one wants to be known for having a weak diss track or getting schooled by a rival MC.
Even though it’s only September, 2018 has been a wild year full of juicy rap beefs. From Cardi B throwin’ shoes to Pusha T’s murderous diss track, here are the craziest feuds of the year (so far).
Tekashi 6ix9ne VS Chief Keef And Tadoe
It seems like Tekashi 6ix9ine is getting into beef with everyone these days. However, the beef between him and Chief Keef and Tadoe is the craziest he’s been involved with yet.
According to XXL Mag, 6ix9ine ignited the beef back in May when he posted a FaceTime conversation of him and Cuban Doll, Tadoe’s girlfriend. This obviously caught the attention of Tadoe and Chief Keef.
In response, Tadoe phoned 6ix9ine and told him, “I kill people,” which ended up being the title of a diss track aimed at 6ix9ine he later released that featured Chief Keef and Trippie Redd.
On June 2, 2018, Chief Keef was shot while in New York with Tadoe. Although 6ix9ine was not in New York when this happened, many speculators connected the incident to him. While Chief Keef kept a low profile after the shooting, 6ix9ine cracked some jokes aimed at Keef about the incident.
10 days later, when 6ix9ine was in Chief Keef and Tadoe’s hometown of Chicago, he posted videos of him giving to the homeless and claiming that rappers from Chicago aren’t giving back to their own city. This was clearly a jab toward Chief Keef and Tadoe. This led to Keef and Lil Reese to sweep the streets of Chicago in hopes of running into 6ix9ine in the flesh.
On June 18, NYPD started investigating whether or not 6ix9ine was actually involved in the shooting of Chief Keef.
Most recently, a Chief Keef fan rushed the stage at a 6ix9ine show in an attempt to attack him. This backfired on the fan in question when 6ix9ine and his crew beat him to the ground. It’s safe to say this beef is to be continued.
Nicki Minaj VS Cardi B
Perhaps it’s because they are two of the biggest women in hip-hop, but it seems as if everyone has been trying to pit Cardi B and Nicki Minaj against each other since Cardi released Bodak Yellow back in June 2017. Well, be careful what you wish for, folks, because it seems like the beef between Nicki and Cardi is just getting started.
In the beginning, Nicki and Cardi denied rumors of any drama going on between them, but when the two rappers were featured on Migos’ “Motorsport,” it became clear that they were clearly not the best of friends. According to Complex, people speculated that Nicki and Cardi were taking shots at each on their respective verses. Additionally, Nicki was not present the day of the music video shoot. Nicki later claimed it was because her hairstylist wasn’t available that day.
Cardi B released her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, in April 2018 upon critical acclaim. The album even landed at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 charts. About week later, Nicki released her first singles from her album, Queen, and expressed to Zane Lowe on Beats 1 that she felt that Cardi never showed her “genuine love” while working on “Motorsport.”
Nicki launched her fourth studio album Queen on August 10, 2018. Though it received generally good reviews, the album debuted at Number 2, which sent Nicki off on a warpath, dragging everyone from Spotify to Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner.
On September 8, Cardi finally had enough of all the shade and disrespect Nicki and had been throwin’ her way and decided to take matters into her own hands at Harper’s Bazaar’s Icon Party at New York Fashion Week. Videos surfaced of Cardi starting a physical altercation with Nicki and at one point threw her shoe at her. According to TMZ, the fight broke out when Cardi confronted Nicki about “all the lies [she] had been spreading.”
Cardi was eventually escorted from the party with a huge lump on her head. She later addressed the altercation in an Instagram post while Nicki discussed the beef on the eighth episode of her Queen Radio series.
Who was talking bout Cardi B kid? pic.twitter.com/wv7saSgYJh
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) September 8, 2018
Eminem VS MGK
The bad blood between Eminem and MGK has been going on for years. Things initially started to go down back in 2012 when MGK tweeted about how hot he thought Eminem’s then 16-year-old daughter was. The two rappers have not been friendly since.
The beef between Eminem and MGK eventually dissolved (or so it seemed), but was reignited in March 2018 when MGK threw a little shade at Eminem on Tech N9ne’s song “No Reason.” Eminem stayed silent on the diss for months…until he dropped his surprise album Kamikaze in August. Eminem sent direct shots at MGK, calling him out by name on the track “Not Alike.”
Just a few days later, MGK responded with a track called “Rap Devil,” which is a reference to Eminem’s song “Rap God.” It was the first response to any of the numerous shots fired on Kamikaze.
Two weeks and three interviews later, as MGK snidely pointed on his Twitter, Eminem came back at MGK with “Killshot.” According to XXL Mag, the song broke a YouTube record for video with most plays in its first 24 hours, reaching 38.1 million views.
After a few public disses and fan theories that the beef between Eminem and MGK was all a fabrication, MGK announced in an interview with The Breakfast Club that he doesn’t plan on responding to “Killshot.” However, he does have another clip ready, we just may not hear it for a while.
Pusha T VS Drake
The beef between Pusha T and Drake has been going on for years now. However, the feud got way out of hand this year when Pusha T dropped one of the nastiest diss tracks of all time.
It all started when Pusha T released Daytona, his first album in three years, in May 2018. The album was produced by Kanye West, highlighted Push’s signature flow, and a not-so-subtle Drake diss on the closing track, “Infrared,“ mentioned the rapper’s alleged use of a ghostwriter.
Less than 24 hours after Daytona’s release, Drake fired back with “Duppy Freestyle,” and took shots at both Pusha T and Kanye West. On the track, Drake even said that Push and Kanye owe him money because his diss track would give their album sales a boost. Pusha T responded on Twitter to “send the invoice for the extra 20…” which, of course, he did.
Things started to get just straight up disrespectful when Pusha T dropped his diss track, “The Story Of Adidon.” The cover art for the single features an actual photo of Drake in blackface, which according to High Snobriety, was shot in 2008 for a “Jim Crow Couture” clothing campaign. Pusha T’s Instagram was flagged for using the photo unauthorized.
Lyrically, Pusha T took no prisoners. Push called out Drake for his relationship with his parents and his rumored deal with Adidas. Most notably, however, was when he dropped the bombshell that Drake is the father to a secret son named Adonis with French adult film star Sophie Brussaux.
Despite subtle jabs at Pusha T and Kanye West, Drake has yet to directly respond with a follow up diss. However, let’s be honest here, there’s an obvious victor in this beef– and it’s King Push.