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While Cam'ron's recent attack on Jay-Z has been getting a lot of attention in the past couple of weeks, it is just the latest in hip hop's long history of diss tracks. Off the top of my head, previous battles that come to mind are the Fugees vs. Jeru the Damaja, Eminem vs. Ja Rule, Cormega vs. Nas, 3rd Bass vs. Vanilla Ice, Mobb Deep vs. Keith Murray, Death Row vs. Luther Campbell, and on and on. While the history goes back further, the first one I ever heard -- back around 1st grade, when these were hot -- was UTFO dissing Roxanne Shante.
Anyway, Ask Metafilter has a discussion going on attempting to answer the question: What was the first dis song?
The answers to the question range from ancient poetry (a bit of a stretch) to blacks in America playing the dozens. I don't think there's any way to find an exact answer to this question, but it is an interesting discussion worth checking out.
One of my favorite diss tracks was put out by Nine a.k.a. 9 Double M, called Lyin' King. The track didn't mention any rappers by name, but its not too hard to figure out who Nine was targeting. The track came out in 1996, right after Nas started running around in pink suits and doing his Al Pacino routine, and Foxxy appeared on L.L.'s I Shot Ya, rapping about cocaine deals and getting the math all wrong:
Who the lyin' king talking about his diamond rings
Flippin' Kilos, Killing all his enemies? Please. . .
Female MCs even rhyme about flippin' kis, couldn't even work a triple beam
Download Nine's Lyin' King (mp3)
1/30/2006 12:47:17 PM posted by Fresh