Diss Track - Background Information

Background Information

Almost exclusively in the Hip hop culture genre are songs that make condescending remarks towards other people. The first ever recorded diss track was 14 year old Roxanne Shante's 1984 diss track to UTFO entitled "Roxanne's Revenge." Most of the older feuds can be traced back to geographical affiliations. In various cities around the U.S. are territorial patriotism that leads to violence. When this violence cannot be solved, many local artists use their music as an outlet.

One of the most well known territorial feud was between the East and West Coast Rappers. However this is now settled and most 'beefs' now occur when a group or artist attacks another artist or group rather than a geographic area; a good example of this is of Ja Rule and 50 Cent who started a feud with one another (both artists lived in the same neighborhood of Queens, New York).

Outside of hip-hop, Diss tracks tend to deal with more personal issues. Post-Hardcore band Alexisonfire has made numerous songs targeting their ex-drummer, a feud caused by him leaving the band at a crucial moment in their rise to fame.

The most famous non-rap example of an ongoing musical feud is that between Taking Back Sunday and Brand New. They both aimed several songs at each other since John Nolan allegedly slept with the girlfriend of Jesse Lacey.