When hip-hop first started, beef was a reflection of the boxer-like competitive drive to establish yourself as the best in the business. Then came the advent of social media. With the world hyper-connected, many feuds now start with slick comments or perceived insults that come in the form of 140-or-less-character shots fired, and non-rappers have found themselves in the mix as well.
Whether it’s over a woman, or a carefully-worded ambiguous statement that just so happens to be received the wrong way by someone in the process of making a mixtape, feuds have spilled well outside the realm of just rapper-on-rapper combat. Some of the earlier hip-hop on non-hip-hop beefs included Wu-Tang Clan's Masta Killa, who punched author Cheo Hodari Coker after finding some of his work unfavorable. And of course the notorious Suge Knight solidified his reputation as hip hop's first official kingpin by intimidating fellow executives into signing over their artists and restructuring already-signed contracts. But in the TMZ era, beef has become America's favorite reality show, and rappers are the stars.