In today’s world, where social media provides an unfiltered look into people’s lives and cameras are everywhere, we have a, generationally speaking, unprecedented view into the lives of our favorite people. While the glitz and glamour of being famous certainly comes with its set of perks, it also means that when you don’t get along with someone, sometimes people know. In fact, sometimes the entire feud plays out in the media, both traditional and social.
The reality is that celebrities are people too and they have the same emotions as the rest of us. Being in the spotlight, their lives are criticized more than usual and, although many may claim not to pay attention to the negative, it can eventually get to them - especially if that critic has a big audience.
There are two general categories for how to solve these types of issues: direct and indirect, the latter sometimes doubling as passive-aggressive. Direct would be the two disagreeing parties confronting each other (directly!). This could, but does not have to be in person, though. It could be an @-mention on social media or a phone call. Passive-aggressive actions are more subtle and, when done right, fun to dissect. These might include song lyrics, referencing a situation in an interview or on-camera, sarcastically posting something on social media, you get the idea.
In hip-hop, feuds emerge all the time. The most famous, still, is probably Tupac and Biggie, not only due to their legendary status in the game, but the fact that it ended with both of them murdered, their lore lives on. While both rappers used some indirect ways, like cryptic song lyrics, to take jabs at each other, they also had a very direct feud under the East coast vs. West coast umbrella.
Like with Pac and Biggie, these feuds do sometimes turn violent, just as they did between 50 Cent and The Game although the two have since resolved their differences, and even right now, we're in the midst of a rumored violent beef between Young Dolph and Yo Gotti.
In the spirit of non-violence, however, here is a look at five hip-hop feuds that didn’t get physical but rather showcased the best in passive aggressiveness.
Nas and Jay-Z (1996)
As the undisputed king of east coast rap, when the Notorious B.I.G. was killed in 1997 it created a vacant throne that both Nas and Jay-Z wanted to sit in. Both New York-based lyricists, the two went back and forth with subtle shots that allowed enough ambiguity to keep the rivalry from getting too far out of hand, before each went in for the kill.
Apparently, the root of this rivalry can be traced back to Nas missing out on a studio session for Hov's Reasonable Doubt. When he failed to show up, the producer in the session took a soundbite from Nas instead to incorporate on a track, which Nas seemingly did not appreciate.
On the track “The Message,” Nas says “there’s one life, one love so there can only be one king.” Later he says, “Lex with TV sets the minimum,” which Nas told Complex he saw in one of Jay-Z’s rides: "I saw Jay Z driving a Lexus with the TVs in them. I got rid of my Lexus at that point and I was looking for the next best thing. It wasn’t a shot at Jay but it was just saying that’s the minimum you gotta have. It’s not a shot at him but he inspired that line. It wasn’t necessarily a shot at him but because the song was a shot at everybody, he fell into that. But he definitely inspired that line."
So, he's basically saying, it both is and isn't a shot at Jay. So it is.
After a series of more subtle shots within Nas' lyrics, and even some coming from Jay Z's co-hort Memphis Bleek, their feud would soon move from being indirect, to being as direct as possible. When Jay-Z released “Takeover,” he introduced a new era of their rivalry which included name-calling and signaling out Nas specifically.
Nas responded with what many consider to be the best diss track of all time, “Ether.” The first words on the track are “Fuck Jay-Z.”
Drake and Common (2011/2012)
What all likely started with the fact that they both briefly dated Serena Williams, the beef between Drake and Common pitted two strong lyricists against each other in a duel that many enjoyed watching play out in public. It started with Common releasing the song “Sweet,” primarily aimed at Drizzy, where he talked about how hip-hop was getting soft. During an interlude he said, “Some hoe ass niggaz singing all around me, man, la la la.”
These bars were seemingly sent straight to Drake, although Common was hard-pressed to confirm it, beating around the bush more than anything, during a Sway in the Morning interview at the time. "He opened his mouth and said some things, so if that’s what he want—all that subliminal [talk]…you could do that too, but say it now. The verse is about me but when you hear some of the stuff on the chorus it’s like you can’t help but think about dude and I guess that’s what he felt. So at the end of day he fits in that category, he already embraced it, so wear it.”
Drake, in true Drake form, responded on a track that was so hot it would play in the clubs everywhere, so that Common had to hear it constantly for months (sound familiar?). He clapped back with his verse on Rick Ross's “Stay Schemin,” with lines like “It bothers me when the gods get to acting like they broads” and "Don't be ducking like you never wanted nothing, it's feeling like rap changed, there was a time it was rugged.”
This finally prompted Common to come at Drake direct, the most direct you can get-- he rapped, "Soft nigga. Make no mistake, I’m talking to Drake / It’s the remix. Rick Ross, Common, and that ho-ass nigga" over the same "Stay Schemin" beat. However it was too late, Drake, the Subliminal King, had already won.
Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa (2016)
Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa have known each other since before they blew up, and thus, with an genuine and organic friendship, things are bound to get rocky at one point or another. At one point in their relationship, there was definitely friction between the two despite both of their emergence in the rap game. While the two are cool now, even sharing the Lollapalooza stage together, there was a point where Vic’s passive aggressive game was strong.
Vic pulled what appeared to be the ultimate passive aggressive move when he cropped Chance out of a picture with the two of them, Jay-Z and Beyonce.
The photo, oddly enough, was posted to Twitter with Chance in it. Still, he added more fuel to the flame when he did an LA Leakers Freestyle shortly thereafter, rapping about fakeness: "Why these niggas so fake, They so fake, so fake Stevey personalities, They Stephen Colbert."
Vic would go on to say, in response to these subtle jabs, "I don't do my people dirty. I just don't do it. So if somebody was wanting to beef with me, they wouldn't really have all that much ammo. They would have to start digging and making things up 'cause I just keep it really really really real with my guys and people that I move with, that I do business with. They'll testify I'm a hunnid."
Russell Wilson and Future (2017)
When Ciara got with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, she already had one child by rapper Future, named Future. As would be expected, Future felt some type of way about the new man in his son’s life and these conditions were perfect for a high-profile feud. Much of the riffing back and forth has been super passive aggressive, perhaps to be expected when children are also part of the equation.
When the Seahawks played Future’s hometown Atlanta Falcons this past January in the NFC Divisional Playoffs, the rapper was on the Falcons’ sideline, seemingly trolling Russell Wilson. The internet had a field day after the Falcons defeated Wilson’s Seahawks 36-20.
Ciara noticed Future and threw some shade of her own posting online that “theres no greater blessing than family.” Wilson, for his part, shrugged off his loss with a subtle caption-jab at Future, and reminding him of what he really won: Ciara. However the shade didn't end there, as reports surfaced a couple of days later that Future continued to twist the nail when he sent multiple Matt Ryan jerseys to his son Zahir, because he was so thrilled about the Falcons' defeat of the Seahawks.
However, the trio was able to seemingly put their differences aside as they celebrated baby Future's third birthday in May of this year. The FutureHive has detracted its claws from Wilson for the time being.
T.I. and Wendy Williams (2017)
Everybody knows about Tiny and T.I’s marital problems, they had a reality TV show pretty much exclusively dedicated to it. Tiny was scheduled to be on The Wendy Williams Show to promote her own show but, in the week leading up to that appearance, bikini photos of Wendy Williams in Barbados provided the perfect opportunity for T.I. to chime in. Williams, 53, was spotted in a black, bikini and the photos received a lot of feedback from the online peanut gallery.
Tip was one of those people with feedback, weighing in on his Instagram page, posting photos of Williams. He did that thing where you pretend to take the moral high road by mentioning all the things you would do on the moral low road, but, you aren’t gonna do. Classic passive-aggressive move. He says that he’s going to show mercy but then talks about how judgmental she is.
Williams bounced back with some shade to be thrown in whoever's direction you'd like it, affirming her ass is indeed flat. "I wanted to say ‘I could buy one like your wife and so many people have done,’" she told NYDailyNews following Tip's post. She wanted to say it, but alas, she didn't, right?
On Tiny’s appearance on Wendy’s show, the three of them came to an agreement that Wendy wouldn’t mention T.I.’s name at all. At the end of the interview, she got in another subtle jab, by referring to T.I. as Tiny's “friend” (reportedly saying: “Tell your friend I said hey," which although doesn't seem like much of a jab on surface-level, T.I. apparently took it as such. The two are more than 'friends' after all).