Read on for 30 of the most explosive beefs in music history. (See: “Bad Blood,” “Swish Swish,” about 25 percent of all rap songs.) Others still have inspired an entire sub-category of song that crosses all genre boundaries: the diss track. Others are tragic and have no possible upside as friendships, bands, families and even lives are destroyed in the process.
Some feuds are undoubtedly hilarious, birthing otherworldly insults like Liam Gallagher’s “ Potato” and Mariah Carey’s beyond catty “I don’t know her,” both of which will live on until the end of the Internet.
Many clashes are over in a flash, while others drag out for years and even decades. The bigger the star, the bigger the ego, and when two tangle, you get a supernova of spite and bile that holds the world in rapture, turning mature adults into spit-flecked children chanting “Fight, fight, fight!” in a circle at recess. Creative differences, financial disputes, drug abuse, love triangles – in the music industry, the opportunities to butt heads are basically limitless.