DISS: Popularized outlets in the hip hop community, diss tracks have become an art form.
By Michelle Boulos, Staff Writer
It’s human nature to want to spite someone who has wronged us, and everyone does it differently. In the hip hop community, the solution is simple: write a diss track. In this classic form of revenge, artists insult someone in the form of song lyrics. In recent times, these diss tracks have been thrust into the national spotlight. In July of 2015, musician Meek Mill criticized fellow rapper Drake on Twitter, a popular social media platform, claiming he does not write his own music. Within 24 hours of the message, Drake released two songs, “Charged Up” and “Back to Back” to bite back and address the “meek” accusations.
Fast forward to December 31, 2015—just a few hours before the clock struck midnight on the West Coast—, Kanye West, another rapper, dropped a track called “FACTS,” which many called the “death of [shoe company] Nike” and the ultimate diss at Drake.
Drake is set to release his album Views from the 6 sometime in January 2016, which is expected to contain a plethora of disses.
But what makes a diss track? It seems simple: find someone who does you wrong and expose the truth behind them, along to a beat.
A diss track, as proven by people like Drake and as far back as a decade ago by 50 Cent, is so much more than that. With sharp rhymes and clever lines, it makes the listener cringe for the receiver of the song and think, “There’s no way they can recover from that burn.”
That’s the beauty and malice behind diss tracks. Lines become Internet memes. Artists decline in status, while others prove themselves even more. And in rare cases, the success of the track becomes tangible and materialistic, with award nominations. Drake, or Drizzy (one of his several nicknames), is the prime example of this with ‘Back to Back’ being nominated for a Grammy Award, making history as the first diss track to do so.
In theory, a diss track seems effortless, but listening to an artfully crafted one from the greats, like Yeezus himself, is in a whole other dimension. Feuds are inevitable with human nature, and the hip hop community has found an outlet for these problems and for us all.