“(This man) ended (that man’s) career”. Replace “this man” and “that man”
with the names of a couple rappers and you’ve got a phrase you’ve probably seen variations
of all over the Internet. A lot of hip hop fans seem to prescribe to the idea that diss
tracks on their own have the power to completely end another rapper, or at the very least be
the main contributor to their fall off. But, is this actually true? This is something I
was thinking about while I was working on a video titled “Rap Diss Tracks That Ended
Careers”, and the whole time I was working on that video the question was floating around
in the back of my mind about whether or not that’s really an accurate title for all
the beefs that I was gonna talk about in the video. So I decided instead to scrap that
video and look at that question. To answer it, let’s have a look at a few different
notable rap beefs throughout different eras where one rapper has been said to have a significant
impact on the other and see, in how many of these cases, diss tracks were the sole or
main contributor to that rapper falling out of favour with the general hip hop audience.
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for sponsoring today's video. This is legendary, critically acclaimed rapper
IAMJAYCE, also known as CDTVProductions, and do rap diss tracks end careers? Let’s talk
about it.
Eminem Vs. MGK (Song: Killshot by Eminem)
We’re starting off with the most recent and probably most obvious one on here, and
right from the jump my stance is no- Eminem did not end MGK’s career. Now don’t get
me wrong, for a time it looked like it did have a huge impact on him. After MGK sent
for Eminem with Rap Devil, and Em fired back with the even more popular and well received
Killshot, MGK’s name could not even be mentioned without Eminem’s name coming into the fold
as well. He was clowned constantly for it. What’s more, his sales started to drop too
with his first EP after the beef, Binge, selling 21k in its first week (although in all fairness
a lot of that likely has to do with the fact that it was complete cheeks), and his first
album after the beef, Hotel Diablo, selling 39k first week. And to date that is his lowest
ever first week sales on a studio album. If this decline continued to happen, then maybe
my verdict for this one would be different, but then MGK played his trap card with the
effect “switch genres from rap to pop punk when sales are declining”, and got his highest
first week sales of his entire career. In 2020. Just 2 years after the Eminem beef.
At most Killshot put a small, temporary dent in his career. But did it end it? Hell no.
Plus he had that song with CORPSE on the Hot 100 in 2021 so he’s still charting to this
day. The verdict for this one is No Career Ended Here.
Eminem Vs. Benzino (Song: Nail in the Coffin by Eminem)
Eminem beef number 2. His fans really like labelling him as the man that ends careers
with his diss tracks. But do I agree on this one? Well, let me answer that question, with
a question of my own: who the hell cared about Benzino BEFORE the diss tracks? For your rap
career to be ended, people need to care about it first, right? Not to say he was a complete
flop, his first album, the creatively named Benzino Project, peaked at number 84 on the
Billboard 200, and his 2003 follow up Redemption peaked at number 65 on the same chart, while
also spawning the club hit Rock the Party which peaked at number 82 on the Hot 100.
But Benzino never made music that was built to last in the first place, and it could be
argued that one of the only reasons he achieved a decent amount of success initially is because
of the fact he co-owned The Source, a huge hip hop magazine. That’s actually something
Eminem brought up in a couple of his aggressive diss tracks. I don’t care about Benzino
in the slightest, but man, I really enjoy some of the diss tracks that Eminem put out
as a result of this beef. This one is a little bit tougher to answer because I personally
feel like Benzino’s music career would’ve fizzled out regardless of Eminem dissing him,
his music just has that one hit wonder and then forgotten about aura to it. If anything
the back and forth diss battle with Eminem temporarily boosted his sales. It was the
most interesting thing to happen with Benzino. But Eminem, as the title of his popular diss
track suggests, put the nail in the coffin, ENSURING that Benzino wouldn’t see much
more success a year or two after the beef, even if he tried his best. Eminem literally
defines Benzino’s career for the majority of the hip hop audience now so that at least
says something. So this one, I don't think the diss tracks fully ended Benzino's career
but it’s kinda in the middle in my opinion. I don’t think he had a very solid foundation
to begin with, but I’ll say it had a Significant Impact. Also it’s not super relevant but
I just found out when researching for this video that Coi Leray is Benzino’s daughter.
I had no clue about that before this.
Drake Vs. Meek Mill: (Song: Back to Back by Drake)
Now if you don’t know, Meek was the one who was considered to be the loser of this
battle. And his latest studio album Championships went number 1 and sold 229k in its first week.
And it contained a track which featured Drake because they squashed their beef in 2018.
No Career Ended Here. Yeah for a short time it looked like Meek was gonna be clowned on
constantly for flopping with his diss tracks and getting yeeted on with Charged Up and
Back to Back, but that didn’t last for a very long time and he is popular enough for
beefing with one of the most popular artists in the world right now to not be a major issue
for him. Meek Mill’s career is much more likely to end at the hands of the deadly meals
he keeps shovelling into his stomach, not some words said by another rapper.
50 Cent Vs. Ja Rule: (Song: Back Down by 50 Cent)
Now let’s move on to a beef that sort of became a little entangled in the Eminem/Benzino
beef we talked about earlier. Looking at the sales of 50 Cent over time, vs the sales of
Ja Rule over time, it could be very easy to say that yep, Eminem and 50 are the ones who
ended Ja’s career. But as with all these where the losing artist fell off, I don’t
think that the diss tracks were the sole major factor in them declining. It’s just the
most memorable factor because rap drama is fun. It’s another one where Ja’s credibility
was definitely hurt by the battle. I mean how do people fully listen to him seriously
again when his singing gets compared accurately to the Cookie Monster? But once again it’s
not the sole factor. I think the best way to put it is Ja Rule’s style wasn’t destined
to last long, and the diss tracks plus all the other outside circumstances stopped him
from having the opportunity to even try to switch up and make some type of comeback.
I’m not understating the impact of him having multiple huge artists dissing him and muddying
his reputation because that definitely played a part, but we can’t forget the fact that
Ja also took a huge hiatus partly because of legal issues and a federal investigation
into the label he was under, not dropping a studio album for 7 and a half years between
2004 and 2012, and there was a lot of behind the scenes politics that took place to hurt
Ja’s career outside of the diss tracks. It was only really after that long hiatus
that Ja Rule started selling Smokepurpp numbers. The verdict for this one? Significant Impact,
with Coinciding Factors. It’s crazy how this beef is technically still going on to
this day, not through diss tracks 50 and Ja have still just been throwing jabs at each
other consistently over the years. It started in 1999, so this beef has went on for over
20 years at this point. It’s almost impressive to hold a grudge for that long.
KRS-One Vs. MC Shan: (Song: The Bridge Is Over by KRS-One)
And now we’ve reached the final and most classic beef on this list. The Bridge Wars
between Boogie Down Productions and the Juice Crew in the ‘80s. BDP was led by KRS One,
and while the Juice Crew was led by Marly Marl- Marly Marl, that's a nightmare for my
accent- Juice Crew's MC Shan was the one who seemed to take the most damage from this feud.
I mean, KRS One’s diss track, The Bridge Is Over, was such a popular record that even
people from MC Shan’s area in Queens were bumping it. If you don't know, this beef was
essentially between the Queens area and the Bronx area in New York. "I'm from Queens.
He was going 'Manhattan keeps on making it, Brooklyn keeps on taking it. Bronx keeps creating
it, and Queens keeps on faking it. *Long Yeeeeah*. S*** was so hot, we still had to f*** with
it". That is crazy when you think about, especially in the early days of rap, the level of pride
that a lot of hip hop fans had for their local area rappers. And here we go ladies and gentlemen,
this is one of the only instances where I’m leaning more towards the diss tracks being
the defining factor in MC Shan’s reputation declining. It seems like this battle just
really took the wind out of his sales, with hip hop fans declaring him as the loser and
even people on his own team saying that he lost the battle. He would continue to rap
for a little bit after the peak of the beef in 1987, but then it hit 1990, Shan dropped
his 3rd album, Play It Again Shan, and effectively disappeared from rapping after that while
KRS-One went on to have a lengthy, successful career after the beef. There were a couple
things that make this instance different to all the other beefs we’ve covered here so
far. 1) This was one of the first big hip hop beefs with back and forth diss tracks
EVER. That makes it a big deal, and so of course the one who is considered the loser
is gonna come out way worse for wear. And 2) this was firmly back in the day of physical
album sales being king. If someone got trashed in a rap battle, how likely are you to buy
their CD if that's the only way to hear their music and really see what they have to offer
vs. just typing up their name on streaming services and clicking play like you can do
now? And this is different from the Ja Rule and 50 beef which took place in the early
2000’s because MC Shan was getting nowhere near the amount of radio play that Ja Rule
did. People would've still bought Ja’s CDs based off of that because they had a preview.
And that is why I think this is the battle that had the biggest impact. If there are
any diss tracks that have ever ended careers, The Bridge Is Over by KRS One is the strongest
contender for that title.
So... Do Diss Tracks End Careers?:
So after looking at a few of the most notable examples from different eras... do diss tracks
end careers? In my opinion, the answer is no. If they ever do it’s incredibly rare,
and it’s only ever happened, or came close to happening, in much older beefs. In the
current streaming era, I think it’s impossible for a rapper’s career to be ended purely
through diss tracks when everyone's music is so accessible to everybody now, and partly
because diss tracks and rap beefs are nothing but a nice bit of entertainment now, whereas
it seems like they used to be a much more serious affair in the days before social media.
The stakes just aren’t as high as they used to be. And even with a lot of the older beefs
like Eminem against Benzino, and 50 Cent against Ja Rule, I think there was a lot of coinciding
factors that were just as responsible for their careers declining as the diss tracks.
Whether the rappers in question had legal issues at the time, they just weren’t that
popular to begin with, their style was on the decline, or they just mostly stopped dropping
after the beef happened, there was a lot going on during these beefs to the point that the
diss tracks weren’t the only factor in their decline 90% of the time. And while I didn’t
cover every single major hip hop beef within this video, I think the points made within
it apply pretty solidly to all of them. Diss tracks are fun, they’re entertaining, but
I don't think the majority of them have career ending power... but what do you guys think?
Is CDTV spitting facts? Or does he not know what he’s talking about? Are there any beefs
I didn’t cover here where you think a career WAS truly ended by a diss track? Let me know
down in the comments below. At the end of the day, I just think this is a fun discussion
to have and everything in this video is purely just my personal opinion. Whether you agree
or disagree, I at least hope you guys were entertained because hip hop is great to talk
about. It’s what I love, it’s what you love, and if you did enjoy the video I would
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watching, I will see you all in the next one and this is CDTVProductions... signing out.