The 10 Wildest Rap Beefs of All Time

Last night, after a week of silence, Meek Mill finally released a response to the beef he had started with Drake, which ends with a mention of T.I.’s friend urinating on the Toronto rapper-crooner. The Maybach Music Group artist was upset that his supposed friend Drake had perhaps used a ghostwriter for some verses, including “R.I.C.O.” from Meek’s latest album, Dreams Worth More Than Money. (Perhaps more importantly, Drake hadn’t tweeted in support of said album.)

This “beef” hasn’t exactly ignited hip-hop fans. Drake did put out a couple of pretty good responses, including “Back to Back” where he mockingly asks, “Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?” in reference to Meek’s opening slot on fiancé Nicki Minaj’s current run of dates. But the feud has existed mostly on Twitter, unfolding too slowly for today’s need-it-now appetite, so it probably won’t end up as one of the greatest rap beefs of all time. Still, it got us thinking about the topic. Here’s our definitive countdown, ranging from the deeply silly to the all-too-serious:

10. Gucci Mane vs. Young Jeezy

Great rule of thumb: don’t do business with a crazy person! In 2005, Jeezy was prepping his debut album, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, which included “”Icy,” a dripped-out team-up with Gucci. Two friends, one track, except — ah, right — Gucci took the track and put it on his own project…which meant Jeezy couldn’t use it. And Jeezy never got paid. Things happen, right? Jeezy’s calm response was to offer to “cremate that motherfucker” on “Stay Strapped.” In 2005, Pookie Loc, a Jeezy associate, was murdered. Gucci was blamed, then acquitted, having acted in self-defense. After years of volleys and a splinter beef involving DJ Drama, the two MCs settled up, supposedly recording a couple of songs together. But Gucci went rogue, as he does, and recorded a song called “Worst Enemy.” By 2010, their respective camps were fighting at Walter’s Clothing in Atlanta. Later, Jeezy would describe the whole thing as a “misunderstanding” but would also refer to Gucci as “retarded.”

9. Eminem vs. The Source

The Source was the Bible; the magazine’s five-mic review of Illmatic is just as important to Nas’ story as the actual music. Its unquestioned authority received a serious blow in 2002, when Benzino (a middling rapper, editor and conflict of interest) used his influence inside the office to launch an all-out attack on the world’s biggest artist at the time, Eminem. Zino questioned Em’s place in the culture and tried to pull up tapes of the teenage rapper saying the N-word. Eminem responded with some of the greatest one-sided diss tracks ever recorded: “Nail in the Coffin” remains endlessly quotable and hilarious. Long story short: The Source lost all credibility and investors. All these years later, the brand is still smarting from the episode. Eminem manages to sell millions of copies of even his most mediocre records; Benzino, meanwhile, has been on a couple of seasons of Love & Hip-Hop.