Back before the days of “Beef” Hip Hop was about Battling, the battle for supremacy, all the emcee wanted to do was rock the party and be considered the best, and more importantly better than whomever else was there
We would rhyme on the steps, in school, on the basketball court, wherever and it was a competition to see who would get the most oohs and ahhs and who used words in a new or different way
Vocabulary was important, using current references was important and most of the times in the 80s no one wrote anything it was all off the top of the dome
Anyway, the battles were legendary you would hear that this emcee was battling another emcee at a party or at a show
You would hear a new song drop and hear a reference to another emcee and think oooooh!
This was back in the day where a rhymer would hear something, get some money together cop some studio time and cut a response that week, song would come out in rapid fashion
The 80s was a great time for Hip Hop, that’s why I call it the golden Era
The Bridge came out; before you could blink South Bronx … turn around Kill That noise, blink The Bridge is over
It wasn’t violent; nothing came of the battles except for classic songs (and Prince B getting thrown off the stage lol)
The whole thing about Hip Hop back then was the be the best at the art, be respected by your peers, being seen as someone who was nice on the mic … and the same with DJs
it’s turned into wanting to fight, and shoot, and its rarely ever the artist themselves (because if they were such killers why are they in the studio rhyming and singing contracts and taking album cover pictures and shooting videos?) but it’s their “fans” who “ride” for them in some show of blind loyalty and … it just gets stupid..
Battling was something that gave an emcee some recognition and some shine especially if they were new going up against an established emcee
What was even more dope was Roxanne Shante would battle females AND males … live on stage (see what I did there?)
No one was safe, if you thought you were nice you were going to get challenged; I miss those days … the competition aspect of hip hop the fans really benefited from it because artists worked at their skills and word play and gave us dope material
You didn’t want to come wack
You didn’t want to be defeated
You didn’t want to look like an easy target
You wanted to be dope
…and this was when biting was not allowed
Battling turned into beef in the Silver era of hip hop, and it hasn’t been the same since
The days of LL v. Moe Dee, BDP vs. The Shan and Marley, Roxanne v. everybody, etc. etc. we will never get those days back so… i’ll use this site to remind us of those dope days and battles, every now and then I’ll post a Diss song or a battle
Let’s keep Hip Hop alive!
What was your favorite battle or Diss song?
