Diss Tracks

A diss track is a track that is produced by one artist or group of artists in order to disrespect rival artists. Often, you will find that diss tracks usually take place within the hip hop industry, rather than other genre industries such as pop or indie music.

An example of a world renouned, world famous diss track is Tupac Shakur's 'Hit Em Up', There was an ongoing rivalry between Tupac and The Notorious BIG, so Tupac chose to make a diss track toward The Notorious BIG. In the diss track, you can see an extra on the video who looks similar to The Notorious BIG, this was done to mock him without him actually being there.

I have used this specific example because this is what started off the diss tracks that soon followed. Many may argue that diss tracks have become a popular ever since this world famous diss track was released. Nowadays, the diss tracks still continue within the hip hop industry. For example, J Cole released a diss track towards Kanye West in December 2017, named False Prophets.

Although the diss tracks nowadays are inspired from the past, there are also some differences. For example, diss tracks nowadays are a lot more indirect than what they were when they first started to break out into the hip hop industry. J Cole's track was clearly aimed towards Knaye West, althiough Kanye's name was never mentioned. Here is an example of some lyrtics from J Cole's 'False Prophets': 'When he tells us he's a genius but it's clearer lately, it's been hard for him to look into the mirror lately'. The use of the words 'He, and him' have created a less direct feeling, as well as a sense of anonymity.