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Rappers have been throwing shade at each other for decades; it's not a phenomenon that just recently started. However, in the last few years, this situation has become more pronounced and prevalent because of the velocity and ubiquity of social media.
Nowadays, a rapper can throw shade on Twitter or Instagram, and in a short period of time, millions of people are quickly in the loop. In this article we talk about "shade throwing" situations between rappers on the same label, rappers from the same city and there's even an episode between a Hip-Hop Godfather and a popular Aussie upstart. Read on below.
10. Azealia Banks & T.I.
We all know that Azealia Banks is one femcee who’s known as a fire-breathing dragon in the rap industry. The young Harlem rapper seems to have a perpetual chip on her shoulder and she has had beefs with several popular singers and rappers.
But at the end of 2014, she went on the Hot 97 radio show and threw tons of shade on rapper T.I. for supporting his artist Iggy Azalea. She didn’t mince her words at all and her language was very rough. She said about T.I.: “You’re out here trying to promote this white b*tch. They got your wife on VH1 and that b*tch can’t f***in' read. You’re a f***in' shoe shinin’ coon. How dare you?” Wow, that’s some really heavy material.
9. Meek Mill & Wale
One of the breakout rap stars of 2015 so far has been the Philly rapper Meek Mill. It’s been a long time coming for him and his success is certainly deserved. Meek had a tough 2014; he ended up having to do some jail time and he also got into a Twitter altercation with his Maybach Music Group label mate, Wale.
The shade throwing emanated from the fact that Meek Mill was gearing up to drop his album in 2014, and he claimed Wale wasn’t showing any support. His Twitter barrage said the following, “Wale just ain’t gone tweet a thing about my album … He’s been hating on me for a long time now .. don’t even text me cornball!” Some pretty strong words indeed. But in 2015, everything seems to have smoothed over. The MMG label led by Rick Ross seems to be one big happy family yet again.
8. Joey Badass & Troy Ave
Two new school rappers currently vying for the title of hottest rapper in NYC are Troy Ave and Joey Bada$$. Both artists have released albums this year and it seems there is some testy competition going on between them.
Joey’s album sold close to 60K in its first week, and he went on Twitter recently saying that he was the #1 Independent artist in the game. Troy Ave’s album Major Without A Deal failed to make any noise on the charts and he was apparently hurt by Joey Bada$$’s comments.
He went on Twitter and threw shade at Joey by tweeting the following: “No single, No party hostings, No real endorsements: NObody cares … #FakeIndependent.” Ouch, that’s a mean comment to send in anyone’s direction.
7. OG Maco & Future
The Atlanta Hip-Hop scene is extremely competitive. In many ways, it’s like what Los Angeles is to the Hollywood film industry. If you really want to make it in rap, chances are you’ll need to have a very strong following in Atlanta.
Two popular Atlanta rappers, OG Maco and Future, recently got into a little fight on Twitter. Maco tweeted that Future was irresponsible and destroying lives by always rapping about doing drugs. Future responded in an interview by saying that everyone has the right to live however they want to. He also said that when he ran into Maco, they would have to discuss the initial “throwing shade” episode. Maco later tweeted that they had a conversation and everything had been sorted out behind closed doors.
6. Young Thug & Lil Wayne
This has been one of the more petty and unexpected “shade throwing” situations of 2015. It’s between Lil Wayne and Atlanta rapper Young Thug. The funny thing is that both rappers are affiliated with the tattooed rap mogul, Baby “Birdman” Williams. Wayne even used to call himself “Birdman Jr” but it seems their relationship is beyond salvaging at this point.
Young Thug is part of Birdman’s current Rich Gang crew and on a song titled “Can’t Tell” he rapped: “Pu**y boy, I’ll leave you dead and call it Dedication.” Dedication happens to be the name of the popular mixtape series by Wayne. The whole Hip-Hop world assumed Young Thug was throwing shade at Wayne. What do you think?
5. 50 Cent & Diddy
Hip-Hop mogul 50 Cent has a lot of rich people problems (bankruptcy being one of them), but that doesn’t stop him from throwing shade at his fellow rappers and entrepreneurs.
When Diddy was recently arrested for assaulting the coach of his son’s UCLA football team, Fiddy took to Instagram to release two hilarious videos making fun of Sean “Puffy” Combs.
In one video, he said that, “Puffy went Ciroc co-co on the coach with a kettle bell.” In another video, he’s counting stacks of money to go bail Puffy out of jail. It’s certainly funny to watch, but this shade throwing episode was absolutely unnecessary.
4. Freddie Gibbs & Jeezy
Two of the most respected gangsta rappers currently operating in the realm of Hip-Hop are Young Jeezy and Freddie Gibbs. The latter hails from Gary, Indiana and he ended up signing to Jeezy’s CTE label in 2011. But things went sour fast and the hotheaded rapper broke free from the CTE umbrella in 2012.
In 2014, Gibbs released an album called Pinata in collaboration with producer Madlib. The song had a track called “Real” in which he threw all kinds of shade at Jeezy. This is what he rapped: “I thought the world was at my feet when I linked up with Snow [Jeezy]/But I refused to be his flunkey, so we don’t kick it no mo.”
There was a lot more venom in that record, and today the two rappers seem to have achieved a tentative resolution. Just don’t expect these two to appear on a song together anytime soon.
3. Nicki Minaj & Lil Kim
The Nicki Minaj & Lil’ Kim beef has been going on for quite a while now. This year, Nicki seemed to throw some more gasoline on the fire while accepting her speech at the 2015 BET Awards.
This is what she said: “I want to tell you to please make it your business to follow your dreams because one day you will look around and your dream will be gone and you will be mad at somebody. But be mad at your goddamn self.” Lil’ Kim was in attendance that night, so it was pretty obvious who she was throwing shade at.
2. Snoop Dogg & Iggy Azalea
This was one of the more publicized beefs of 2014. And to be honest, it was one episode that the Hip-Hop world could definitely have done without. It all started when Snoop took to his Instagram page and posted a pic of an albino woman with braids and labeled the picture “Iggy Azalea With No Makeup.”
Of course, Iggy didn’t take kindly to this and she sent a few choice Tweets back in Snoop’s direction. Honestly, there was no reason for Uncle Snoop to throw that initial shade, and in the end, rapper T.I. acted as an intercessor and brokered peace between the two rappers.
1. Drake & Tyga
This is another example of a “throwing shade” situation that’s been going on between two rappers who are signed under the same label. Both Tyga & Drake are under the Cash Money/Young Money records umbrella.
Things started getting ugly when Tyga went to Vibe magazine and said, “I don’t like Drake as a person, he’s just fake to me.” Drake replied on a song featured on his latest album by rapping that “Tyga needs to act his age and not his girl’s age.” He was of course referring to Kylie Jenner.
Tyga took to Twitter and threw the shade right back by tweeting that “Drake, you still a b*tch.” We have a feeling that there are a couple of rounds left in this ongoing rapper feud.
Sources: thegrio.com, billboard.com, rap-up.com, hollywoodlife.com, mtv.com
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