10 Most Important Beefs In Hip-hop History

Based upon an entirely fictional object of their affections that they were all having trouble courting, U.T.F.O's 'Roxanne, Roxanne' was the furthest thing from a conventional diss track and was essentially an attempt at a poppy crossover hit.

Despite their best intentions, the then unknown Marley Marl brought the track to the attention of Roxanne Shante, a young woman that he worked with at a local laundry and had previously heard rapping around the Queensbridge area of New York where they both resided.

Despite being only 13 at the time, the track which came to be known as 'Roxanne's Revenge' was produced by Marley Marl himself and allowed the complete unknown entity to respond to the group's three members Kangol Kid, The Educated Rapper and Doctor Ice in her own viciously witty style.

As her response continued to soar in popularity and eclipse their own track, U.T.F.O opened the floodgates with the first of many retorts entitled 'The Real Roxanne' which introduced another female rapper with the name to the mix as a way of responding to her more blatant diss.

Clearly not content with accepting the dispute's positive impact on her profile, Shante once again fired back at the trio and their new member with 'Bite This', a track which subsequently fired shots at Run DMC, LL Cool J and many others.

Steadily escalating into one of the biggest feuds of hip-hop's earlier years, the feud is widely accepted to have spawned the most replies in history and eventually led to acts such as Crush Groove, Sparky D, J.J Fad, Gigolo Tony and many more throwing their hat into the ring.