10 Most Important Beefs In Hip-hop History

Perhaps the blueprint for the modern hip-hop dispute, Boogie Down Productions and Juice Crew's furious war of words was responsible for many of the most seminal lyrical tirades of what is regularly defined as the genre's golden era.

As opposed to being the result of street squabbles or bravado-based personal issues, the crisis between the two trailblazing groups was the product of a disagreement regarding the spiritual birthplace of the genre. Causing a massive rift between New York's Queens and the South Bronx communities, the first shot was inadvertently fired by Juice Crew's MC Shan as he declared the birth of the artform to have taken place 'The Bridge'.

With the trepidatious first steps towards the culture that we'd all come to know as hip-hop regularly traced back to Brooklyn block parties, BDP's KRS-ONE promptly refuted this assertion with 'South Bronx', a track which featured the legendary MC claiming that if MC Shan 'popped that junk up in the Bronx you might not live.'

Exchanging many blows through the years that would follow, this war was waged over a series of classic outings including 'The Bridge Is Over', Craig G's 'Duck Alert' and many more before BDP's surging popularity resulted in them largely being deemed as the victors. In retrospect, KRS-ONE is happy to explain why they were so quick to embroil themselves in this heated battle and viewed it as a necessity for the progression of the group's career.

A milestone in hip-hop, the conflict solidified the reputation of two of its greatest crews and allowed them to fight one another through the spoken word rather than with any bloodshed. In 2007, the warring factions were officially at peace when the now legendary KRS-ONE and former rival Marley Marl released the collaborative project 'Hip-Hop Lives.'