8 Most Famous Beefs In Hip Hop Music History

If Biggie and Tupac was the defining hip hop beef of the 1990s, then Jay Z and Nas continued the tradition and took up the mantle for the following decade.

Unlike Tupac and Biggie, the pair both hailed from New York, but that didn't stop them waging lyrical war between each other for several years. Both emerging as some of the hottest artists in the late 90s, the beef between the pair became public at the turn of the millennium when Hov released "Takeover," a track that criticised Nas' lack of musical consistency and alleged that Nas had exaggerated his background.

Though the track was well-received among fans and critics, Nas was not going to take the insults lying down and responded with a diss track of his own, titled Ether. Much like his adversary, Nas proceeded with the assumption that all topics were fair game in his rebuttal resulting in one of the seminal rap diss tracks.

Despite the spat continuing in the years that followed, the pair would ultimately make peace in 2005, and have since collaborated together on several songs in both men's discographies.