Hit Parade | Here’s the Beef Edition Part 1

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Kendrick Lamar took the Super Bowl halftime stage in 2025 and had the stadium chanting along to “Not Like Us”, it was clear: diss tracks had gone stratospheric. The Kendrick vs. Drake beef echoes legendary rap rivalries like Biggie vs. Tupac and Jay Z vs. Nas—but diss tracks stretch back through a century of American pop, long before hip-hop, all the way to the days of Tin Pan Alley. From Eddie Cantor and James Brown, to John Lennon and Carly Simon, to Kool Moe Dee and Lauryn Hill, artists have been turning personal grudges into hits for over a century. Step this way and join Chris Molanphy as he traces the history of answer records, diss tracks and rap beefs that shaped the charts and the culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, that's my prime delivery.
0:01.6	What, already?
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0:06.2	And that's the buzz of Prime's entertainment.
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0:09.7	Heads of state, that new action comedy with Idris Elber as the Prime Minister,
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0:58.7	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
1:02.3	Hey there, hit parade listeners.
1:06.4	What you're about to hear is part one of this episode.
1:10.3	Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month.
1:14.2	Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops?
1:16.3	Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts.
	...

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