By Sam George Mac
For a nonentity finding his footing in the game of rap, daring to diss a big name is enough exposure for him in the media, and if the people’s favorite decides to respond to this unknown entity, it is a big win. Diss tracks can be very provocative to the target rapper irrespective of the motive behind the act. And talking about the mainspring for any diss at all, it could be for attention or to settle a score brewing behind the scene, for rivalry or for supremacy or even for reasons as trivial as picking offence in another rapper’s show of strength.
Rap is war wherever it is valued. As a rapper, you could wake up to your friend dissing you just because of your careless but innocent attempts at wordplay with his name on your previous record. This was the case in CDQ’s offence at MI when the latter used the former’s name to throw jabs in the diss towards Vector. MI had insisted that Vector was not top 5 regional rapper in South West. To emphasize on how long the queue is, he had placed CDQ at number 6 telling listeners to “see the queue (CDQ)”. Such is the culture and seriousness ascribed to this game! Some labels even helped fuel diss between their artistes and others. At the time MI released King James, Chocolate City was quoted in a social media post saying: “Nigerian rappers would be like… So MI is back? We are finished!”
Diss can be very disrespectful because it can escalate to the point of attacking another’s personality outside their music. However, when a diss strikes a response from its target or even an entirely neutral rapper, the tension triples. Unfortunately, not every diss is weighted enough to force a response out of another rapper. A known rapper would particularly ignore an aggressor if he knows such aggressor is below his standard such that responding to him would only benefit the aggressor and bring him to limelight. Others would cowardly avoid to pick a fight with a rapper they know is no match for them flow for flow, punchlines for punchlines, just like some predators fear other predators in the jungle. But wait, some rappers do not care, whether as the attacker or as the attacked. They don’t care about outcomes. Whether or not a fight with the wrong enemy would end their career is not in their radar of possible outcomes in a diss. They just fire on! And this is the beauty of rap. Nigeria is no exception neither is the country’s mainstream music alien to this culture. Though diss is more peculiar to rap anywhere in the world, yet, the diss culture in Nigerian pop did not start with Hip Hop, rather as a song which history opines is the foundation for everything “pop” in Nigeria in 1999 even when the country’s first known rap record is traceable to 1981 Monika.
Though diss, and even the more serious version, beef, in Nigerian music such as Apala, then Fuji, predates even the 80s; the 90s will forever hold relevance for housing the first ever rap group in Nigeria. Everything diss in Nigerian pop music leads back to the defunct The Remedies of 1997. The rap group which consisted of Tony Tetuila, Eedris Abdulkareem and Eddy Remedy got shattered into parts, hence, Tony Tetuila’s Omode Meta with Ruff Rugged N Raw and 2face released afterwards and performed live on AIT, holds the record for the first diss track in Nigeria. But that wasn’t the end, a series of other infamous instances of diss followed the heritage in history. They are:
2. Eedris Abdulkareem vs Tony Tetuila & Ruff Rugged N Raw
An irate Eedris Abdulkareem who alongside a few others upheld the prestige of rap in Nigeria in the early 2000s would dish the entire names featured on Tetuila’s narrative Omode Meta his Wackawickee MCs, to show his displeasure with Tony, his former band mate; and his newfound affiliations with others. The song closes with a voice-over doubling as an epilogue used to call out everybody featured on Omode Meta in Eedris’ original voice:
“Yo Tony, you gotta thank God first and you gotta thank The Remedies. Without The Remedies, you ain’t sh!t. Plantashun Boiz, you gotta thank 2face. He’s the plantation, y’all n!ggas are the boys. Without 2face, there is no plantation, and you 2face; don’t let it get to your head.”
Tony Tetuila would return with a solo hit titled Hit My Car, a song whose visuals caricatures Eedris’ personality in a very sarcastic manner. Tetuila had employed Eedris’ lookalike to feature in the video to parody Eedris’ appearance with a towel around his head. This character was made to hit Tetuila’s car in the video. A similar scenario played out in Blaqbonez’ portrayal of Carter Efe in the visuals for Back in Uni in 2022.
3. Ruggedman vs Eedris Abdulkareem, Olu Maintain etc
In a cold 2002, a steaming hot Ruggedman earned a name by dragging the decency of Eedris Abdulkareem and those of Olu Maintain, Black Reverendz and Rasqui through the mire. Ruggedman’s Ehen, part 1, unveiled the ineptitude of the aforementioned rappers, revealing the meaninglessness of their lyricism.
4. Mode9ine vs Ruggedman
In a moment that seemed the best yet in the history of Nigerian growing industry in that era, Modenine treated Ruggedman to a dinner of the latter’s own medicine on the basis of the same intellect Ruggedman demanded from his colleagues in 2002. Modenine specifically had an issue with Ruggedman’s “baba” used to complement the latter’s initials “Ruggedy”. In a pun that left the Nigerian audience dithering for its unusual-ness, Modo declares that “when I diss a baba, I am not talking about Ethiopia” on the track Talking to You.
5. Eedris Abdulkareem vs Mode9ine
Here, Eedris Abdulkareem picked offence in Modenine’s pride of being a graduate and doing rap for fun expressed in an interview alongside Trybesmen. Till date, Eedris’ diss at Modenine got no response.
6. 9ice vs Ruggedman
You keep wondering at this point why Ruggedman’s name keeps popping in the conversation revolving around disagreements. If you guessed he was controversial as a rapper then you guessed right. His issues with 9ice stemmed from the accusations that he allegedly bedded Toni Payne, the then 9ice’s wife. In spite of being Alapo Meji’s mentor, the singer recruited Seriki to call out Ruggedman on the song Talk, I Am Listening in 2010. From this moment on, Seriki and his uncensored lyricism gained relevance in the Yoruba section of Nigerian Hip Hop.
7. Kelly Handsome vs Mo’ Hits & Terry G
After a successful hit with his Yahoo-glorifying Maga Don Pay in 2008, Kelly Handsome got into a lyrical feud with the duo of Don Jazzy’s Mo’ Hits artistes and Terry G a year later. Kelly Handsome was famous for his controversial personality; he took it as a hobby to call out colleagues, including groups and organizations like Kennis Music. But here, his issue with Mo’ Hits rose from Mo’ Hits Igwe song. On his parody of the same song, Igwe Kom Kom, Kelly weaponized Wande Coal’s Who Born The Maga against him, saying “yes, I’m Arsenal, and you’re Man U. It makes sense why you resemble a malu”. Wande Coal had earlier fired shots at Kelly Handsome with Who Born The Maga as a response to the latter’s criticism of Mo’ Hits.
8. MI vs Kelly Handsome & Iceberg Slim
It was late in 2010 before Kelly Handsome realized he had already bitten more than he could chew when he opted to pick on a young MI that was already making rounds in the media at the time. This record titled Beef was even more iconic because MI used a stone to kill two birds by including Iceberg Slim, another assailant, in the conversation.
9. Mallam Spicey vs Terry G
Mallam Spicey’s 1,005 Naira in history, has a place in the top 3 of the most infectious diss track in Nigeria ever: “one thousand five Naira, bling bling some boys dem dey wear/dem start to dey pariwo,” Spicey’s beef lines blared from many household speakers in the late 2000s. Spicey was just on his own when the crazy Terry G took to his studio to record a freestyle on an instrumental a certain artiste and his crew took a break from midway into a paid session. A freestyle Terry G later titled Free Madness included lyrics that mocked Mallam Spicey’s style of recording in bars. Blame this feud on Terry G’s nonchalance in music. It was a moment worth remembering in history. One of the most iconic.
10. Nico Gravity vs Timaya
Perhaps, this is the funniest diss track in the history of diss tracks in Nigeria, because, who the hell records a diss for Egberi Papa and title it “I Wan Finish Timaya”?
11. Warri 2Pac & Warri 50Cent vs the industry
Wait! This is even funnier. I bet some of you never knew Nigeria, through the talented blessings of Warri, had its own 50 Cent and Pac. They even sounded like the American rappers they cloned. In the brouhaha the rap industry was known for at the time, these two humble rappers called the blushes of the entire industry out to create a rippling effect. Even the renown MI, Modenine and Ruggedman himself got shot at on Hit Em Up.
12. Reminisce, Olamide & Phyno vs Nigerian English rappers
For a while, Olamide and a host of other indigenous rappers were taunted in a classist opinion that always placed any rap not delivered in English below the bar. Although Olamide himself was presumed to have nursed a silent feud against the trio of MI, Ice and Jesse Jagz at Chocolate City especially because of an “Aboki meta fe maa show” line he used in a collaboration at the time. Perhaps, this reference to “aboki meta” in one of his songs in the early 2010s had aided that rumour. Sometimes around 2015, Reminisce recruited, via Local Rappers, both Olamide and Phyno to take shots at the English speaking rappers in Nigeria. All three talked down on “punchlines” being irrelevant and non-lucrative in a tense moment that held sway into late 2010s.
13. 2face vs Plantashun Boyz & Faze
See Me So, 2face’s song of victory over failure became a shot received by Faze, a former band mate. Faze would return the favour in another classic diss titled Letter To My Brother to set the records straight. The issue originally began when 2face, Faze and BlackFace separated from Plantashun Boyz, a group they were in together for sometime.
14. Vector vs Reminisce
Things were pretty messy between Reminisce and Vector in 2013. Reminisce had dissed Vector for his bars on Sauce Kid’s Kitchen Street. However, Vector returned on AQ’s Distractions to hit back at Reminisce who was described as follows:
I. You hold your career with my bars, you gon’ make no bail.
II. Cause you bleach your skin don’t mean you’re enlightened.
III. From your picture that I saw, you’re an eyesore.
IV. But you, your life is like your video, it’s low budget, God forgive me.
15. MI vs the rap industry
In 2017, shortly before the hype of Shaku Shaku, MI had taken on the mic to criticize the entire Nigerian rap community. MI capped it all with reference to South African rappers as the standard of what rap should be in Nigeria. It was a matter of minutes before the entire community, especially the uprising ones, came for MI with rage.
Rappers like Lord Vinho responded with “Fix Up The Lies”, Rukus pointed out to MI who “claimed you wanted rappers to multiply but you continue to cause division”, Blaqbonez, Payper Corleone both were respectively out against MI, N6 came out of retirement to dare MI to “walk around with a Loose Kaynon all day, that you ain’t gonna let blow”.
Mayne took shots to remind MI that, “you of all people should know what we face mehn… If to say na now wey you try to blow, trust me, you for don switch up for life,” while others like S’old, Okaim, Cloud9ne, MCSkill Tha Preacha and David Millz took turns on MI equally.
The backlash poured in against the chairman, even more than Wizkid received for saying “rap is dead” in 2022. For weeks, MI’s blushes were a topic of discussions even on air in the major cities across the Nigerian music industry.
16. Olamide vs the industry
It’s a norm that comes with rap to depend on braggadocio to shoot self above the regular pedestal the world reserves for one. This is exactly Olamide’s habit on Eyan Mayweather, the track where Olamide authoritatively dared the whole industry to name any rapper in the history of Nigeria who has achieved some of his feats like selling out arenas in several metropolis across the world. The silence that followed in the industry was loud. About 5 years later, Olamide became the first African rapper with a song to hit 100 million streams on Spotify. In 2023, he became the first Nigerian rapper to be nominated for the Grammys.
17. Kizz Daniel vs G World Wide
After losing the name Kiss Daniel to G World Wide in 2017, the singer returned as Kizz Daniel to serve his former label executive, Emperor Geezy, one of the coldest diss songs on an instrumental historical enough for the Nigerian millennials. No Do, where Kizz Daniel reminded Emperor Geezy about karma was laid on an instrumental originally used by NTA in the 80s as a soundtrack to the children tale-telling program popularly aired as Tales by Moonlight. In 2023 however, Kizz completely buried the hatchet with Emperor Geezy and in fact made him an executive in his own label, Fly Boy Inc.
According to Louiza Williams, a close associate of both Kizz Daniel and Emperor Geezy since the days of G World Wide, “under this partnership, while Kizz Daniel will prioritize his music career more and strengthen his global fan connections, the international music star will be leaving crucial business decisions of his brand and record label in capable hands.” Both signed Pryme under Kizz Daniel’s Fly Boy Inc afterwards.
Describing his new collaboration with Emperor Geezy, Kizz Daniel explained that, “when Emperor Geezy came on board, he awakened the Kizz Daniel of where I started, and that is one thing I appreciate about him each time we work together. He is my charger.”
18. Kizz Daniel vs the cabalist industry
Kizz Daniel’s first issue with the industry stemmed from Twitter in 2016 when he recounted how folks on the micro-blogging space condemned him for always reusing the same instrumentals: he had sung alongside the then label mate, Sugarboy, “naso dem fire me for Twitter, say I too dey mess with the same sound” on Raba.
Two years later, Kizz Daniel returned on DJ Spinall’s Baba to fire shots at his aggressors thus: “no collabo, we still dey reign/for this collabo, wahala dey.” It seems Kizz Daniel has always nursed a vendetta against some imaginary stakeholders in the Afrobeats industry hence, very late in 2021, Kizz Daniel profiled the entire industry as a landscape plagued by godfatherism. In 2023, his 5th project treated these unknown cabals to a dinner of disdain: “No escape, molten magma/Predict their movement… Bypass gatekeepers, Barnabas.”
19. Adekunle Gold vs Davido
This was more of a rumour than an actual truth. Till date, no one knows where the speculations of Adekunle Gold dissing Davido on Ariwo Ko stemmed from in 2016.
20. Vector vs MI
The feud between Vector and MI was speculated to have been caused by both’s drive for commercial gains, especially since Vector’s testimony of raking in money from the diss moments after both eventually buried the hatchet. But how did it start?
The contention for supremacy began on Twitter and it slowly resulted into a plot that saw both OGs lauch heavy punchlines at each other over the course of two diss tracks. In his diss at Vector, addressing him as his son, MI rapped on The Viper, “Instead of responding to hate, I have chosen to give the snake the secret to my success, help people.”
In a counterattack, Vector’s Judas The Rat took shots at MI’s personality, his failures as well as his crew members and his brother, Jesse Jagz. This is the point where AQ got offended by Vector.
21. AQ vs Vector
AQ has a habit of easily falling out with friends and associates and he knew it himself. From Vector to MI and to Brymo, AQ has made fallouts and call-outs a brand. Vector had claimed he brought AQ to limelight in the diss at MI but AQ was not having the shot Vector called, hence the birth of Distraction 2. It’s even more interesting because the first Distraction in 2013 was a plot hatched by Vector alongside AQ to diss Reminisce. Half a decade after, guess who was dissed on a second Distraction? The same Vector.
22. Seyi Shay vs Tiwa Savage
Till forever, Kizz Daniel’s Fvck You holds the record for the most viral Afrobeats challenge ever. The song made to call out a cheating lover saw a lot of artistes, both singers and rappers, across Africa, narrate their ordeal in the hands of cheating partners. While some mentioned names, others dropped clues about their objects of reference.
It was in this trend Seyi Shay used Tiwa’s failed marriage with Tee Billz to weave a pun that resulted into a vendetta from Tiwa’s end. In the same challenge where Tiwa Savage called out Tee Billz for cheating several years after their marriage crashed, Seyi Shay had sung, “you know I’m not Savage, I pay my Billz”.
Both would later meet at a salon in Lagos a couple of years later, Seyi Shay would walk up to Tiwa Savage to exchange pleasantries with her as industry colleagues but Tiwa Savage would display hostility in a scuffle that resulted in a week-long gossip in Nigerian dailies and their reportage.
23. Falz vs Skibii
Perhaps, this was another careless punchline that would have resulted into a long-term feud if Skiibii had acted on it. Rappers and carelessness with words! Skiibii had faked his own death in 2015 to acquire fame, but the plot failed woefully.
A year after, Falz on the song Soft Work used the event to note the uncertainty of life, thus he rapped, “If you fake your own death, you fit still no blow/you don’t know the game intoto/You want to try lucky maybe you will win lotto/Even real talents gan still need promo”. Thankfully, Skiibii featured Reekado Banks on Sensima a couple of years after Falz mocked him, and he gained the fame he needed.
24. Naira Marley vs Simi
Simi was open with her disdain for yahoo boys and their support systems, hence in 2018, she took to Instagram to tell them never to patronize her music. This was a time when Naira Marley openly canvassed for cyber crime. Both would later meet at an event in Lagos, Simi would ignore Naira Marley’s pleasantries and the rapper would rush to rant online before entering the studio to record Am I A Yahoo Boy? to diss Simi.
25. Simi vs gossips
Even if Adekunle Gold had left traces of a possible relationship between him and Simi on the song Orente, it was never fully established as a fact that both were lovers until their wedding in 2019. Before their reunion on Take Me Back, there appeared to have been a break in transmission during when Falz had taken the center stage in Simi’s artistry with people hoping for a relationship between the duo, however, it came as a shock that it was in fact not Falz at all. Therefore, when Simi officially married Adekunle Gold, questions popped about Falz, and a concerned Simi who was tired of the gossip took on the mic alongside the same Falz to serve the gossips a single titled Mind Your Business.
26. Phyno vs Hushpuppi
The story of Phyno and Hushpuppi is interesting because Phyno obviously predicted the latter’s downfall, and it came to pass in a matter of two years. Phyno, on Telli Person, fired back at Hushpuppi after the socialite yahoo boy mocked the rapper for always sporting fake jewelries.
27. Davolee vs Blaqbonez
The song Best Rapper in Africa put Blaqbonez in his state of braggadocio but Davolee would not have any of that narration, especially because it talks down on others to levitate the self.
28. Burna Boy vs Davido
Twitter was also the genesis of this particular beef that lasted the whole year. A user had designed a picture of Davido and Wizkid as the ultimate GOAT of Afrobeats and Burna Boy had picked offence for suffering exclusion. Davido would release Fem to shut Burna Boy up, however, the African giant dropped a full album (Twice as Tall) to prove his might in the game. His response to Davido includes Way Too Big, Naughty By Nature, Real Life, Bebo etc.
29. Davolee vs Dremo
In the diss directed at Blaqbonez for saying he is the best rapper in Africa, Davolee had equally called out YCee and Dremo. In response, Dremo had released Scapegoat to diss Davolee who in turn released Light Weight and Scapegoat 2 in response.
30. Reekado Banks vs Wizkid & Burna Boy
2020 was not a good year for Reekado Banks who suffered cyber ridicule in the hands of Burna Boy and Wizkid respectively. However, the singer returned to serve Wizkid “People Dey” and Burna Boy “Ozumba Mbadiwe”. On the latter, Reekado told Burna Boy “you be giant for your pocket”.
31. Blaqbonez vs Carter Efe
Blaqbonez did not realize Carter’s fight with Berri Tiga was faked. If he knew, he wouldn’t have interfered. Blaqbonez had picked a fight with Carter: the former had ridiculed the latter by keeping to his words of paying not to look like Carter Efe. Hence, in the Back in Uni video where Blaqbonez imitated every major popstar in the industry at the moment, Blaqbonez reimagined Tony Tetuila’s Hit My Car gimmick by deploying a Carter Efe caricature.
32. AQ vs MI & Brymo
In 2022, AQ recorded a joint album, Ethos, with Brymo, where he dissed MI. A year later, AQ released another God’s Engineering where he dissed the same Brymo he affiliated with in 2022. AQ named Brymo a “tribal crackhead”.
33. Brymo vs Burna Boy
October 2023, Brymo went on air to name Burna Boy an intellectual thief for always sampling people’s songs. Days later, Brymo claimed Burna Boy copped City Boys from him. Responding to Brymo’s claims, Burna Boy in a rehearsal with his band scorned Brymo as a singer who “fell off”.
:: MI Abaga
: Sam George Mac [@trulySGM]
: Say Afrobeats, 6th Edition
