In dissing anything goes (but the problem is cultural poverty)
Some TikTokers and commentators, engaged in reactions to the dissing between Tony Effe and Fedezthey decided to suspend the commentary, sometimes done with a live video, because the two, in their respective songs, brought up children, in this case those of the Milanese rapper, or exes, wives, old flames, people unrelated to the feud, all while calling each other “drug addicts” etc. In short, some have taken down the video or have lashed out against the songs of the two protagonists claiming a sort of “moral integrity” and denouncing that “certain topics should not be touched”. There has been an outcry from many quarters, as if there were rules in rap dissing. But since when? What new moralistic invention is this? The beauty of this form is that there are no laws: the only queen is the word.
The most recent and high-profile dissing match that the whole world has been talking about, the one between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, has reached very high levels of verbal violence and no one was shocked: Lamar, in “Not Like Us”, which ended up at the top of the American charts, practically called Drake a “pedophile”. The clash, although very tough, has always remained steeped in credibility, technique, culture, attitude, ability to surf on music. All that the little theater between Tony Effe and Fedez, which ended with the latter’s launch of the single “Collective hallucination”, a piece detached from the battle of rhymes and therefore without any sensecertainly did not transmit. The two approached the dissing with simple, poor and sometimes vulgar and embarrassing lines. The problem was therefore not the use of uncomfortable topics, but how it was done, making gossip about the love for a culture stand out more that Fedez and Tony, despite what they say, rarely hang out with.
A whole different playing field compared to the dissing between Salmo and Luché who, in 2023, set the fuse alight with a series of hilarious songs. Diss is an artistic technique of ventingwhich was born and encouraged since the birth of hip hop, to prevent American criminal gangs from killing each other in the streets. “Didn’t they tell you that rap is a violent sport?”, to quote Marracash in “Status”. There are other examples of clashes that ended up in the most intimate and delicate spheres: years ago Pusha Tthrough the diss track “The Story Of Adidon”, had accused Drake of having a hidden son and wanting to keep the identity of the mother, former porn star Sophie Brussaux, a secret. A few years after those fiery words, it was enough for Drake to publish some photos in the company of the child to rekindle the hearts of fans the memory of the dissing, which had effectively opened a Pandora’s box. In the face of “children shouldn’t be dragged into dissing”.
One of the biggest feuds in the rap world, that between Jay-Z and Nasalso involved the second’s wife who, after a few unfiltered bars, had to admit, in front of the world, that she had betrayed her husband, precisely with the rival. How can we not mention all the vitriolic rhymes of Eminem who, especially at the beginning of his career, dissed celebrities and people from the entertainment worldoften ridiculing them in videos too, without any mercy. The recommendation, beyond everything, is always the same: you shouldn’t take it too personally because, as Jay-Z himself explained several times in the end, “dissing is like wrestling”.
