Hip-hop world caught up in a cutthroat ‘diss war’

The local hip-hop scene has been explosive this past week with disses flying in every direction as several popular rap stars decided to carry out their feuds publicly, and with some pretty harsh verses.

It all started two weeks ago with the release of the hip-hop track “Control,” by American rap artists Big Sean, featuring Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica. The single basically called out a handful of the new rappers in the U.S. music industry, such as Wale, Pusha T, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky and Drake, and told them all to step aside.

“I got love for you all but I’m tryna murder you n****s,” Lamar rapped.

A similar scene is being played out in Seoul. Last week Korean rapper Swings chose to follow in the footsteps of the U.S. rappers and started an all-out diss war when he released his version of “Control” titled “King Swings” and “Hwang Jung-min (King Swings Part 2).” The rapper specifically called out fellow hip-hop artists Ugly Duck, E-Sens and Simon D.

“Ugly duck, you ugly f**k, you think you got swag?” Swings rapped in “Part 2.” “While E-Sens was sleeping his contract was terminated. … Simon D, you motherf***er.”

On Monday Swings a follow-up titled “Shinsegae (King Swings Part 3),” continuing his attacks. 

Last Friday rapper E-Sens, formerly of the hip-hop duo Supreme Team, decided to jump on the bandwagon by releasing his first single, “You Can’t Control Me,” after being cut by his agency over “creative differences.” The song blatantly lashes out at his former management company Amoebaculture and specifically targets former label mate Gaeko of Dynamic Duo.

“Amoeba Culture kiss my a**. You’ll just go to the press like you always have. You’ll make me look like an ungrateful bastard,” he rapped. “Pretending to be the nice guy, f**k that be honest, you’re the dirtiest one. … Listen to this and answer me, Gaeko.”

This inevitably led to a diss-track domino effect with Gaeko responding to the rapper’s challenge the following day by releasing his response track titled, “I Can Control You.”

“You’re a poser catching wind on the rotation mode of a fan. The ones who get swept away are attention-seeking patients like you, your cancer-like existence, your existence itself is poison,” Gaeko rapped in his version of the track. “I’m a busy guy so go f**k yourself.”

E-Sens then returned fire within 24 hours with the track “True Story” and continued to pile on the attack. “Now your true self is coming out. I gave you your fix and you called me crap? You dare to step into the zone of kings here?” read the lyrics of the rapper’s answer to Gaeko’s release.

The diss battle show no sign of letting up anytime soon. E-Sens’ former partner in crime Simon D, who was his teammate in the now defunct hip-hop act “Supreme Team,” also decided to join the dissing brawl and released his version of “Control,” returning the attacks originally made by Swings. Along with the four key players in this ongoing hip-hop turf war, many other local rappers have also gone head-to-head by releasing a string of blatant attack tracks.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)