What was the first diss-track in music?
Last summer, all any music lover could talk about was the ongoing beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The two rappers traded blows over the course of a month as they highlighted one another’s insecurities, shortcomings and lauded allegations at one another. It went down as one of the greatest rap beefs in history, but it’s hardly the first time two people have been mean to one another through music.
When we think of diss tracks, our minds tend to fixate on rap music, which makes sense. Some of the greatest diss tracks in the history of music come from the genre, as it provides the perfect medium for people to hurl abuse at one another.
One of the main benefits of rap has always been the fact that you can say a lot in a short space of time, and using that, for decades, rappers have been able to use hip-hop as a means to convey a message. The first song to do this was aptly called ‘The Message’, by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The song told the story of what it’s like to be a working-class person in New York, highlighting poetically the state of the streets, the hardships of work and the persistent problems people are pestered with.
With the power contained within rap clear, it wasn’t long before people used it as a means to express their opinions, and quite often, these opinions came at the expense of other rappers. For instance, ‘The Bridge’ was written by MC Shan and Maryl Marl and discussed the origin of hip-hop. Contesting their views, Boogie Down Productions released ‘The Bridge Is Over’, and so began the first back-and-forth between two rappers.
Since then, there have been a number of great rap beefs, such as Drake vs. Pusha T, Biggie vs. 2Pac, and Jay-Z vs. Nas; however, insulting somebody through music didn’t begin at hip-hop; it actually goes back much further than that. For instance, John Lennon was on both the giving and receiving end of multiple disses.
One of Lennon’s cruellest songs was ‘How Do You Sleep?’ Which was a diss directed at his former Beatles bandmate, Paul McCartney. He had George Harrison play on the track and used the runtime to dismantle Paul McCartney as a writer. Equally, he found himself on the receiving end of disses from people who thought his activism was controversial coming from a millionaire. Steely Dan famously directed their song ‘Only A Fool Would Say That’ towards him, with lyrics like, “Oh world become one, of salad and sun, only a fool would say that.”
However, the art of the diss goes back even further than that, as one of the first songs ever written directed at a musician dates back to the 1930s.
So, when was the first ever diss-track released?
The first diss track dates back to 1933, and it was written in response to a piece by Wilson Batista entitled ‘Lenço no Pescoço’. Batista had written the piece to celebrate “malandragem,” a rough, vagrant life lived by people in Brazil following the abolition of slavery in 1888. It was a form of resistance, as people refused to be a part of the oppressive capitalist system that had once enslaved them.
‘Lenço no Pesoço’ wasn’t a diss track per se, but it did attract the attention of many musicians who disagreed with the theme of the song. One of these artists was Noel Rosa, who can be credited with writing the first diss track. He was white and from a middle-class background. He took issue with the song and decided to compose his own piece in retaliation to it. The song was called ‘Rapaz Folgado’, and it can be credited as one of the first diss-tracks, given that it takes specific aim at another individual and calls them out.
The disagreements didn’t evolve into a full-blown argument as the recording technology and means of publication were not available; however, it shows that disagreements through music existed long before Kendrick and Drake went at each other’s throats.
