Kendrick Lamar and Drake do not seem to be good friends. Their recent diss track battle would imply that. Either that or they are both marketing geniuses (very likely) and know how their flow will go.
In other words, they know people are going to notice their feud and their little spat gets their names in the news and helps sell some streams. That is genius. If that is true, of course; maybe they just really hate one another.
No matter, their diss tracks aside, they might learn a lesson or two from the songs that follow. These come from a very organic background and are filled with venom. These songs are true diss tracks.
Foo Fighters - "I'll Stick Around"
Poor Courtney Love. She gets a lot of hate directed her way, and for the most part, she seemingly deserves it. The inspiration for this song comes from Love's money-grab attempt to take the royalties from a bunch of Nirvana songs since Love's late husband, Kurt Cobain, was the main songwriter of the group. Cobain's bandmates, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, disagreed with Love's stance, obviously, as the songs don't exist without them either.
Grohl waited over a decade to officially say the song was about Love, but a review of the lyrics should make it obvious:
"How could it be I'm the only one who sees your rehearsed insanity?
I still refused all the methods you abused
It's alright if you're confused
Let me be
I've been around all the pawns you've gagged and bound
They'll come back and knock you down and I'll be free"
Love might have responded with her own diss track but she appeared to lose the ability to write good songs relatively soon after Cobain passed. Coincidence? One might wonder.
Nine Inch Nails - "Starf***ers, Inc"
This song might also refer a bit to Love as well as she has had some disparaging words about NIN frontman Trent Reznor. Maybe Love needs to learn how to be nice. The track could also be about Smashing Pumpkins vocalist/guitarist Billy Corgan who seemingly did not get along with Reznor. Mostly, however, the song seemed to refer to Marilyn Manson who had previously been a protege of Reznor's, and then Manson discredited that.
Reznor did not mince words, though he later said there was supposed to be a sense of humor about them. His lyrics said enough:
"My god pouts on the cover of the magazine
My god's a shallow little bitch trying to make the scene…
I'll be there for you as long as it works for me
I play a game, it's called insincerity"
The Smith - "Frankly, Mr. Shankly"
Morrissey never had a fondness for record companies. He likely wrote his first song - and to be fair, the lyrics were probably brilliant then too - at age three and they were about a record company exec he would one day hate. The Smiths had a right to create this track, though. Their beef was that Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis might have withheld royalties from the band and they wanted to be paid what was theirs.
Part of the problem was that Travis had sent Morrissey, possibly the greatest lyricist of the English language, some poetry before the band hit it big in an attempt to help inspire Morrissey's words. The singer would not have found this welcoming, though. Instead, Morrissey eventually churned out this gem (and "Shankly" clearly refers to Travis):
"Frankly, Mr. Shankly, this position I've held
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
Oh, I didn't realize that you wrote poetry
I didn't realize you wrote such bloody awful poetry, Mr. Shankly"
Evanescence - "Call Me When You're Sober"
In the early 2000s, Evanescence's vocalist Amy Lee and Seether's vocalist Shaun Morgan dated for a couple of years. He broke up with her in 2005 and soon after checked himself into rehab. Lee, though, was clearly still stinging from the break-up and did not care if Morgan had substance abuse issues. She also did not hold back in her diss track when she sang:
"Couldn't take the blame, sick with shame
Must be exhausting to lose your own game
Selfishly hated, no wonder you're jaded
You can't play the victim this time and you're too late"
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