Feuds among musicians frequently get out of hand. In the mid-’90s, the world of hip-hop discovered that public beef could become a deadly game when 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G, who’d shared a long and mutual case of bad blood, were gunned down within months of each other.

But in 1997, the same year that Biggie was killed, a new beef was beginning to take shape that would come to dominate the airwaves and rap headlines for almost a decade, according to liveabout.com.

Jay-Z and Nas, two huge name rappers from Queens in Long Island, New York, maintained a rivalry that would come to define that era of hip-hop through a series of classic diss tracks, starting with Jay-Z’s line in “Where I’m From” boasting: “argue all day about who’s the best MCs: Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas.”

With Biggie recently deceased, the word “and” became the vital word in the jibe: this was the new hierarchy as Jay saw it, and, of course, though he gives some backhanded respect to Nas by placing him second, that meant he saw himself the best MC alive.

From “We Will Survive” to “The Takeover,” from the “Stillmatic” freestyle and “Ether,” the two traded vicious bars that clinically dissected their opponent until the two buried the hatchet by appearing together at the “I Declare War” concert in 2005, according to MTV.

How did Jay-Z and Nas's beef start?

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