My heart broke for the first time when I realized Santa Claus wasn’t real. The same moment happened again years later when I developed the same realization for professional wrestling. By the time I got older, accepting the fantasies of Saint Nicholas and Stone Cold Steve Austin became contextual moments in entertainment. Growing up a child of the culture, I’ve never viewed rap beef through that same lens. Watching the breakdown of N.W.A. over financial issues felt real outside of classic diss tracks like “Message to B.A.” and “No Vaseline.” When things spilled over into the street, lives and reputations were at risk. The same could be said for Dr. Dre’s verbal sparring with Eazy E. Everything felt extremely personal. Around the early 2000s, Jay Z vs. Nas and Ja Rule vs. 50 Cent delivered some of the best diss records of all time. However, there were real discussable problems. One didn’t have to take a side at the core level, whoever spit the most vicious, rawest attacks won. Everything else felt ancillary.  

2015 has proved several semi-amusing beefs on various levels. At the bottom level there’s Vic Mensa and Travi$ Scott. Who really cared about either enough to care? The heavyweight match of the year clearly belongs to Drake and Meek Mill. Besides weak efforts from both, “Back To Back” became a club hit. Of course, that translates nowadays into a clear victory. Hell, I literally heard it around ten times throughout the entire weekend at vastly different locations. That doesn’t even count the amount of times I heard to What A Time To Be Aliveon random occasions. And to think, the alleged origins were over Tweets and ghostwriting.

And, here we are today with The Game vs. Young Thug. The root of the problem: Lil Wayne. Who would have thought that two grown men would hurl homophobic insults at each other over another man? Considering Lil Wayne deaded his problem with Thugger months back, the fact that their feud has lasted this long is utterly ridiculous. The social media shots taken at each other are both comical to say the least. However, the fact that both haven’t traded lyrical bars is troubling. Between The Game’s empty shit talking and Young Thug always having fake looking Call Of Duty firearms, social media has yet again softened any disagreement between artist. This ladies and gentlemen is theater. A shame too. Both artists have had a relatively great year so far. The rollout for The Documentary 2 has been nothing short of fantastic. Everything from “100” to “El Chapo” may ensure instant classic status. Meanwhile, Thugger has placed himself as on the forefront of Atlanta’s current dominance not only in commercial Hip Hop with two better than average projects. Seeing both artists become so catty on Instagram is flat out dumb. That lameness will continue until one of them hits the booth. If Drake’s “singing nigga” self can do it for Mill, why can’t The Game or Thug? At least history has proven that Jayceon is battle tested. Whatever Thugger can conjure could very well be a toss up. Or, they could just bury the hatchet and collaborate. Then again, the way the internet works, someone wants a victory as everyone from media outlets to listeners have invested themselves.

So what have we learned about the current state of rap beef? Social media is the nucleus for everything wrong with modernized arguments between two human beings. It’s even worse for emcees. Regardless of  how much music artists love to flood the market with,  some still refuse to even record diss tracks or take forever to even acknowledge things lyrically. The fact that Drake has been the only artist to readily have diss tracks on deck is disturbing. Matter of fact, half of Drizzy’s battle was won by his diehard legion of fans. Even OVO’s problems with Houston group The Sauce Twinz resulted in Sauce Walka dropping a scathing diss that flew under the radar despite being the most personal this year. The Sauce Twinz’s issue with Drizzy wasn’t over anything petty but, cultural appropriation of H-Town culture. So, here we have it. In 2015, the effectiveness of a diss track is relative to how many followers one has on Twitter and Instagram. That in itself could be a reason why many don’t bother responding through music. It’s better having WWE level banter without the ending match giving any closure.