In the times we live in, celebrities have attained such significant statuses and gained large following with an attendant unprecedented influence on lovers of their arts. And with such power, one would expect that they conduct themselves as role models and “influencers” because the world is literally watching. But even the biggest stars can have their names dragged through the mud in the name of petty beefs.
From threatening physical violence, spreading rumours to the press, leaking “private” information, and releasing not-so-subtle diss tracks — celebrity beefs and feuds come in all forms. And no matter the seriousness or scope of the drama, as a society we love to see it.
eelive.ng recently asked questions as to why celebrities throw shots at each other on social media, release diss tracks, engage in physical fights, and go as far as having feuds with each other for years.
Recently, the world of Afrobeats paused for a minute because two of its heavyweights, Davido and Burna Boy, allegedly got into a fight while in Ghana. According to celebrity eye-witness SamKlef, this happened because one of Davido’s guys tried to stop Burna Boy from entering the club.
This would have been unimaginable a few years back as many considered the two to be friends. However, their beef is a culmination of the seemingly small jabs they have been taking at each other since 2019; from Burna implying that Davido is only successful because “his father bought the team” and Davido’s FEM allegedly targeting Burna Boy.
But why does this happen? Why do celebrities beef when they could instead be collaborating to make long-lasting legendary art?
Star-sized egos
A former manager at Sony Music Nigeria and Editor- in Chief of CKN News, Mr Chris Kehinde Nwandu opined that performers tend to have big egos and therein lies the issue. Speaking to eelive.ng during the week, Nwandu said, “The source of beef between artistes is mainly the egos of the artistes in question. It’s almost always about who is better than the other, who has a larger fanbase.”
The industry veteran who is known to have been instrumental to the success of many of Nigeria’s most legendary artistes, also revealed that it has been this way since time immemorial. “We saw this with King Sunny Ade vs Ebenezer Obey, Ras Kimono vs Oritz Wiliki, it did not start today. They try to prove that one has more talent and is more popular than the other and their fans are entertained by it.”
A good example of artistes acting out on their egos is the beef between Brandy and Monica. Both believed that music legend Whitney Houston had handed them the baton of R&B. This caused a clash; with the both of them fighting over ownership of a song, threats being made, physical violence, and having to be kept at a distance from each other on set.
Another example of this is Shatta Wale’s perceived disrespect from Burna Boy; which made him go on social media earlier this month and lash out at the Grammy nominee.
Who deserves what…
Media personality and artiste manager, Mr Kunle Rasheed corroborated Nwandu’s position about the clashing big egos of artistes; saying that jealousy and envy could also be a reason for beef.
Rasheed told eelive.ng:, “Oftentimes, one does not think the other deserves his success or popularity and this causes a rivalry”.
And there seems to be some validity in this position. For example, many music lovers, have assumed that the rift between Davido and Burna Boy started because Davido was allegedly “embittered” by Burna’s Grammy nomination. However, there is no proof of this.
In the same vein, after Reekado Banks won the highly coveted Headies Next Rated Awards over Lil Kesh at the 2015 Headies Awards; Olamide went on stage in Kanye West fashion to vent his frustrations as he claimed Lil Kesh was most deserving of the award and not any other person.
Meanwhile, when Don Jazzy went on stage to make a speech, he threw shade at Olamide; telling him if he wanted Reekado’s car prize won, he should come and pick it up. After Don Jazzy’s speech, Olamide and the Don went on a Twitter spree as they both exchanged words.
One artiste could also feel slighted by the other, as in the recent case of Zlatan and DJ Cuppy; where the former alleges that he did not receive a dime for their 2019 collaboration Gelato. For a song that got a lot of airplay and spurned memes at the time of its release, it is unimaginable that the Legwork rapper did not take part in any of the action. His anger and the resulting beef is therefore justifiable.
Fan-generated beefs
Speaking further, Rasheed also posited that because artistes are people too, they could simply just not like each other. He however strongly believes that fans could be a cause of beef between artistes. For example, the Tupac Vs Biggie and the East-West coast rivalry; where each of them had to represent their turfs and live up to the expectations of not only their fans but the communities where they grew up.
The fan-generated beef also applies in the BBNaija fandom phenomenon. Fans of the show divide themselves based on their favourite housemates and launch beef on their behalf. Recently, former housemate Nina accused fans of instigating the rift between her and the other housemates. Nina insinuated that fans pressure celebrities and don’t “just let them be”.
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Mr Rasheed admonished fans to let artistes be and stop the unnecessary comparisons. His words: “In music, we have different flavours. No two artistes are the same so you cannot compare them based on the same standards. When you make such comparisons, there is a lot of pressure on artistes to prove themselves.”
But alas, that is not the case. Artistes keep falling victim to this and because it makes for such good entertainment, fans fuel both sides with more rivalry and hatred that they may even begin to read meanings into harmless lyrics. And then when things get serious, fans cheer anyway because to them, celebrities exist solely for their entertainment.
This is especially true when fans compare new artistes to already famous ones. And in an attempt to “defend their thrones”, they allow fans to drag them into petty battles online. Whereas the proper thing to do on the side of fans would be to appreciate both artistes while respecting their differences; and for the artistes, focus on their careers and not let such comparisons affect them.
Cardi B’s baseless beef with Nicki Minaj got her physically hurt after she attacked the Trinidadian rapper at a 2018 New York Fashion Week party. All this happened while fans cheered online; dividing themselves and competing under the Barbie Vs Bardi fandoms.
M.I Abaga and Vector tha Viper’s multiple diss tracks mainly focused on who was the better rapper; with both of them making statements that sounded truly hurtful while fans rejoiced and compared the bars.
Publicity stunts
Nwandu went on to say that some artistes also use feuds to boost their popularity. “Quite a number of them use these fight for publicity. They know it will get people interested and talking about them,” he told eelive.ng
This statement rings true again for the beef between Brandy and Monica, who broke music and streaming records after going head to head in a live Verzuz battle back in August 2020.
So we can’t expect that different from artistes either. It is not far-fetched to assume that although it may start as an authentic fight at first, it could end up becoming a calculated ploy at getting attention or airplay. And we can;t blame them for using this tactic because it works so effectively.
The dark side of beef
The reality of artistes beef is that they are as complicated as human nature. A beef could result from the wildest of things; a tweet or even just the way someone looked at the other. One thing industry practitioners interviewed seem to agree on is that whoever the winner of beef is, artistes who beef are always victimized in some way.
These famous people run the risk of being overexposed; having their dirty laundry aired out for the world to see and having no control over how their private lives are revealed to the public. An example was Pusha T revealing in a diss track that Drake secretly had a son with a pornstar. This forced Drake to come out with the news earlier than he wanted to and his private life was subjected to scrutiny.
At its worst, beef can become deadly. The unsolved murders of rappers Tupac and Notorious B.I.G come to mind in this case. The two had formerly been on good terms, but the rivalry and the legendary music that resulted from it made fans happy and made music executives rich. So everyone pitted these young men in their 20s against each other until neither could release another diss track.
So is there anything anyone can do about beef, given that it is both enjoyable and profitable for everyone? While many would argue that it is an essential part of the hip-hop and general music game and that it is inevitable; Mr Rasheed offered that might be some virtue in trying to appreciate artistes for their uniqueness instead of pitting them against each other.
Maybe in so doing, we will find out that collaborations between our artistes can be better than diss tracks.