Top 10 Celeb Reactions To Being Dissed In Songs

It was just a bonus track on the album “Blueprint 2.1”, yet the song "La-La-La" would spark a public rivalry between rapper Jay-Z and N.B.A star Stephon Marbury. Eventually, the song would even be featured in the 2003 movie “Bad Boys Two”. "La-La-La" has lyrics that take shots at Marbury in reference to when he was robbed of goods worth $150,000 at a stoplight in 2000. In 2009, Marbury posted a video online critiquing the song and called out Jay-Z. Later, when asked about the beef with the rapper, Marbury accused Jay-Z of not being an advocate for the Black community.

For years, the rumor mill was churning out reports that “Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake was about his ex, Britney Spears. After all, the blonde woman in the music video was a bit on the nose. But in 2011, it was confirmed that Timberlake was inspired to write it after a spat with Spears. That same year, Rolling Stone interviewed Spears about the song. She mentioned Timberlake’s ego before revealing that the former NSYNC member had checked in with her about the song and video, with the disclaimer that it wasn’t a big deal. Spears gave the okay, but later regretted it. In 2021, she made a callback to the old feud by posting an Instagram video dressed in a VERY familiar hat…

While he hasn’t fully stated it’s about Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran has strongly alluded to it being the case for his catchy song “Don’t”. The song is about Sheeran dating someone, being misled about their relationship, and then the mystery woman sleeping with someone else on the “same hotel floor”. After all, there were rumors he and Goulding were dating in 2013, a year before “Don’t” was released. Goulding stated that, at the time, she was out of control and looked for protection from men. She later released her own track called “On My Mind”, which was hinted to be about Sheeran. Goulding denied the claims and said the song’s subject isn’t about anyone, but fans aren’t sure if they believe her.

When Evanescence's track, “Call Me When You’re Sober”, was released, Seether frontman Shaun Morgan was checking himself into rehab. Since he used to date Evanescence’s Amy Lee, you can probably see where this is going. Lee stated that her song is about Morgan’s addiction issues and their collapsing relationship. During an interview, Morgan spoke about the rather tough situation and maintained that he didn’t appreciate a song telling millions of people he’s a bad person. He further explained he was really upset with their issues being aired in such a way, and he wouldn’t return the favor by producing his own diss song.

In 2013, A$AP Rocky released “1 Train”, which featured verses performed by several rappers like Kendrick Lamar and Action Bronson. The song contained the lyrics, “You see us scramblin’, sellin’ Susan Sarandon”. Sarandon didn’t hear about her name being used in the song as a euphemism for substances until 2015. She then tweeted Bronson and Rocky her thanks for the mention. While she wasn’t sure what it meant exactly, she offered to “blaze one” with the duo and discuss it. We have no idea if they all met up and chatted about “1 Train”, but we’d love for that to be the case.

For some reason, the name Monica Lewinsky will forever be synonymous with one act involving former president Bill Clinton in 1998. People just can’t seem to forget about it–one of those people apparently being Beyoncé. In her 2014 song “Partition”, she talks about having adult fun-time with a guy in a limo. She added in the lyrics, “He Monica Lewinski'd all on my gown”. That’s…that’s visual. So, how’d Lewinsky like her name being used as a dirty verb? In an interview with Vanity Fair, she thanked Beyoncé before requesting a lyric change for something a bit more accurate. She wanted it changed to “Bill Clinton’d all on my gown,’ not ‘Monica Lewinsky’d”.

This rivalry started during the “MTV Video Music Awards” in 2009 when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s award win. Fast forward to 2016, West released the track “Famous”, where the lyrics mention Swift and that he might still sleep with her because he made her famous. Oh…no. Fans attacked the misogynistic lyrics immediately. Yet West claimed he asked Swift if it was okay to release the song, and she gave her blessing. Through her publicist, Swift denied this was the case. Then, videos were leaked by Kim Kardashian on Snapchat that apparently showed West calling Swift to ask her about the song. However, the videos were edited, so we didn’t get the full story.

Rockabilly icon Mojo Nixon has taken shots at many people and institutions over the years through his songs. But his most famous one is “Don Henley Must Die”, which took aim at the Eagles co-founder with lyrics, “Don Henley must die! Put him in the electric chair. Watch him fry!”. Well, that certainly makes his feelings known. Rather than being worried about being in the same room as someone who could write such a song about you, Henley arrived in Austin, Texas, during a performance by Nixon in 1992. Nixon stopped playing and asked him if he wanted to debate. But Henley turned down the offer. Instead, he got on stage and played the tongue-in-cheek song “Don Henley Must Die” alongside Nixon.

At one point, Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G were friends. Things changed, however, in 1994 when Tupac was robbed and shot multiple times. Luckily, he survived, but he believed Biggie knew about the attack, despite a lack of concrete evidence. When Tupac heard about Biggie’s song “Who Shot Ya?”, he believed his former friend was mocking his misfortune. Biggie denied this and said he wrote it before the incident, which Tupac didn’t buy. In revenge, he made the diss track “Hit ‘Em Up” that references his sleeping with Biggie’s estranged wife, Faith Evans. Biggie didn’t address his thoughts about the song publicly.

Throughout his career, Eminem has claimed he dated Mariah Carey, which she’s always denied. In 2009, he released the song "Bagpipes from Baghdad" which references Carey and her then-husband, Nick Cannon. In retaliation, she released “Obsessed”, which mocked Eminem in both the lyrics and the music video when she parodied the rapper’s look. So, Slim Shady responded with “The Warning”, where he slated "Obsessed". In 2021, through her TikTok account, Carey released a video referencing the long-time feud. This isn’t the only woman Eminem has dissed in a song. In 2000, he released “The Real Slim Shady”, which featured uncomplimentary lyrics about Christina Aguilera. In a later interview, she called the song “disgusting”, “offensive”, and “not true”.