“So Be It,” “Pretty & Petty” And More

Key Takeaways:

• Cardi B, Clipse and Bhad Bhabie sparked major conversations with their 2025 diss tracks.
• This year’s rap beefs ranged from playful jabs to full-on lyrical warfare, with regional rivalries heating up.
• From Twitch drama to Top Dawg Entertainment signee callouts, these tracks gave fans plenty to dissect and debate.

The gloves came off for plenty of rappers in 2025. It didn’t nearly reach the all-consuming level of 2024’s chaos, when Drake was trading shots with Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross and half the industry, but we still got a scaled-down taste of that drama. Joey Bada$$, for instance, spent months trying to pull K. Dot into the ring and came up short, opening the door for West Coast artists like Ray Vaughn, AZ Chike and Daylyt to unload on him instead.

Women in rap weren’t shy about it either, with more of their issues playing out through tracks — and, naturally, plenty of tweets. Bhad Bhabie handed Alabama Barker a massive L in February with “Ms. Whitman,” while Cardi B got her get-back on BIA and JT on “Pretty & Petty” and “Magnet.”

With all that in mind, Rap-Up rounded up 11 of the best diss tracks of 2025. Check out the ranking below.

11. “PlaqueBoyMax” by Fivio Foreign

In January, PlaqueBoyMax brought Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign onto one of his Twitch streams, only for things to fall apart when he told them they couldn’t smoke in the Airbnb. A couple of weeks later, the Brooklyn rapper responded with “PlaqueBoyMax,” in which he declared himself “the real PlaqueBoyMax.”

It makes way more sense once you find out that Fivio’s real name is Maxie Lee Ryles III. While we don’t necessarily know whether PBM should be flattered or offended, the track turned out to be surprisingly replayable.

10. “Round 2” by Skepta

If “Friendly Fire” was the bait in Skepta and Joyner Lucas’ beef, then “Round 2” was the moment the gloves came off. Compared to the handful of lines Big Smoke tossed at Lucas on the first diss, the second track swung so much harder.

From him saying Lucas’ “NOBODY CARES” sounded “like [Drake’s] ‘Back To Back’ from Alibaba” to him mentioning ADHD 2, there was a lot to love here. All that said, Skepta did say his “clashes” were “no violence, just bars,” which is why I’m not entirely convinced he was going for the full knockout.

9. “1900 ARCHIE” by Jace!

Along with still taking occasional swipes at Autumn!, Texas rapper Jace! had smoke for a handful of artists this year, including Toosii, k3, and particularly 1900Rugrat, who arguably got it the roughest. On “1900 ARCHIE,” Jace! directed most of his shots at the XXL Freshman, saying he belonged on Zeus’ “Baddies.”

“1900 ARCHIE,” which was presumably set to premiere on PlaqueBoyMax’s “Song Wars” before those plans fell apart, never made it to DSPs. Then again, Jace! and 1900Rugrat both have a long way to go before they land in the broader rap conversation, so it’s tough to argue the song’s absence mattered all that much.

8. “ROUND 2 K.O” by Joyner Lucas

Joyner Lucas and Skepta’s feud proved once and for all that the British aren’t topping American rappers anytime soon (sorry, not sorry). Among the more entertaining records from their exchange was “ROUND 2 K.O,” in which the Massachusetts native coasted over the beat for about 3 ½ minutes. During that time, Lucas accused Skepta of biting A$AP Rocky’s style and joked that he’d do anything for an OVO chain.

Funny enough, Drake had just declared earlier that month that “nobody can out-rap London.” In our humble opinion, that didn’t age well. “I hope you know the pressure’s on when I drop this s**t ‘cause you really on the clock, boy / I’ma write a perspective song from a U.K. n**ga who think he a top boy,” Lucas dished out.

7. “Magnet” by Cardi B

Cardi B came ready to scorch the earth on her sophomore effort, AM I THE DRAMA? In addition to whacking BIA on “Pretty & Petty,” she emptied the chamber on Offset and JT on “Magnet.”

“Shout out to my h**s that wear the pants like Kamala / Got my baby daddy actin’ like my baby mama, huh,” Cardi rapped in the first verse, before tearing into JT moments later. She called out the City Girl alum for supposedly “sharing bags” with Lil Uzi Vert and looking “a hot mess,” which is kind of hilarious considering the “OKAY” artist orbits the fashion world.

It’s tough to say if Cardi intentionally took a swipe at Nicki Minaj on “Magnet,” but the song — and possibly the album’s overall momentum — clearly triggered something, judging by their exchange on X afterward. The track isn’t very lyrically impressive (though Bardi may have set a record for how many times “a**-b**ch” has been said on one song), but it absolutely got people talking.

6. “THE FINALS” by Joey Bada$$

Joey Bada$$’ rap career got a huge second wind from his feud with Ray Vaughn, with “THE FINALS” arguably being the best diss track he dropped during their clash. “What kinda Top Dawg is you? You more Shih Tzu / You was cloned in the lab, dog, you artificial,” he spat on the record’s lone verse, followed by him referencing REASON’s departure from Top Dawg Entertainment.

Running a tight four minutes, the track gave us Joey at his most inventive. He called back to Vaughn’s earlier diss “Crashout Heritage” and played off Long Beach native’s name with lines that reference Ray Liotta and Ray-Ban. Not to mention, there were plenty of nods to K. Dot sprinkled throughout.

5. “Can’t Be Concrete” by Jorjiana

KARRAHBOOO’s lack of releases — or maybe her inability to drop music at all — has been a running joke for the past year, and thankfully, Lil Yachty hasn’t been giving her too much heat about it. Jorjiana, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as forgiving toward the former Concrete Boys artist on her aptly titled diss “Can’t Be Concrete.”

The Indiana rapper joked that KARRAHBOOO looks like Skilla Baby or maybe even The Weeknd in one breath, then claimed she looks “like a cone” in the next. Making things worse, Jorjiana sampled Lil Yachty on the track just days before actually collaborating with him. We love both artists, so hopefully they can talk it through at some point.

4. “H** Era” by Ray Vaughn

Ray Vaughn put Joey Bada$$ on a T-shirt with “H** Era,” in the most literal way possible. During the Brooklyn rapper’s rap battle with what felt like the entire West Coast of rap, Vaughn responded to his “Red Bull Spiral Freestyle” with this fiery rebuttal. On it, he called out Joey for chasing after Kendrick Lamar — aka Dot — like Pac-Man, then suggested he should maybe spend less time rapping and more time acting.

Vaughn closed the track out by saying Joey “let Ice Spice turn into the king of New York.” Brutal.

3. “Ms. Whitman” by Bhad Bhabie

Bhad Bhabie dropping one of the best diss tracks of 2025 definitely wasn’t on my bingo card for the year. Her feud with Alabama Barker (the daughter of blink-182’s Travis Barker) was always bound to spill off the internet sooner or later. The good news, it was in the booth rather than fists flying, though Bhad Bhabie has said repeatedly she’s okay with that too.

Sampling Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s “VULTURES,” the internet personality’s “Ms. Whitman” is an aggressive, below-the-belt swipe at Barker. Bhad Bhabie accuses her of copying Latto’s flow, references Barker’s alleged past with Tyga and Soulja Boy (who both denied the claims) and even says she “got kicked out the Kardashian house.” There’s probably a good reason we didn’t hear another diss from Barker after this one.

2. “Pretty & Petty” by Cardi B

Before 2025 even began, Cardi B warned her critics to apologize early, because once the new year arrived, she was “whipping everybody’s a** with a wet belt.” She wasn’t exaggerating. With “Pretty & Petty,” the Bronx superstar tore into BIA from every angle. She called out her “melatonin flow puttin’ us to bed” and accused her of being “a big lap dog” for a certain someone.

Did Cardi really need to use a perfectly good album slot on AM I THE DRAMA to diss BIA? Probably not, and truthfully, we would’ve preferred “Pretty & Petty” in 2024. However, the Grammy Award-winning rapper stood on business like she promised.

1. “So Be It” by Clipse

“You cried in front of me, you died in front of me / Calabasas took your b**ch and your pride in front of me.” Even though Pusha T only gave Travis Scott his attention in the closing eight bars on Clipse’s “So Be It,” each line sliced right through the Houston rapper. The Virginia native referenced UTOPIA and Kylie Jenner’s cosmetic line (“And her lip gloss was poppin’, she ain’t need you to eat”), before cleverly circling back to Scott’s Cannes run-in with Alexander “AE” Edwards.

Scott could have dodged all of this if he had just played Pharrell and Pusha the version of “MELTDOWN” that included Drake’s verse. Of everyone targeted on this list, the “Nosetalgia” rapper swung the hardest, and he didn’t bother sugarcoating it either.