What is Beef and Biting?
An explanation and examples of the situation…
Rap began hitting big in the 1980s and about that time, the idea of disses and beefs and biting were born as well. So, what are we talking about? Because if you don’t know Rap and Hip-Hop you might not recognize the terminology.
Hip Hop rivalries are known as “beefs”. A true beef happens when one artist disses (disrespects) another artist through their music. “Biting” is a term used to describe when another artist copies what someone else has done, usually to try and one-up or diss their style.
There was a time when the idea was to always strive for a unique sound and flow. Now, there are “styles” of Rap out there that a lot of artists emulate. They’re no longer trying to sound unique. Several masters of Rap, including Snoop Dogg discuss this in a video from 2015 that I included in my article concerning Rap and covers.
In a world of cover songs around every other corner, it’s kind of difficult to imagine biting being a thing. But it really was and sometimes Hip-Hop and Rap artists will still bring it up. It’s just not as often, now. Actually, a lot of beef happened because of biting.
So biting just doesn’t come up as much. Beef? Beef still happens. Let’s dive in!
