Ja Rule was recently asked by VladTV to name his top 5 diss records of all time. He didn't name any of the tracks to come out of his beef with 50 Cent, but he quickly rattled off a list that should sit well with most hip-hop heads: Boogie Down Productions' "The Bridge is Over," Nas' "Ether," Tupac's "Hit Em Up," Biggie's "Who Shot Ya" -- though he acknowleges that Big denies it was a diss, and Jay Z's "Takeover." He also mentioned that Ice Cube's "No Vaseline" is a worthy candidate.
The most recent of those tracks, Hov's "Takeover," dropped in 2001. Rule did, however, go on to name a new-school diss track, Drake's "Back to Back," as his "sixth man off the bench." He explained how the song has to be in the conversation because of the unmatched mainstream success it has had compared to other diss tracks.
"I don't think any other beef record was in rotation at radio. I can't think of another one...I don't think there's been another record that did that," said Rule.
Rule was mentioned, though not necessarily targeted, on Meek's "Wanna Know," the Philly rapper's response to "Back to Back," and also in the interview, he explained the difference between the two songs.
"It ['Wanna Know'] wasn't a record, Vlad, that's the difference. Drake's shit is a record, you know. Meek's diss is more of a diss -- like, you know, he had the skits in there with the Puff shit in there. That's not something you could really play at radio, you know what I mean? Drake made a fucking record."
