Joey Bada$$ vs. Ray Vaughn Is a Rap Beef with No Winners

Rap beef is only interesting if it has both stakes and heart. You can argue about the “sport” of it all you want, but without a reason to invest, you might as well be watching people try to out-bench press each other at the gym. Most of the best diss tracks aren’t just songs, they’re events presaging some kind of sea change. Boogie Down Productions effectively brought the first wave of hip-hop to a close by coming for Marley Marl, the Juice Crew, and MC Shan on “The Bridge Is Over.” The dust-up between Jay-Z and Nas that led to “Takeover” and “Ether” altered the trajectories of both their careers and turned the Summer Jam screen into a meme before memes existed. With “The Story of Adidon,” Pusha T created the first cracks in Drake’s image and ruined the public reveal of his son Adonis (I’m still not over Drake planning on announcing the birth of his son through a partnership with Adidas). Sure, these artists moved a lot of records as a result of the grudge matches, but everyone involved had something to lose by leaving it all on the floor, which is why they live on in infamy. 

That’s only part of the reason I’ve been scratching my head while watching the saga between Joey Bada$$ and the entire West Coast unfold: There’s no sense of stakes. Outside of a handful of feature appearances, the New York rapper and Pro Era figurehead has been pretty quiet on the musical front since 2022’s 2000. That was a record where Joey, who’d long since made acting his priority, was largely spinning his wheels. While it has a handful of heartfelt songs, it also makes claims to a throne he hadn’t earned. “Who the best emcees? Kenny, Joey, and Cole/The holy trinity,” he said on opening song “The Baddest,” grossly overestimating his skills and impact. While always technically sharp, Joey was never in that class of MC, even at the peak of his fame. He never meaningfully evolved from the vintage New York vibes of his 2012 breakout mixtape 1999, trying for stadium-ready anthems and lavish Bad Boy-esque charms that didn’t resonate outside of his core fanbase. All those rhyme schemes can’t hide the fact he’s often saying little to nothing, but saying it well.

So when he began 2025 with “The Ruler’s Back,” an out-of-nowhere shot sent at Kendrick Lamar and the West Coast at large, months after K.Dot emerged victorious over Drake in their long-simmering feud, I was confused. Why is Joey doing this now? Is there a new album to promote? A movie or TV show? Nope, it seemed like he was bored and ready to throw his professed weight around for kicks. Not only was he looking to stake his claim as the King of New York—a title that feels antiquated and passé, down to the Jay-Z references peppered throughout the song—he wanted to put newly invigorated Cali rappers on notice: “Too much West Coast dick lickin’/I’m hearin’ niggas throwin’ rocks, really ain’t shit stickin’/’Cause if we talkin’ bar for bar, really, it’s slim pickings.”