The 20 Greatest Lyrical Bitchslaps

10) No Doubt "Don't Speak"

Gwen Stefani went out with a guy named Tony Kanal for a while, they broke up, and Stefani wrote a song about it. Usually this would be a standard rock n' roll story, except for one small fact: Kanal is the bassist for No Doubt.

A lot of artists have to listen to diss songs about themselves. How many have to play the bass line? Kanal says that Stefani's lyrics don't bother him. He's a better man than most.

9) Carly Simon "You're So Vain"

Alright, so it's unknown just exactly who this song is about (possible candidates include Warren Beatty, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, and even Mick Jagger, who sings on the track). But the fact that this song remains memorable 35 years later is a testament to the power of Simon's diss.

Bonus points for being sampled by Janet Jackson.

The memorable line:

You're so vain

You probably think this song is about you

8) Ice Cube "No Vaseline"

N.W.A. was to diss songs what George Washington was to America. After the other members of N.W.A. referred to Ice Cube as "Benedict Arnold," Cube responded with this onslaught against his former band mates (mostly Eazy-E).

This song is filled with death threats and gay jokes. In other words, it paved the way for 98% of future rap diss songs.

This song does lose a little credibility because the guy rapping has since starred in Are We There Yet?

7) Jay-Z "Takeover"

You know your diss has made waves when it inspires a Fall Out Boy song title.

On this song off Jay's Blueprint album, he takes on several rappers, but most notably his nemesis Nas. This is the song that inspired the aforementioned Nas track "Ether."

This song is brutal all the way through, but where Jay-Z really stands out and takes it to a whole different level is in his breakdown of Nas' career. Jay turns into a mathematician and runs through Nas' successful albums (or lack thereof).

Four albums in ten years n***a? I can divide
That's one every let's say two

Two of them shits was due
One was NAHHH, the other was Illmatic
That's a one hot album every ten year average

That's one of the funniest and most clever disses in rap history. You can actually hear Jay-Z cracking up during this line. It all worked out though, as many people credit this song for reviving Nas' career.

6) Alanis Morisette "You Oughta Know"

When this song first came out, it was one of the most venomous break-up songs to ever come from a female artist.

That was before we found out it was about Uncle Joey. Now, it's legendary.

Memorable line:

Did you forget about me Mr. Duplicity
I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner

It was a slap in the face how quickly I was replaced
Are you thinking of me when you f**k her

(The fact that it inspired a VH1 tagline only keeps the legacy growing.)

5) Notorious B.I.G. "Who Shot Ya?"

Usually, when your nemesis gets shot, that's enough of a diss. But not for Biggie. After Tupac was shot at the Manhattan recording studio where B.I.G. and his crew had been hanging out -- let's just say there's a chance he was involved -- Notorious decided to rub it in by recording the song "Who Shot Ya?"

Whether or not Biggie was involved, laughing in the face of someone after they get shot goes down as a pretty solid diss.

4) John Lennon "How Do You Sleep?"

Most people are aware of in-fighting that plagued the final years of The Beatles. Once John Lennon went solo, he addressed his feelings in this song, off the Imagine album. In the song, Lennon calls out Paul McCartney as a hack songwriter. The lyrics speak for themselves...

The only thing you done was "Yesterday"

And since you're gone you're just another day

3) Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Dogg "Dre Day" [a.k.a., "F**k Wit Dre Day (and Everybody's Celebratin')"]

This is one of the greatest rap songs ever written, and it's also a direct insult to Dre's former N.W.A. band mate Eazy-E and rapper Tim Dog. In case you couldn't figure out the song's meaning in the first 4 minutes, the ending contains the not-so-subtle lines "Eazy-E can eat a big fat d**k / Tim Dog can eat a big fat d**k."

The video for this song is what made it a truly memorable diss. The clip features a character called Sleazy-E who eventually ends up homeless offering to rap for food. It's an amazing song, it's a memorable video, and it will be around for years to come. Dre and Eazy reportedly settled their feud before Eazy's death, but some disses just can't be undone. Everyone between the ages of 25 and 35 knows this one by heart.

Bonus points for Dre's inclusion of "The $20 Sack Pyramid" on The Chronic. It contained another Tim Dog diss, and remains to this day the greatest skit ever included on a rap album.

2) Justin Timberlake "Cry Me A River"

This song was pretty vicious to begin with. Though Timberlake won't admit it, anyone with common sense can tell the song is about Britney Spears. The video even shows Timberlake cheating on a Britney clone.

While Spears and Timberlake were dating, Spears allegedly cheated on JT (some say it was with a back-up dancer). When Spears begged forgiveness, this was Timberlake's way of saying "no thanks."

What makes this diss amazing is hindsight. While Timberlake has gone on to absolute superstardom and critical acclaim, Spears has fallen into a downward spiral that culminated with a head-shaving incident, a divorce, a trip to rehab, and the near-explosion of TMZ.com. In other words, you could make a strong argument that this song ruined Britney Spears' life. If Britney dies in the next year -- odds are currently 60/40 -- Timberlake should be tried as an accessory.

1) Tupac "Hit ‘Em Up"

"Hit ‘Em Up" was Pac's response to the aforementioned B.I.G. song "Who Shot Ya?" and the shooting in general.

This song has it all. Despite originally being a B-side, it's one of the best rap songs ever recorded, and its lyrics are ten times more venomous than anything else ever put on CD. It has some of the most clever lines in diss song history, including a hilarious joke about Mobb Deep and sickle cell and the all-time classic lyrics "My fo-fo make sho all yo kids don't grow" and "We ain't singing, we bringing drama, f**k you and yo mothaf**kin' mama." Toward the end of the song, Tupac gives up on rapping and just starts screaming insults at everyone from the East coast. His insults are so memorable that one of the rappers he calls out -- Chino XL -- is arguably best known for being dissed in this song. Imagine if your most well-known accomplishment was having Tupac tell you "f**k you" in a song; thus is the life of Chino XL.

After listening to this song, you actually feel like Tupac is going to kill you. Pac made it absolutely impossible for Biggie or anyone else to reply with a fitting diss.

And oh yeah, he was eventually killed (*allegedly*) because of the East coast-West coast feud that was severely escalated by this song. When dissing someone leads to your death, well, it was probably a pretty good diss.

So what have we learned? One good diss usually leads to another. Stay away from Courtney Love. If you're going to date a female singer, make sure you're in it for the long haul. And oh yeah, don't ever f**k with a rapper.