By Ethan Lee
“Run, Joey, run, we gon’ aim it at your backpack. Real sh*t you should act more, you should rap less”
The words rapper Ray Vaughn had to say to rapper Joey Bada$$ in his new diss track ‘Hoe Era’, released on May 14, 2025. Ray released the diss track on Top Dawg Entertainment on YouTube… three minutes and 12 seconds of straight war against Joey. But how did it get to this point? Let’s begin from the start.
On January 1, 2025, rap artist Joey Bada$$ released his EP Pardon Me. Included in this EP was the track ‘The Ruler’s Back’, produced by Conductor Williams, where Joey announces his return to music after his last album 2000, in 2022. Joey also covers the shift in dominance in the rap game. He challenges the heavy hitters in today’s hip-hop scene, claiming that he himself is the “ruler” of rap. In particular, Joey seems to focus on dissing Kendrick Lamar, who had been recently getting mass attention after his own diss track era against Drake in 2024. However, the bar which rattled people the hardest was “Too much West Coast d*ck lickin’”, which breathed a new breath into the West Coast and East Coast beef.
West Coast rapper Ray Vaughn took this diss on his coast to heart and was quick to defend his people. On January 8, Ray released his response, ‘Crashout Heritage’. Here, Ray takes a more pragmatic approach, Ray raps about how he believes Joey is starting arguments for nothing: “Now y’all do what y’all gon’ do but just don’t speak on my area” supports the idea that Ray knows both areas have their problems but it’s unfair and illogical to attempt to start a new problem between the two unprompted. Along with this was rapper DAYLYT’s response, ‘HIYU’ to Joey, where DAYLYT goes over points similar to Ray’s.
Since then, the beef went colder and colder until recently. On May 14, during a Red Bull Spiral Freestyle, Joey was invited to perform alongside rappers Big Sean and Ab-Soul. After Sean and Soul’s impressive freestyle, the mic was handed over to Joey and he was eager to make his opinions clear. Joey mentions that he doesn’t have anything against the West Coast instead, he claims he is doing all this to prove himself, “this ain’t no East versus West. I just think that I’m the best, as a matter of fact, I know.” After clarifying his intentions, like a tiger zoning its eyes on an unsuspecting deer, Joey proceeds to decimate the competition through clever wordplay and relentless disses on both Ray Vaughn and DAYLYT. After the direct blood bath Ab-Soul comedically interrupts Joey saying “told you bro, you gotta respect the game,” before the beat fades out.
With no time to waste, Ray Vaughn dropped his comeback ‘Hoe Era’ merely hours after Joey’s freestyle diss. This time, however, Ray wasn’t here to attempt to ease the tension. Instead, Ray went on a full-out war. Utilising every tool he had, Ray uses razor-sharp bars and witty insults to create a lyrically merciless thunderstorm upon Joey. Some of these hostile bars include “Every verse Hoey talkin’ bout “Im back” we don’t give a f**k ‘bout where you was or where you at” and hilariously “You let Ice Spice turn into the king of New York, what the f**k?”
As of right now, the latest instalment to the ongoing beef is Joey’s song ‘The Finals’ dropped on May 15. Here, he seems to focus more on calling out Kendrick Lamar once again, while also insulting Ray by claiming that he’s getting offended on behalf of Kendrick. Joey ends the song by saying, “I salute you Kenny but I know you well aware, you looking for some competition? Then just know that I’ll be right here.”
So far, this beef has brought us nothing but diabolically genius and competitive disses and songs and a possible change in the rap hierarchy in 2025. This conquest Joey is going on isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, and with him still being set on battling Kendrick, I can only see it blossoming into a larger, vicious war zone.
