UK VS. USA: Skepta Lands the First Punch with Friendly Fire

UK heavyweight Skepta is standing on business. After sparking a debate on UK vs. US rap, and social media back and forth with American artist Joyner Lucas, Skepta has dropped the first diss track: Friendly Fire.

Skepta is no stranger to the art of lyrical warfare. He's one of the finest from this country to ever engage in it. Years spent working his way through the grime scene in his early days as an artist featured disputes with MCs from Ghetts and Lethal B (now Lethal Bizzle), to Wiley and Skrapz. More recently, his rekindled dispute with Birmingham MC Devilman caught everyone's attention, as war dubs were sent in quick succession. 2015's 'Nasty' now sits on 28 million views on YouTube, something he reminded Joyner Lucas of during their first disagreements. The message Skepta was getting across? Do not take him lightly.

This message has now been hammered home with the release of Friendly Fire. It's big grime production, it's clear delivery and it's heavy punches. It's a vintage Skepta diss. He's lost none of the venom that stung all the aforementioned UK MCs, and now for the first time, his wrath is aimed across the pond.

"Joyner Lucas you bastard, why you rap like you studied at Harvard? / Catch him outside and move to him, heartless / Cuts, bruises and plasters..."

There's no mincing of words. With clarity, Skepta says exactly what's on his mind.

So, what's going to happen next?

Let's be clear, Joyner Lucas is no walk-over. Those who've listened to his work will know that he exists on the more lyrical side of US rap. He's shown in the past he can produce well-thought, intelligent verses, and his delivery can be pretty exciting as well. From here he has two options:

1. Ignore Skepta. Pretend that Skepta's beneath him and don't engage. On Twitter he said this was the instruction from his manager (who is from the UK).

Or...

2. Fire back.

Our guess? Joyner is in the studio right now, cooking up a response. If he isn't, it will look like an admission, it'll look weak, and will be detrimental to maintaining his audience - which tends to be hardened rap fans. For that reason, we think this is only just getting started...

And that is fantastic news. This will be an interesting and hard fought competition if it gets going. Both have talent to offer, yet both are very different. For those reasons, the music this will lead to should be very exciting.

Looking to the future - things could grow even further. Imagine if other artists start getting involved on either side? This could quickly turn into all out war - UK VS. USA. Brits and Yanks fighting like it's goddamn 1775. Skepta pulls in Chip, Ghetts, Kano, Dave, Central Cee?! The latter probably won't want to upset all his US fans, but you see the point.

Joyner tends to be a bit more of a lone wolf, but he has songs with Lil Baby, Logic, Future, Lil Durk, J Cole, Eminem - might we see some of them jumping in to support their homeland?

It's important that everything remains in the songs, and nothing spills over. But, if this does escalate - it could be the biggest event of global rap... maybe ever? Damn. What a time to be alive. And thank you, Skepta. The strongest candidate there can be for the goat of UK Rap - I can think of no one finer to fly the flag. Not convinced? See below.