10 EDM Beefs That Don't Involve Deadmau5

To some, EDM is nothing but pilled-up ravers smiling and hugging each other, bopping around to repetitive beats. Whle that description can be pretty accurate, it's not all PLUR and daisies. The arguments and disagreements that EDM producers, DJs and labels might have aren't as prevalent as in hip-hop or rock, there have been some heated exchanges over the years. Yet, when you first think of "EDM Beef," the immediate name that comes to mind is EDM's resident firecracker, Deadmau5.

We're here to tell you that no, all EDM beef isn't mau5beef. You probably don't believe us. Walk with us as we tell you tales of producers being pushed down steps, MCs proudly defying orders from hip-hop legends, artists tweeting-off about their labels, and the ever-popular thievery allegations. And not one mau5 to be found in the bunch.

This is one of those things where the Beastie Boys were known in their early days as the sophmoric pranksters who made captivating music. They got older, "wiser," and forgot what it was like to be rebellious with their music. The Prodigy caused a bunch of controversy back when Electronica was a thing via their single "Smack My Bitch Up." The Beasties and The Prodigy were both booked to play the 1998 Reading Festival, and the Beasties asked The Prodigy to not perform "Smack My Bitch Up;" Prodigy MC Maxim Reality took to the stage during their performance at a festival and responded in kind:

Yeah, Maxim Reality didn't give a fuck. Word is they patched things up, with a Beastie tune being placed on The Prodigy's Dirtchamber Sessions mix CD, but the score read 1-0, Prodigy.

Drum & Bass is an interesting genre, and the community, while worldwide, feels very close-knit, especially when you're living in the UK, where dnb was born. There's a group of pioneers that are damn-near untouchable, and always deserving of respect; Goldie is one such figure. If it wasn't for him, a number of producers wouldn't even be around, either by the influence or support he's given them. And while he's not hard to find, if you plan on doing what Redeyes did and remix Goldie's classic "Inner City Life" without permission, you could be in trouble.

As the story goes, French producer Redeyes had made a remix of Goldie's biggest single from Timeless and gave it to a few huge DJs, LTJ Bukem and Fabio (word is Fabio ended up playing it on the radio). Goldie caught wind of it and tried contacting Redeyes about it to square away what was going on. Feeling slighted, Goldie took matters into his own hands (and feet), and while he doesn't outright admit it, heads who were at Swerve that night in London say that Redeyes was pushed down number of steps and got the shoe put to him. Redeyes ended up apologizing, saying he was just trying to have fun with the track's samples, but he could have avoided the Metalheadz boot if he'd just figured it all out beforehand.

While many people hold certain opinions on Diplo for different reasons, the fact remains that he can't keep his position within the EDM scene without having his finger on the pulse of many different scenes. We've seen him travel to New Orleans to discover the roots of bounce music, and he's the guy Snoop called when it was time to create the reggae-flavored Snoop Lion. Some might take his methods of discovery to heart, though.

Venus Iceberg X, who DJed for Maluca during the Mad Decent Block Party tour a few years back, spotted Diplo taking video at a Ghe20 Goth1k show in New York in early 2011, and a serious twitter battle ensued. Charges of Diplo trying to steal their sound were lobbied, with Diplo countering that he sees hundreds of cellphones out during his own DJ sets (a pretty stellar point, although when you're on the receiving end and already thinking someone is a biter, it doesn't look right). The "whiteboy" and "new Columbus" barbs were thrown Diplo's way, with the perception of his trend discovery being more about grabbing cash than being a fan.

Whatever your position on Diplo's intentions are, dialogues like this do help us see his side of the story, and while we don't wish them on him, they can be necessary.

Rusko's no stranger to speaking his mind when he feels wronged. He's the man who called the mau5 who shall remain nameless a "cunt" over a beef they had, but his twitter tirade on then-label Mad Decent was intense.

In March of 2012, about a week before the release of his album Songs, Mad Decent upload the entire album to SoundCloud, which many labels are apt to do in the age of streaming. This was not cleared with Rusko, and when he heard what happened, he immediately took his beef to twitter, with his anger escalating with each tweet. He went from being pissed that Mad Decent didn't clear the uploading of the stream to letting them know he wasn't re-signing when his contract was up later in 2012 (spoiler: he's on his own now).

His frustration made sense; once streams are up, nimble hackers will have the rips all over the 'Net. People aren't always wanting to buy stuff they've listened to over and over, and for Rusko to purposefully keep the album under wraps to have it uploaded by the label a week before release? Yeah, we feel his pain.

Die Antwoord, the South African "rap-rave' counter-culture group, were approached by Lady Gaga to open for her tour, and turned the offer down. At some point, Gaga was told that Die Antwoord were fans of her; how this point and them turning the tour down turned into them lampooning Gaga in their "Fatty Boom Boom" video (including a scene where the Gaga-imposter is rocking the meat dress and giving birth to a prawn) is anyone's guess.

Gaga's tweets after the video were her hyping up how she'd sold 100,000 tickets at a gig, and that while they claimed they were fans, she knew the truth, and they weren't "little monsters." Die Antwoord kept it calm, and let her know that while she might be a bigger star, she's not as cool as them. Since this display, no prawns have been thrown.

Twisted Individual wears the name "twisted" for a reason; he's got a warped sense of humor and doesn't care who knows. He also had a signature dnb sound, and felt that the duo Distorted Minds was jacking his style on their breakthrough single "T-10." He responded with a track, "Bandwagon Blues," that took them to task and made the floor rock. John B, forever the rabble rouser, parodied Twisted's parody with "Blandwagon Poos," bringing in some much-needed humor into a beef that ultimately felt pointless.

We're not sure if Twisted and D Minds sat together, but this legendary exchanged between Twisted and Grooverider still has us in stitches:

The art of remixing, refixing and bootlegging has been a serious point of contention and frustration for the producers involved that feel they are being wronged. In the Summer of 2012, Swedish House Mafia went at Hardwell on twitter for a bootleg pack that he shared to celebrate hitting 300,000 Facebook Likes that contained some SHM material. Hardwell mentioned that the pack was old, and was willing to take it down, but the damage had already been done, as Axwell and Ingrosso had already spoke on how "low" Hardwell had been.

We love remixes. We love good remixes. We love interesting takes on original material; it can spice up what we loved about the original in the first place. And while we do feel that a producer's IP is theirs to do what they want with it, treating Hardwell like he's running an illegal bootlegging operation feels a bit much.

Skream's not one to mince words. He's been seen at the forefront of the dubstep scene since it's rise, and continues to be at the helm of the sound, regardless of where his production takes him. So when a commercial dubstep track comes out that offends him to the point of commenting on it, you have to take note.

In the Summer of 2011, pop artist Cher Lloyd released "Dub on the Track," a dubstep-leaning track that Skream deemed as being "awful, worst attempt at a commercial Dubstep track so far." Her Internets fanbase was obviously pissed off, and went off on Skream, to which he laughed off and offered up an ironic piece of news: Cher's people had already asked him to remix "Dub on the Track." His response?

"It would ruin my career."

Gotta love Skream!

Azaelia Banks is notorious for her beef, so it's not surprising that she made it onto this list, but the story behind the beef is interesting.

Azaelia Banks put together her Fantasea mixtape with Diplo, and they grabbed a number of banging beats for her to rap over, one of them being Munchi's moombah banger "Esta Noche" (which contains a dope sample from Montell Jordan). Banks and her camp decided to put the track out on iTunes, and film a video in support of it. Sounds fine, right? Not when they got all of the iTunes paperwork in place before reaching out to Munchi about his cut of the monies.

Shocking, right? How could they forget to hit up the producer about his cut? When negotiation time came around, Munchi brought up questions about the entire process, including thoughts on what should and shouldn't be in the video, and all hell broke loose. Without Munchi's OK, Banks had to halt the sale of the track, and she took to twitter to speak on it, and the process, bringing up Munchi's questions about Illuminati symbolism and all. While some producers might take her tweets on the chin, Munchi fired right back at Banks (and her followers who got into the line of fire), gaining the support and disdain of both new fans and those who already knew.

The beef was pretty much forgotten days later, but it's still a shining example of a producer standing up for his own.

Many of you might know of Avicii for his track "Levels," but the track that really got him acclaim was "Penguin." As part of his contract with Ministry of Sound, they took to shopping this track around in hopes of finding the perfect vocalist to give this track more life. After six months of this, UK singer Leona Lewis (who is signed to Simon Cowell's Syco label) premiered a track, "Collide," in 2011. It was obviously her vocals over "Penguin," but outside of a songwriter credit, there was no mention of Avicii anywhere.

Ministry of Sound was heated and wanted to sue, while Syco's proclamation that Avicii had his credit meant there was no case to file, and that MOS really just had a big bowl of "sour grapes." The real discrepancy is what had Avicii agreed to? For a songwriter credit, some conversation had to be had, right? Had Avicii sorted out some kind of deal without Ministry of Sound's input?

Leona Lewis went on record saying that she met Avicii and they'd agreed on the splits behind the track, to which Avicii called her a liar, saying they'd never met. Whatever the case may be, "Collide" was released by Syco in August of 2011, with the track being credited to Leona Lewis / Avicii. It charted well, hitting the top five in Ireland, Scotland, and the United Kingdom, but it definitely hasn't catapulted anyone's career.