[1] The Bridge Wars originally involved the South Bronx's Boogie Down Productions, led by KRS-One, and Marley Marl's Juice Crew, hailing from Queensbridge.
The official story at the time was that KRS-One was defending the reputation of the South Bronx in response to MC Shan and Marley Marl claiming that hip-hop started out in Queensbridge.
The Juice Crew soon responded with the track "Kill That Noise" on Shan's album Down by Law which took various shots at KRS-One and mocked his taking offense in the first place.
The track had been one of the first blendings of rap with reggae, and one section delivered in a sing song fashion modeled after Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" from his album Glass Houses.
Shante, mentioned in a very vulgar reference in "the Bridge Is Over", released a rap titled "Have A Nice Day", ghostwritten by Juice Crew colleague Big Daddy Kane (who was not otherwise personally involved in the battle), in which she took a shot at Boogie Down Productions.
But meanwhile, Two other Queensbridge residents, Rockwell Noel & Poet, joined in the battle, resulting from the inferior responses from MC Shan and the Juice Crew offering the strongest attack against BDP.
Mitchski's "Brooklyn Blew Up the Bridge", with the refrain "South Bronx Helped us out" in support of Boogie Down Productions and lyrics that made fun of Shan's on-stage appearances.
KRS responded with "Still Number 1, the Numero Uno Mix", where he calls Poet "soft" and uncreative, and accuses him of "sounding like Kane".
It has since been referenced in hip-hop lyrics by the likes of Cormega, Das EFX, Nas, Cunninlynguists, Big Punisher, Supernatural, Chino XL, Mars ILL, and 2Pac.
MC Shan and KRS-One themselves acknowledged the rivalry's important place in hip-hop history when they appeared together in a commercial for the Sprite soft drink in the mid-nineties, in which they exchanged battle rhymes inside a boxing ring.
The album features two tracks further exemplifying the end of the feud: "The Victory" (produced by DJ Premier) which sees KRS on the same track as Blaq Poet, and "Rising" (as in "Rising To the Top"), in which KRS recounts the whole story from his perspective (a struggling former group home resident trying to enter the business in a period when "answer records" were popular, sparked off by Shante's "Roxanne's Revenge").
[5] Nas revisited "The Bridge" on his 2012 album Life Is Good by sampling it for the hook in his track "Back When", which focuses on the past of hip-hop.