Rappers take pride in their pen game, but sometimes a guest feature comes through and leaves the headliner in the dust. It’s part of Hip Hop’s competitive spirit. Just ask Big Sean, whose "Control" was snatched by Kendrick Lamar's explosive verse, or Kanye West, who couldn’t dodge the monster of a feature Nicki Minaj unleashed on, well, “Monster.”

Whether artists see it as a badge of honor or a bruise to the ego is up for debate. What’s undeniable, however, is how some guest verses changed the way we remember tracks forever. Below, REVOLT rounded up 13 songs where the featured guest outrapped the main act.

1. Kendrick Lamar on Big Sean’s “Control”

Big Sean getting washed by Kendrick Lamar ended up being both a gift and a curse. On one hand, “Control” is still talked about all these years later. On the other, it’s remembered more as the Compton emcee’s game-changing moment than Sean’s song. The Pulitzer Prize winner went nuclear with a roll call of his peers — J. Cole, Drake, Pusha T, Wale, and more — and put the industry on notice. Of course, his “King of New York” bar managed to ruffle feathers far beyond the people he actually mentioned.

2. Lil Baby on Drake’s “Wants and Needs”

Drake and Lil Baby really do bring out the best in each other, and on the Scary Hours 2 cut “Wants and Needs,” Baby made sure to return the favor after Drake’s monster showing on “Never Recover.” The track was already great, but once Lil Baby took control of the back half, it was game over. “I'm from the four, but I love me a threesome / DM her, delete it, she my lil' secret / He tryna diss me to blow up, I peep it,” he rapped, before bragging about losing his Ferrari in Vegas and referencing Drake’s “The Motto.”

3. Nicki Minaj on Kanye West’s “Monster”

Nicki Minaj has long shown she can hold her own — and more — against her male peers, whether sparring with Meek Mill on “Froze” or 2 Chainz on “I Luv Dem Strippers.” However, nothing quite matches the cultural earthquake that was her verse on Kanye West’s “Monster.” On a track that also featured JAY-Z and Rick Ross, she rose to the occasion and then some.

Between references to Child’s Play and its doll-turned-killer, Chucky, and tossing out a wild suggestion about a ménage with West’s then-girlfriend Amber Rose, there's a reason why “Monster” is one of her most celebrated guest spots, even all these years later.

4. Eminem on JAY-Z’s “Renegade”

There’s no bad verse on “Renegade,” but Eminem outshined JAY-Z here. It always felt like Slim Shady’s record anyway. He produced the track and originally cut it with Royce Da 5’9″ as part of their Bad Meets Evil duo. So, when Nas threw jabs on “Ether” with the line, “Eminem murdered you on your own s**t,” he wasn’t exactly wrong — but it was also a little misleading. What works in Hov’s favor is that he didn’t try to compete with Em’s rapid-fire delivery. Instead, he stuck to his own lane, and that’s where JAY-Z usually wins.

5. Busta Rhymes on Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now”

Although he hardly needs the reminder, it’s already abundantly clear that Busta Rhymes is one of the best of the best. On Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now,” he rattled off 32 bars in just 50 seconds, according to XXL. And before anyone tries to say Brown isn’t a lyricist, we’ve got a list proving his rap chops go toe-to-toe with his singing.

6. André 3000 on UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)”

André 3000’s opening on “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)” is so unshakable, you’d almost believe the song belonged to him. Though it’s a UGK classic, his opening verse — delivered with no drums underneath — immediately set him apart from everyone else on the posse cut. It’s also proof that outrapping doesn’t always mean cramming syllables like an asthma attack or overloading lyrics.

7. Nas on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque”

“Kidnapped the president's wife without a plan / And hangin' n**gas like the Ku Klux Klan / I melt mics 'til the soundwave's over / Before steppin' to me, you'd rather step to Jehovah,” Nas rapped on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque.” His verse was so good (and slightly controversial) that even Eminem referenced it roughly 30 years later on “Discombobulated.”

8. JAY-Z on Meek Mill’s “What’s Free?”

You know what they say: save the best for last. Meek Mill’s “What’s Free?” got a huge lift from Jigga, who spent his verse dishing out bars about the companies he owns and how rappers are inflating their streaming numbers. He spat real wisdom on the Championships cut, which is why it’s debatable whether anyone else could’ve wrapped the song up better.

9. Kendrick Lamar on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That”

Lamar’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” was to the 2020s what his “Control” verse on Big Sean’s track was to the 2010s. On the newer offering, he didn’t rattle off a laundry list of names — just two, but two of the biggest in music — and still managed to stop the industry in its tracks. In doing so, Lamar helped fuel the Big Three debate, started (and ended) a rap war, and landed himself another No. 1 on the Hot 100.

10. Remy Ma on Fat Joe’s “Lean Back”

Leave it to Remy Ma to show the boys how it’s done. Fat Joe said she practically begged him “to let her get on that song,” and honestly, he should be grateful for how it turned out. “My n**gas in the club, but you know they not dancin' / We gangsta, and gangstas don't dance, we boogie / So never mind how we got in here with burners and hoodies,” she rapped over Scott Storch’s production.

11. DaBaby on J. Cole and Lute’s “Under the Sun”

Who would’ve guessed that putting J. Cole and DaBaby on the same track would spark such a comparison, and even more shocking, that the “Suge” rapper would end up outrapping him? However, that’s exactly what happened on the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “Under the Sun.” DaBaby showed up with a certain kind of confidence the song desperately needed, with him dropping bars about diamonds in his teeth and selling gas “like Jiffy Lube.” Hands down, it’s one of the best tracks on Revenge of the Dreamers III.

12. AZ on Nas’ “Life's a B**ch”

While nobody will ever deny how much Illmatic means to Hip Hop, AZ’s lone guest verse on “Life’s a B**ch” deserves its flowers too. His performance was so impressive that the Queensbridge rapper self has said that AZ “put light into an album that started off dark,” per Genius.

13. J. Cole on Benny the Butcher’s “Johnny P’s Caddy”

J. Cole’s bars were so hard the internet thought he dissed Benny the Butcher on his own song. He also dropped this gem: “Of course I'm tryin' to revive a sport that's dyin' / But the guns and the drug bars that y'all rely on / Got these nerds thinkin' that you n**gas hard as I am.”