Who's the real Independent King of New York?

That, in many ways, has been the central question in the tiff between Troy Ave and Joey Bada$$, which first erupted last summer, and which was reignited a bit last week, when Joey sent a shot at Troy on his track "Ready." Now Troy taken that line and upped the stakes, responding with an entire diss track aimed at the Pro Era rapper, conveniently titled, "Bad Ass."

Joey's jab was just that -- a quick hit before moving on: "My n---a Kirk just outsold Troy Ave," he rapped, referencing his Pro Era brethren Kirk Knight's Late Knight Special album.

Troy was similarly direct in his reaction: "You sold a couple records but nobody cares/ You never on the radio cause nobody cares/ You don't matter so you mad, bro, nobody cares," he raps, before later taking things quite a bit further, mentioning Capital Steez, the rapper and friend of Joey's who committed suicide in 2012. "Don't get suicidal like your friend, here's a casket/ Steez burning in hell, my burner's in my belt."

The feud began last year, after Troy's Major Without A Deal scored disappointing sales, and the Brooklyn rapper justified the numbers with his independent status. Joey jumped in, on Twitter, comparing his own sales numbers, favorably, with his fellow New York native's.

Before long, though, they said the whole thing was squashed. “We briefly spoke about it through mutual friends,” Joey said just weeks after the tension initially erupted. “It got squashed. Real beef doesn’t even exist today in the rap game. What is real beef?”

Does that philosophy mean that this tweet is the only response we're going to get from him, or might a diss record of his own be on the way, too?