August 18, 1999
Web posted at: 1:18 p.m. EDT (1718 GMT)

From Mark Scheerer
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A new little battle of the sexes is going on in the music world, but it's an old conflict. This is the pop warfare of dis, in which one outfit records a hit that disrespects someone, eliciting a counter-attack from the victim. This time around, women are dissing men they say are moochers, and men are dissing women they see as gold diggers.

Destiny's Child currently sits in the Billboard Top 10 with their hit single "Bills, Bills, Bills"

The latest strike comes from Destiny's Child, an R&B band made up of four young women from Houston, Texas. They broke onto the scene last year with the multi-platinum single "No, No, No."

The group's new album, "The Writing's on the Wall," already boasts the No. 1 hit single -- another title in triplicate -- "Bills, Bills, Bills." The song warns about the dangers of freeloading boyfriends. Members of Destiny's Child insist they don't really have a problem with men, just with moochers.

In the video, Beyonce tells the guy, "I'm sick of you coming in here asking for my keys."

He asks, "What are you talking about?"

"You're trifling," she responds. "You need your own car."

He tries to reason: "Baby, I'm just ... ."

"No, here," Beyonce interrupts, as she gives him the keys. "I'm sick of you."

MULTIMEDIA

"Bills, Bills, Bills" [220k MPEG-3] or [300k WAV] (Courtesy Epic Records)

"We're not male-bashing," Beyonce says, "because in the relationship it starts off good at first. But then the guy starts taking advantage of the girl. He starts running up her phone bill, maxing out her credit cards, buying her gifts with her own money. So basically, she's asking him to pay the bills back."

Fellow group member Kelly says she thinks it's time for women to stand up for themselves. She notes other female singers who are doing that: Whitney Houston with "It's Not Right But It's OK" (1998) and TLC with this year's "No Scrubs."

"Bills, Bills, Bills" was co-written and produced by Kevin Briggs, the same guy who came up with "No Scrubs," a song that takes trifling, lying and cheating men to task.

It was "No Scrubs" that inspired the male rap group Sporty Thievz to answer back with its own single in June, "No Pigeons," a song that puts down gold-digging women.

And sure enough, a male answer is being readied to "Bills, Bills, Bills," and in good Destiny form, too: It's called "Why, Why, Why."

Stay tuned, tuned, tuned.