Fat Joe

Diddy And Jermaine Dupri Playfully Traded Shots And Held A Mini ‘Verzuz’ Battle On Instagram Live

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A few days ago, Jermaine Dupri called out Diddy in a tweet and challenged him to a Verzuz battle. Diddy shut down the request. “Beloved you my n**** but your arms too short to box with God!!!” he said in response to the challenge. However, Dupri seemed set on not going down without a fight, which he made clear during an Instagram Live on Friday. Dupri, who was on the livestream with Fat Joe and Snoop Dogg, called out Diddy once again. Eventually Diddy joined the livestream, which led to the producers playfully trading shots.

“Ayo, short arms. You need to chill out short arms. You hear me?” Diddy said to Dupri shortly after he hopped on the livetsream. “Ayo, I love you. First of all, I want the world to know that this is one of my best friends. You know, one of my best inspirations.” Diddy then addressed his doubters in the audience. “You amnesia-having motherf*ckers. I done gave y’all life for motherf*cking 20 years of music,” he proclaimed. “I’ma tell you, JD, anything I touch. Anything I breathed on, executive produced, anything I thought up, anything I fucking did, whatever. You hear me? Don’t play with me.”

“Are you listening, JD? … What you gon’ do when [Biggie’s] ‘One More Chance’ drops?” Diddy asked Dupri. “I’m the greatest. What the f*ck y’all talking about? I have the most No. 1s as an artist … I don’t even hear no one play none of your shit. Ayo, when we go back in the club, I don’t hear no one play none of your sh*t. Ain’t nobody rocking no Kriss Kross sh*t, or no Bow Wow. I want Dre! Where is Dre? Where is Dre?”

Next, Diddy challenged Dupri to a mini “five for five” Verzuz battle. While Dupri initially declined, Diddy kicked things off by playing “Victory,” “Who Shot Ya,” “Hypnotize,” “Come and Talk to Me,” “Whoa,” “All About the Benjamins,” and “FWMGAB.” He also played the remixes for “Flava In Ya Ear” and “O Let’s Do It.” Diddy even played some records Dupri’s produced, those being “Jump,” the “Welcome to Atlanta” remix, and “Money Ain’t a Thang,” because he refused to participate.

Finally, Dupri gave in and played Usher’s “Confessions” while asking Diddy if he had an “R&B record better than this.” Diddy responded by playing Mary J. Blige’s “I’m Goin Down.” However, after the livestream, Dupri questioned Diddy’s right to play Blige’s song as he was not listed as a songwriter or producer.

50 Cent Trolls Murder Inc After Verzuz Commenters Evoke His Beef With Ja Rule

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Even though last night’s Verzuz battle at New York’s Madison Square Garden featured Ja Rule and Fat Joe, fans in the stream’s comments couldn’t stop bringing up 50 Cent. The Queens rapper had a highly public feud with Ja Rule throughout the 2000s as he rose to prominence and Ja declined in popularity — a decline he and his fans have always attributed to the beef, despite it likely being due more to the federal investigation into Ja’s label Murder Inc. and changing tastes in hip-hop overall.

However, the comments still irked Murder Inc. founder Irv Gotti, who exploded in the comments section. “All y’all talking about that 50 shit,” he railed. “All good. He got beat up stabbed up. Shot up. And sued us. That’s all I’m gonna say. Your hero ain’t what you think he is. Period. And facts.”

50 himself quickly caught wind of the commentary (does this guy have Google Alerts set for his rivals or what?) and popped up on Instagram to mock Gotti and Murder Inc. with a pair of posts crowing about his lopsided mid-2000s “victory.” “Wtf am i trending for, I said I ain’t doing whatever that shit is they doing,” he captioned the first. In its follow-up, he crowed, “I put they whole label out of business, f*ck with me if you want to. I would stay out of my way if i wasn’t me. LOL.” Naturally, both captions were filled with promotions for his various business ventures, including Branson Cognac and Bottle Rover, which is apparently an alcohol delivery service.

Later, on Atlanta radio’s Big Tigger Morning Show, Ja insisted that 50 would have been “nothing without that f*cking white boy,” obviously attributing his rival’s success to his association with Eminem, then one of the biggest names in hip-hop, and his attendant fanbase. Incidentally, most in either rappers’ camps and in hip-hop at large would rather have seen Ja go toe-to-toe with 50 on Verzuz, but 50 already put paid to that dream last year.

Ja can rest assured that, at least as far as Rap Twitter is concerned, he came out of last night’s competition the clear winner, decisively controlling the hits battle as Fat Joe spent far too many rounds emphasizing his “real hip-hop” clout and not enough playing his actual hits.