Verzuz

Mariah Carey Refuses To Say Whether She’d Challenge Beyonce To A Verzuz Battle

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Mariah Carey
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Mariah Carey is the undisputed Queen of Christmas. And in case there was any doubt, “All I Want For Christmas” is breaking what seems like every holiday music streaming record with over a billion spins. Heck, she even has an all “Mariah Menu” available now until Christmas at McDonald’s. So when Carey sits for a video interview from her immaculately decorated Christmas set, alongside a cheerily placed McCafe and brown McDonald’s bag with the words “The Mariah Menu” printed on it, surely any questions seems fair game, right? Well, maybe not all of them…

In a conversation with E!’s Rebecca Ray, Carey spoke about everything from ’90s nostalgia to what it is that she specifically loves about Christmas. While Carey admits that she was too busy in the ’90s to know Seinfeld the show, she adds that “I love Jerry Seinfeld now!” and that her favorite part of Christmas is “The actual feeling that I have during the holiday season.” These were fairly innocuous answers, but when Ray asked Carey about music executive LA Reid’s suggestion that she and Beyonce should do a Verzuz battle and whether she would A) Be open to it? and B) Who would win? Carey got serious with her answer:

“Oh stop. That’s the worst… I’m sorry, I love you Rebecca. We can’t ask that question. First of all, I love Beyonce and I admire her so much as a performer, for what she’s done for the world, and everything else. So I ain’t answering that question. ‘Cause I’d be disrespecting myself and I’m not gonna do ’cause [singing in perfect tone] it’s Christmastime!”

She also took advantage of the opportunity to address anyone who thinks that her love of Christmas isn’t authentic: “Whatever Scrooges! I don’t care what you say. This is the truth. I DO love the holidays. And what?!”

The one and only Christmas Queen is a very powerful one. But we already knew that.

Rick Ross Calls Jay-Z His Dream ‘Verzuz’ Opponent: ‘Why Not?’

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Despite already participating in a Verzuz opposite 2 Chainz last year, Rick Ross would love the chance to give the big homie his flowers on another. During an appearance on the daytime talk show The Real to promote his new album, Richer Than I Ever Been, Ross was asked which artist would be his favorite Verzuz opponent, to which he responded: “Jay-Z.”

“Why not?” he said. “To me, that’s what makes Verzuz special because it brings out the best in both parties. That’s a possibility, but I gotta give my flowers to the big homie. I got to. My homie gave me my first opportunity signing me to Def Jam Records, and he’s one-of-one.”

Unfortunately for Ross, it seems semi-unlikely that Jay would deign to participate in the hits battle series and certainly, the matchup that seems to be most cited on social media is the one with the most history behind it: Jay-Z vs. Nas. Still, that won’t stop fans from dreaming.

One of those fans turned out to be LA Reid, who recently caught flak for proposing a Verzuz between Beyonce and Mariah Carey. His suggestion was roundly criticized as being out-of-touch and lopsided, considering Mariah’s solo career began nearly a decade before Beyonce’s.

Check out the clip of Rick Ross praising Jay-Z above.

LA Reid Thinks Beyonce And Mariah Carey Should Have A Verzuz Battle But Fans Disagree — A Lot

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Verzuz battles have become a great way to salute and pay homage to the legacies of artists who probably don’t get as much recognition as they should — or at least, give them their flowers while they’re still around to appreciate it — but as the series continues, there are some who want to see even bigger stars hit the stage to play their hits.

One of those who do is LA Reid, who stated during an interview on The Real that his dream matchup would be between two megastars in Beyonce and Mariah Carey. While both are vocal powerhouses who have sold millions of records and become nearly ubiquitous household names — especially now that it’s December, which is slowly but surely becoming more of a celebration of Mariah than yuletide cheer — many fans, upon hearing the suggestion, voiced their disapproval on Twitter.

While much of the chatter was the typical stan war stuff (“Beyoncé is the Queen of what exactly?” one user questioned), there were others who pointed out that the two aren’t exactly peers, since Mariah debuted a solid decade before Beyonce’s solo career took off. The best Verzuz battles so far have been those between artists from similar generations, such as The Lox and The Diplomats, or the recent showdown between Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia.

Meanwhile, still, others pointed out, simply, that neither artist seems particularly interested in doing Verzuz, which has always seemed to book artists who are perhaps slightly past their commercial prime or who flew under the radar as songwriters and producers. Beyonce and Mariah Carey are both still selling millions of records — even if it’s just “All I Want For Christmas,” Mariah’s pull is enough to warrant a month-long McDonald’s menu — and thus, Verzuz “couldn’t afford” them.

And others wondered why LA Reid was being given a platform at all, considering he was recently accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, leading to his ouster from Epic Records, and a huge settlement payment from Sony.

Check out more responses to LA Reid’s dream matchup below, and watch the full interview above.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Bizzy Bone Says His ‘Verzuz’ Fight With Three 6 Mafia Is Just A Part Of Hip-Hop

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The highlight of Thursday night’s Verzuz battle between Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia, unfortunately, had nothing to do with the music that was played. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Bizzy Bone and Three 6 Mafia’s Juicy J got into an argument on stage that nearly led to a brawl. After one of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s performances, Bizzy Bone said to his opponents, “You ugly motherf*ckers ain’t finna be mockin’ me while I’m on stage.” Juicy J told him to “shut the f*ck up,” which caused Bizzy to throw a water bottle at Juicy.

Now, nearly two days after the incident, Bizzy Bone spoke out about the fight and he was fairly chill about the whole scrape. “I just think, you know, it’s pretty self-explanatory how it went down,” he said during an interview with TMZ. “I can’t even say it on TMZ, you know, they’d have to bleep it out.” He continued, “Yeah, it ain’t really about bothering me. It’s just about class, it’s just about being a grown man and being in the heat of the moment and sh*t like that. Everybody pretty much understood what it was. From what everybody was telling me, they was like, ‘You really ain’t do no wrong.’ But, you know, it is what it is man, it’s hip-hop, people fight.”

Bizzy also said that Swizz Beatz, who co-founded Verzuz along with Timbaland, was not upset with him. “Swizz was like ‘it’s hip-hop, I ain’t tripping,’ and everybody was acting like he was saying something, he wasn’t talking about us,” he said. “We do our own prayers, we ain’t have no problem with no money, we ain’t ask for no special cups or none of that, we street dudes. He wasn’t talking about us, but of course, he’s being politically correct and I dig that and I appreciate that about him.”

You can watch Bizzy Bone’s interview with TMZ here.

The Verzuz Battle Between Three 6 Mafia And Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Nearly Devolved Into An Actual Brawl

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For the past year and a half, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s Verzuz hits battle series has been more of a celebration of rap’s classic artists and songs than an actual head-to-head competition. However, tonight’s battle between Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Memphis’ Three 6 Mafia in Los Angeles quickly turned from a metaphorical matchup into a physical brawl that threatened to derail the whole event.

Apparently, some trash talk between the two groups escalated when Bone Thugs member Bizzy Bone took some of the slights personally (you can see a heated Instagram post he dropped earlier today below). He stopped the show to tell Three 6, “You ugly motherf*ckers ain’t finna be mockin’ me while I’m on stage.” When Juicy J told him to “shut the f*ck up,” Bizzy lost his cool, slinging what looked like a water bottle at him and prompting the Memphis crew to rush to Bone’s side of the stage (if you look carefully, even the DJs nearly got involved.

However, it appears cooler heads prevailed and the groups were separated. Eventually, Bizzy returned to the stage and apologized, shaking hands with Juicy J before the show resumed.

The show is currently in full swing, with Three 6 Mafia bringing out strippers and offering attendees lap dances, while it appears that both crews are once again having fun and proving that hip-hop in the ’90s was way more than just New York and LA, with guests including Lil Jon and Lil Wayne popping out to perform some of their more recent hits.

Will Smith Is Contemplating A Possible ‘Verzuz’ Matchup With LL Cool J, Who He Says ‘Is Going To Body Me’

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Although Will Smith is probably better known for his film work than his music these days, his decades-long legacy as one of rap’s foremost pioneers will likely always be too important to ignore. With the Verzuz series paying homage to and highlighting many of the stars of yesteryear, XM Radio host Sway Calloway checked in with the former Fresh Prince on Sway In The Morning to find out whether he had any designs on signing up for a battle.

Surprisingly, Will said that he had been contemplating an appearance — and had even already chosen a potential competitor in LL Cool J — but that he’s been too busy writing and promoting his upcoming book to lock down a date. However, despite both rappers’ 20-plus years of hits, Will maintained that he believed “L is going to body me” in a one-to-hit battle, despite being able to draw upon cultural cornerstones like “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” “Summertime,” “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” and “Men In Black.”

However, there was one situation where co-host Heather B could foresee a Will Smith victory. “What’s dope about Will though, Will and L was out when the era when it was the DJ and the rapper,” she noted. “Everybody had their DJ so don’t let [DJ Jazzy] Jeff on the turn tables.” Will agreed, “That’s my secret weapon right there.”

Watch Will Smith discuss a potential Verzuz matchup with the Sway In The Morning crew above.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony And Three 6 Mafia Will Face Off In An Upcoming ‘Verzuz’

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Bone Thugs N Harmony in concert 2021
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For the past few months, Verzuz has been keeping their hip-hop battles in New York. There was an exciting matchup between The LOX and Dipset, Fat Joe and Ja Rule had a battle of their own, and most recently, Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One took things back to the genre’s golden era. Now Verzuz is ready to leave the Big Apple. The platform announced that their next event will be a matchup between two L.A. crews: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia.

The event will take place on December 2 live from Los Angeles. Verzuz promised additional information about the battle is en route, but that didn’t stop people from getting excited about it. On Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s end, viewers can expect to hear classics like “The Crossroads,” “Thuggish Ruggish Bone,” and “1st Od Tha Month” from their 1990s albums Creepin On Ah Come Up and E. 1999 Eternal. As for Three 6 Mafia, their hits include “Stay Fly,” “Sippin Some Syrup,” and “Poppin’ My Collar” from their Most Known Unknown and When The Smoke Clears albums, which arrived during the 2000s.

The announcement comes after Verzuz took a step into the gaming world thanks to a “Bigs Vs. Lils”Call Of Duty: Vanguard tournament. Big Sean and Big Boi faced off against Lil Tecca and Lil Jon in a multi-round tournament hosted by T-Pain with a performance from Migos.

‘Verzuz’ Expands To The Gaming World With A ‘Bigs Vs. Lils’ ‘Call Of Duty’ Tournament

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After over a year of dominating the live music and live streaming spaces, the Verzuz brand is expanding to encompass live streaming video games with the next evolution of its competition format, Verzuz Gamez. While the musical hits battles have always been more about celebrating the legacies of those performers who have had a huge impact on hip-hop culture throughout the years, this time, the battle will be a straight-up fight to the finish as the inaugural edition of Verzuz Games will pit a pair of “big” rappers against two “lil” ones in a Call Of Duty: Vanguard tournament.

On Wednesday, November 3 at 6 pm PT, Big Boi and Big Sean will face off against Lil Jon and Lil Tecca for gaming supremacy in a three-hour, multi-round tournament format hosted by T-Pain with a performance by Migos. Aside from having a pretty cool theme, the teams also seem pretty well-balanced, what with pairing the oldest contestant with the youngest (you gotta handicap the zoomer, who was forged in the fires of online multiplayer chaos, by sticking him with the one guy who was around for Pong, otherwise Tecca would definitely run amok and clean up the field). Meanwhile, we’ll have to see if Big Boi and Big Sean can share chemistry as well as a misnomered moniker against one of rap’s first Twitch streaming adopters (Lil Jon — forever ahead of his time).

Tune in tomorrow night at 6 on Instagram, Triller, and Fite network.