Verzuz

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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Big Boi And Lil Jon
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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.

Big Daddy Kane Explains Why He Believes His Upcoming ‘Verzuz’ Is ‘Bigger Than Me And KRS-One’

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Earlier this week, Verzuz announced that Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One would face off in the series’ next battle. It will be the third consecutive event between New York rappers following last month’s matchup between Fat Joe and Ja Rule and the one between The LOX and Dipset in August. Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One’s battle is a bit different than past hip-hop Verzuz events in that it will find viewers going a bit further back into the genre’s history, as the respective rappers both had their biggest moments in the late 1980s and ’90s. Speaking to HipHopDX, Big Daddy Kane explained why this Verzuz is important for hip-hop.

“This is bigger than me and KRS,” he said. “This is about the Golden Era of Hip Hop, to show that artists like MC Lyte, Doug E. Fresh, Public Enemy, Chubb Rock, Yo-Yo, Rakim, and Kwame are still putting in work and ripping stages.”

Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One’s Verzuz takes place on October 17 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The battle will kick off at 7PM EST and tickets for the event are available can be purchased here. Back in June, during a sit-down with HipHopDX, Big Daddy Kane called KRS-One and Rakim the only rappers who would make sense as opponents for a Verzuz.

“If we can get it to happen with me and KRS-One, I would rather it be like a battle format,” he said. “If it’s going to be me and Rakim, then we might as well just do it with the music. You know what I mean? I don’t really see him as a battle rapper.”

Big Daddy Kane And KRS-One Will Face Off In An Upcoming ‘Verzuz’

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Verzuz has a new battle: Legendary rappers Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One will face off later this month. This means it will be the third straight matchup between New York stars following last month’s battle between Fat Joe and Ja Rule and the one between The LOX and Dipset in August.

Big Daddy Kane, who hails from Brooklyn, and KRS-One, who calls Bronx home, will face off at the Barclays Center on Sunday, October 17 for a matchup that kicks off at 7pm EST. While their matchup is highly anticipated, there’s another artist many Versuz watchers have been long hoping will finally take the stage.

That person is Diddy. A number of names have been proposed for who he’d b attle, but Diddy has made it clear that only one person is worthy: Dr. Dre. Jermaine Dupri attempted to put his own name in the mix, but Diddy shot the idea down, tellin ghim, “your arms too short to box with God!!!” This resulted in a passionate Instagram Livestream that saw Dupri and Diddy taking playful shots at one another.

Prior to that, Damon Wayans expressed his desire to challenge Dave Chappelle to a comedic version of Verzuz. “Chappelle, I’m calling him out!” Wayans said during an August appearance on KBXX 97.9 The Box.

Verzuz – KRS-One vs. Big Daddy Kane Reignites The Bronx vs. Brooklyn “Golden Era” Battle

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KRS-One vs Big Daddy Kane

The next installation of the Verzuz series will feature legends KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane — a matchup that has fans of 80s hip-hop excited for a modern-day Brooklyn vs The Bronx rap battle. KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane Up Next KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane will perform on Oct 17th in the next installation of […]

Fat Joe Is Convinced ‘Everybody’ — Including Himself — Is Afraid To Verzuz Battle Busta Rhymes

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“‘Fat Joe scared to do Verzuz with Busta Rhymes’ and so is everybody else.” So says… Fat Joe, who spoke on the possibility on his latest Friday live stream on Instagram. Amid talking about all the hot topics heading into the weekend, Joe touched on his recent Verzuz battle with Ja Rule, addressing the fan criticism that he’d ducked a similar faceoff against the other hip-hop legend, whose career of hits extends back 30 years to his breakout appearance on A Tribe Called Quest’s seminal posse cut, “Scenario.”

In defending himself, Joe praised Busta’s legacy and untouchable record of fan-favorite jams. “You gotta understand, sometimes you ever notice — you seen boxers and they knock everybody out?” he asked before insisting that, “People be scared to fight those boxers. Busta Rhymes is gonna out-rap, outperform anybody who goes up in a Verzuz with him. That’s a fact. Yo, Busta Rhymes, nobody wanna get in there with you, man. You might have to be an honorary — they gotta give you the check for no reason.”

Joe would know; in his battle with Ja Rule, despite his advantage in longevity, Rule pulled out way too many undeniable jams for him to keep up (it didn’t help he played a lot of his backpack rap favorites in a hits battle). Meanwhile, Rule had been taunting 50 Cent, hoping to joust with his onetime rival — who declined. Meanwhile, suitable opponents have yet to be found for other such legends like Eminem, Jay-Z, and Nas.