It’s been three years since New York-based rap groups Dipset and The Lox went head to head in a “Verzuz” battle, resulting in The Lox taking home the win.
In the premiere episode of Cam’ron’s new web show “Talk With Flee,” which aired on Nov. 8, the Dipset member discussed the moment he realized his group had lost to The Lox during their faceoff at Madison Square Garden in August 2021.
He said, “The Lox really had some good music, and they ain’t come to play no games.”
“Now, that was the first ‘Verzuz’ that went the way it went,” he said, explaining that in most “Verzuz” battles, the performers usually take turns going back and forth. “They just took advantage of the opportunity and started ringing off songs back to back to back. Back n-ggas start talking crazy. N-gga Juelz said y’all aint got no sh-t for the b-tches.”
That’s when the DJ played Mariah Carey’s song “Honey,” featuring Ma$e and The Lox. Cam’ron said he thought to himself, “This ain’t going right.”
“Then when Jadakiss threw the f-cking Biggie sh-t on, I said nope, this ain’t going right. This is not right,” he said, referencing the song “The Last Day” by Notorious B.I.G featuring The Lox.
After it was determined that Dipset lost, Cam’ron said it changed other plans that he had for the finale of the show.
“Now, mind you, we losing bad the whole night from the beginning. So I had a freestyle ready that I was gon’ do towards the end of the night. But we was down so bad, when I was about to do it, the crowd didn’t even want to hear it and started booing. And I was like this is just f-cked up. Everything went left that night.”
But that’s not all. The rapper said they also lost out on a tour which they originally had planned with The Lox prior to doing “Verzuz.” In fact, Cam’ron initially wanted to focus on doing the tour and kept shutting down “Verzuz” because they were going to be getting paid less. At “Verzuz,” they were only going to get paid $100,000 for the entire group, but on the tour, they would get paid $1.5 million.
However, his group member Jim Jones, aka Capo, said he would give Cam’ron all the money they earned at “Verzuz” because he just wanted to perform at Madison Square Garden again. Once he saw Capo’s intense desire to perform, he caved in, but not without negotiating.
First, he negotiated an increase in their pay to go from $100,000 to $500,000. Then he received stock in Triller, a 25 percent at the door, and another 25 percent for putting the deal together. He also requested six beats from Swizz Beatz and six beats from Timbaland, and he would get some money at the back end if they sold out.
So, after the battle was over, the plan was to continue doing the tour.
However, the people running the tour called Cam’ron and explained some events that happened during Verzuz, which is what made them cancel it. He said they noticed a little “brotherly tussle” between him and The Lox member Styles P after Styles sat in his beach chair. Although he tried to explain the situation, their response was, “That didn’t look safe.”
According to him, they also said, “And then there was mention of gang-related activity while you guys were on stage, so Chicago dropped out, Miluwakee dropped out, and St. Louis dropped out.”
Of course, it was a blow to Cam’ron because not only did he not want to do Verzuz in the first place, but they also all lost out on getting six figures each for the tour.
But as for the loss to The Lox itself, Cam’ron hasn’t taken that too hard.
He said, “First and foremost let me say this, I don’t like losing, never. I never like losing. But if I had to lose to anybody and still live with it and not be that mad or be upset about it, it’s The Lox. Them is my brothers. Those are my n-ggas.”
“And that was well-deserved man,” he added, “because I think The Lox don’t get a lot of credit that they deserve, man, so if I had to lose to anybody and be like ‘oh well’ it’s them n-ggas.”
Fans reacted to a clip of Cam’ron’s sneak peek on the Welcome to the Culture page on Instagram.
One person said, “Cam carried dipset! They was out of breath and not really prepared!!! Period.”
A second person wrote, “If Dipset had rehearsed for even just an hour, they probably would have looked better on stage. Can tell the Lox put some time in to make sure they put on a good show!”
A third person said, “That’s not why y’all lost! Dipset was never winning against Jadakiss!”
