The LOX and Dipset took the stage at Madison Square Garden for a one night only Verzuz battle last night.... the outcome was absolute destruction. In the words of famed producer and wordsmith, Big Ghost Ltd... "I aint seen carnage like that since the movie Apocalypto. I cant remember.. but I think at one point Jada n Styles held Juelz over a pit of fire n disemboweled him to appease the Timberland gods while Cam n Jim watched helplessly.. Then Kiss rhymed over “Who Shot Ya” n Freekey Zekey just erupted into flames.. shit is a blur now. I went into this thinking its no way L-O-X would be able to out anthem my guys. But I knew shit was going sideways when the Set got lost on the way to the stage n gave Kiss a cool 5 mins to let off half a clip of jokes before the Diplomats DJ got his iPod Nano to successfully play “Bigger Picture” for em to walk out to. How yall down by 6 before the game start tho? Lox set the tone for the night early by going right into “F-ck You”…n it was all downhill from there. I know nobody in that room or anywhere else needed a whole ass Jim Jones/Purple City medley but TRUTHFULLY song selection was only part of the problem for them Harlem boys. The lack of cohesion n focus buried em. Didnt help that Lox had infinitely better stage presence, knew all they own lyrics, n could go into any chamber needed to respond (Damn Juelz…why you had to tell em they had no songs for the ladies smh). By the time Kiss used “Money, Power, & Respect” as a snippet transition to “By Your Side”.. they had already been poppin wheelies for the last 15 laps of the race. The biggest detriment to the Dips other than being outperformed was The Lox brought a real DJ who had actual timing, knew when to drop the beat, n understood the nuances of his craft. The Dips had Hell Rell or somebody using the edjing app on his phone. I stopped keeping score by the 5th round but if we went off pure energy it was something like 9 million - 3.5 for The Lox. S/o the Dips for being good sports tho..cuz I counted at least 8 moments where it probably took the willpower of a thousand Shaolin monks to not reach for a burner. Salute to both squads tho!" Dig into the 2-hour video below, which I hope remains online...
Props to the homie Shake of 2DopeBoyz, who is not only responsible for the dope artwork up above, but also put together a playlist of the tracks covered in the battle. While it does little to show the true destruction that was delivered, it's a nice complement to the video up above. You can't argue that both don't have impeccable catalogs - and, on paper - the anthems from Dipset kept them in the conversation, but they couldn't hold back the true performance and personality of Jadakiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch. Jadakiss is the official MVP of the whole shit. Enjoy all the memes out there! And riddle me this... how many hats, bandanas and durags did Juelz Santana have on? Why'd they keep bringin' up SOBs... shoulda came prepared. Don't rhyme over your vocals! Facts...