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Verzuz has produced timeless moments in Hip-Hop history, but none of the previous events have yet to match the hype and excitement of The Diplomats and The LOX's iconic battle.
On August 3, 2021, Verzuz brought Dipset and the Yonkers trio to face off for a hit-for-hit battle at the Hulu Theater inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. The packed-out event had Cam'ron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey perform their classics alongside Sheek Louch, Jadakiss and Styles P, who were proclaimed the winners in the court of public opinion. The Dipset crew dished out numerous bangers, but couldn't keep up with the L-O-X's undeniable hits.
After being introduced by legendary announcer Michael Buffer, The LOX set the tone for the match and kicked things off by performing "F**k You." The trio continued to go in by serving up classic feature verses on collaborations with N.O.R.E., DMX and Ma$e. Eventually, Jadakiss threw in some of his solo classics like "Who Shot Ya" and "Might D-Block" with Louch. Dipset also started out strong with classics like "I'm Ready" and "Crunk Muzik" before they started dishing out hits from each member of the camp.
There was plenty of trash talk to go around on both sides of the ring. During the battle, Jadakiss called out Dipset for not knowing their own lyrics due to the fact that they used backing tracks with original vocals while The LOX only used instrumentals as they rapped all of their verses with ease. While most of the banter was friendly, there were some tense moments like when Cam and Zekey mocked the trio after they performed "Mighty D-Block."
“Are we in the f**kin’ army?” Cam said after the song was over.
In the years since the battle, Jim Jones has said that he would be down for a rematch. We'll see if that happens when Verzuz makes its comeback on X formerly known as Twitter. Swizz Beatz and Timbaland recently announced their plans to revive the battle platform exclusively on Elon Musk's X.
Relive the iconic battle below.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE