Diddy & Jermaine Dupri Agree to Verzuz-Like Music Battle

During an Instagram Live session on Thursday, Diddy and Jermaine Dupri discussed the potential of holding a music battle in Atlanta.
It appears that Diddy has given into holding a music battle with fellow ’90s hitmaker Jermaine Dupri. During an Instagram Live on Thursday night (August 18), the Bad Boy Records and Love Records founder invited Dupri into the session, inviting the So So Def founder to go head-to-head.
âJD, if you want that smoke, you can get that smoke anytime,” said rapper-mogul, whose real name is Sean Combs.
Dupri, seated next to songwriter and producer Bryan-Michael Cox, agreed to holding a match in Atlanta, playing selections from their Bad Boy Records and So So Def Recordings catalogs, respectively.
âSince we ainât fucking with Verzuz no more since âcause they f****** around with our boys, we donât need to be going against each other,â Diddy said. âLetâs come together and do that Bad Boy, So So Def in Atlanta. It ainât no Verzuz, itâs just hit for hit.â
“Let’s do it,” Dupri responded.
— First Class đ (@1DJFirstClass) August 19, 2022
Combs isn’t the only Bad Boy Records act calling to boycott Verzuz after Timbaland and Swizz Beatz decided to sue Triller. On Thursday, The Lox member Styles P told TMZ that âHip-hop people shouldnât f*** with [Verzuz] if Swizz and Tim [arenât] involved.”
Dupri initially challenged Combs to a Verzuz battle in 2021, to which Combs responded that his only worthy opponent was Death Row Records and Aftermath Entertainment founder, Dr. Dre. Afterwards, the two got into a shouting match on Instagram Live, with Combs playing hit Bad Boy Records songs including “One More Chance” to tease Dupri.
Also in September 2021, Dupri stopped by Atlantaâs V-103 radio station to flex his Hall of Fame Songwriter accolade over Combs.
âI am in the Songwriters Hall of Fame,â he said. âPuff Daddyâs not in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Steve Stoute and the Trackmasters are not in the Hall of Fame. I shouldnât have to play nothing. I am in a seat that Puff Daddy canât pay for.â
In January, Dupri visited the New Rory & MALÂ podcast to share that a battle between himself and Combs would be unlikely.
âI feel like itâs a performance-based thing now and the majority of Puffâs records, whoâs gonna perform?â he questioned at the time. âYeah, [you can include] The LOX, but you canât have nobody do Bigâs verses! And I donât know that Ma$e would come out with him no more, so I donât think that it would happen based on that. All my people, we rockinâ and we comin’ with a whole lot of energy!â
Dupri also explained that although Bad Boy Records may have ran ’90s hip-hop and R&B, the 2000s era of urban music belonged to So So Def.
âPuff â and anybody else that thinks about this battle â they try to downplay the Bow Wow era,â he said. âWhen we get into the 2001, 2002, 2003 era of So So Def, I donât know that Bad Boy was even in existence⊠I never seen a Bad Boy record No. 1 on 106 & Park.â
He added, â[The] Emancipation of Mimi came out in 2007. People be forgetting about that whole little patch of records. Iâm telling you, I donât give a fuck what nobody say; Puff Daddy ainât got nothing for 2007 â not on Bad Boy!â