Source: Youtube

Q-Tip opens up about a high school freestyle battle that was over before it even started.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard appears to have handed Q-Tip one of the only L’s of his career. Or so the story goes, according to a new interview with the Queens rapper.

Sitting with Math Hoffa & Co. for a recent episode of the My Expert Opinion Show, the A Tribe Called Quest co-founder discussed his early years as a scrappy and eager battle rapper in NYC, squaring up with anyone who wanted to go a few rounds, be it on the train, in the park, at a show, or in one particular case, outside of his high school, where he claimed to have been ambushed by two soon-to-be members of the Wu-Tang Clan. “My man, Rob, we was in the lunch room, it was seventh period, he was outside. And he was like ‘Yo, this n***a’s outside saying ‘Where’s J Nice?,’” Tip recalls of the scene. “We go outside, right in the front there’s Ason,” the rapper goes on, imitating the late ODB calling him out by an early moniker in his signature bark.

From there, Tip seems to imply the battle was over before it even started, noting he went first, which made it that much more difficult to come out on top. He recites his opening line from memory and ODB’s one bar knockout over RZA’s beatboxing. “He had some shit, ‘Ason Unique, I’m not gon have it, Dagnabbit you switch like a f****t,’” Tip recalls, noting how the crowd around them burst into laughter and effectively called it. “I took the L,” Tip admits as the rest of the group acknowledges the absurdity of losing a battle to a rapper that uses “Dagnabbit” in a line.

Watch Q-Tip recount losing his first freestyle battle to Ol’ Dirty Bastard below. Head over to Math Hoffa’s Patreon page to see the full interview.