2 weeks ago
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In a preview of Cam'ron's new podcast Talk With Flee, the Diplomats rapper answered a fan question about how the Verzuz battle against The Lox came to be and how he felt about losing to Jadakiss and company.
"First and foremost, let me say this; I don't like losing never, I never like losing," he said. "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***as. They got on probably year before me, them and Mase got on, then I got on. Those is my n***as and that was well deserved, man. 'Cause I don't think the Lox get a lot of credit. If I had to lose to anybody and be like, 'Oh well!' It's them n***as. 'Kiss, Styles, Sheek... They deserve that, man."
As for how it came together, he said that the battle was planned as Dipset and the Lox were planning to go on tour together. As they got the offer to do a tour, he was approached by the team behind Verzuz to see if they'd be interested in duking it out onstage.
"So Jim [Jones] is like, 'Yo, let's do the Verzuz,'" he shared. "I'm like, 'Nah, Jim, we got money on the line.' ... It wasn't really a money play at first, it wasn't about no fucking money. I said, 'Lemme do some homework.' I ignored [Verzuz] for a while, I'm like, 'I'm not paying that shit no mind, we got a tour coming up. If they want to do the Verzuz after the tour, we'll do the Verzuz after the tour.'"
When they entertained the idea of a Verzuz further, they were told they'd receive $100,000 for everybody. Considering they were offered at least $1.5 million for ten shows, he didn't think it was a good idea. He approached Swizz Beatz, one of the co-creators of Verzuz, who told him that was all they could allocate budget-wise.
"I said, 'I ain't doing it, bro,'" Cam continued. After some talking, they were able to get the offer up to $500,000. "'Kiss hit me, he was like, 'Killer, I knew you'd get that number up,'" he said while sharing his best Jadakiss impression. "I'm like, 'Hell yeah I'mma get the number up, man!' ... So [Jim Jones] said to me, 'Cam, every dollar I make from this Verzuz, I will give to you. I just wanna perform in [Madison Square Garden] again.'"
It was at that point that he realized how serious the rest of Dipset and the Lox were about wanting to do the show. He didn't want to accept the money Jones would've made from the show, so instead he approached Verzuz parent company Triller to negotiate the payment. "I worked it out so n***as got more than that," he added, without specifying a figure.
He wasn't happy because this meant the tour would have to fall through, because the company offering to put on the shows felt the Verzuz would overshadow the tour. He asked Triller for "an additional 25 percent" because he helped put the Verzuz event together. "I negotiated stock in Triller," he said. "They said, 'Alright Killer, now you're wilding.' I said, 'I'm not wilding, matter of fact, I need six beats from Swizz and six beats from Timbaland, too!'"
Ultimately, he walked away with stock in Triller, 25 percent of door charge for tickets, 20 percent for putting the deal together, the beats from both producers (which he hasn't used yet), and some of the backend. He initially didn't want to do the show, but when he got there he witnessed "pandemonium" and all the excitement from fans.
"The Lox was considered underdogs, which they shouldn't have been," he shared. "People were underestimating the music that the Lox had, the features they've had over the years." He recalled that he was planning to do a freestyle near the end of the night, but because the Lox were beating Dipset so much he got booed and didn't get the chance.
After the show, the team behind the potential tour called them up to tell them they thought the presence onstage from both groups seemed "unsafe," and because there was talk about "gang activity," plenty of cities including Chicago refused to host them. Despite that, Cam agreed that the Verzuz was "dope for New York City."
Watch the full clip from the upcoming podcast above. Cam also shared a similar story during his live chat with Steve Stoute at this year's SelectCon.
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