All things come to an end, but Verzuz is forever. This week’s Verzuz Battle is happening as previously scheduled, kicking off the series’ second season, but a last-minute substitution has two long-time rivals squaring off unexpectedly. “Tell buddy get ready.†Gucci Mane tweeted Saturday night, along with a poster announcing that he, not T.I., would be joining Jeezy this Thursday, November 19 at 8 p.m. ET.
Since basically the turn of the century, Gucci and Jeezy have had a long-standing antagonism, beginning with a disagreement about the rights to Mane’s 2005 single “Icy†and escalating through the shooting death of rapper Henry Lee Clark III, known as Pookie Loc, one of four men who attempted to rob Gucci in May of that year and an associate of Jeezy. Police later dropped charges against the Atlanta rapper, who maintains he acted in self-defense.
The pair would subsequently feud on and off for more than a decade. This summer, however, Jeezy reportedly discussed wanting to end their beef on T.I.’s podcast expediTIously, and told the Breakfast Club last week he had asked Gucci to take part in a Verzuz battle, but that the Woptober II rapper had declined.
Tweeted Gucci in late October, “Stop asking me about doing a @verzuzonline battle unless they got a million dollars they scared of Wop.†Guess he came around after all. T.I., for his part, cheered on the new pairing on Instagram “Now THIS…. Is what the people wants to see!!,†he wrote. “Trap Muzik salutes y’all.â€