The Long-Awaited Battle: Jeezy vs. Gucci Mane
By Mike Cotton
Two of trap music’s most influential artists are finally going to have the Verzuz battle that many fans have been waiting for. With the history that these two artists have, this Verzuz battle should be nothing less than entertaining. What’s interesting about this specific beef is that rap beefs within the past two decades haven’t actually reached the point in which someone gets killed. The beef between Jeezy and Gucci Mane started in 2005 over ownership of a single. The tension began once Jeezy’s request for Gucci’s single “So Icy” (featuring Jeezy) to be placed on his Def Jam debut album, “Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101” was denied. Jeezy sparked the beef with Gucci with the release of diss track, “Stay Strapped”, in which he capped off the ending of the song with a $10,000 bounty on Gucci Mane’s chain. Shortly after, Gucci Mane responded to Jeezy with his single, “Round 1”. Unfortunately, later on in 2006, both Jeezy and Gucci Mane took a hit. Gucci was the victim to a home invasion, which resulted in him killing one of the intruders. The intruder was Henry Lee Clark III (a.k.a Pookie Loc), he was an artist and associate of Jeezy, who was also under Jeezy’s Corporate Thugz Entertainment. Gucci later turned himself in for the murder, and was able to pay an $100,000 bond, he then went home the day of the release of his debut album “Trap House”.
In 2008, their beef was rekindled when Gucci Mane worked with DJ Drama, a longtime partner of Jeezy. Despite Jeezy’s disapproval of this collaboration, Gucci and DJ Drama teamed up and released Gucci’s mixtape, “Gangster Grillz mixtape, The Movie”. In 2009, Jeezy’s crew jumped DJ Drama at a screening of the film Notorious. Then, between the remainder of 2009 through 2016, Gucci and Jeezy went back and forth about whether they’d work with one another again, and dissing one another through social media. 
The beef between the two seemed to be low key until 2018, when Gucci decided to diss Jeezy once again. He asked his Instagram followers about a track entitled, “Truth”, in which he asked them if they thought it was his “hardest song ever made”. A majority of his fans knew exactly what he was doing, simply because the song blatantly attacked Jeezy’s character, as well as made fun of the fact that he killed his former associate and friend during the botched home invasion back in 2006.
This year there’s different energy between these two men. Earlier this month, Jeezy reported that he received a call from Swizz Beatz asking him who he’d want to compete with in a Verzuz Battle. Jeezy initially challenged Gucci Mane to a Verzuz battle, but he declined the offer, as a result T.I was set to face off against Jeezy. A few days ago, Gucci Mane announced that he’ll be replacing T.I as Jeezy’s opponent for the Verzuz battle. He also announced that he’s willing to put his differences aside to perform this battle on November 19th. Hopefully nothing too crazy happens during or after this battle. I’m sure Jeezy is still hurt about the death of his former associate, just as Gucci may still be upset that he was set up for a home invasion. As long as they stay composed this Verzuz battle should be one of the best to happen.
