When it comes to the world of hip-hop, the musical craft is a great medium for artists to throw metaphorical punches at everything from social issues, to personal struggles, and even rival rappers.
The traditional rap-battle is usually a relatively cordial affair, putting on display the on-the-spot lyrical skills of each participant and a judge or audience applause being the deciding factor on whose batch of bars is superior.
That wasn’t the case Thursday night, as literal fisticuffs match broke out during a Verzuz battle between the melodic Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and the more crunk-leaning Three 6 Mafia.
The fight happened at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, according to an Entertainment Weekly report.
A clip of the fight was posted by the YouTube account BlackFly TV. (Warning: Contains strong language.)
Matters appeared to escalate when Bone Thugs’ Bizzy Bone called out Three 6 for actively mocking the rapper while he was spitting bars, though it reportedly was a provocation typical of many Verzuz battles.
In the video, you can see Bizzy shouting at the rival crew, then he appears to throw something their way before performers from each side clashed.
After the chaos broke out, the Verzuz livestream briefly paused with a “technical difficulties” message, followed by the program resuming with apology from Bizzy.
“”I’m not trying to f— this s— up. Pardon me,” he said. “Let’s keep the party motherf—in’ going.”
It was great to see the brief kerfuffle end with rival group members shaking hands instead of clenching fists, a moment of unity to close an episode that will surely go down in hip-hop history.
