Nelly vs Ludacris

I was exceptionally surprised when a little before 7pm I hopped on Instagram to see that Nelly was already live. I thought alright, we might get a battle that actually starts on time. Nelly was prepping his sound and Ludacris hopped on a little after 7. A friend of mine noticed that I was tuning in and texted saying she saw me join Nelly’s live. We chatted as they were both gearing up for what I expected to be a close verzuz battle. I had my money on Nelly and she Ludacris. As they were working out their sound and getting ready I could sense that Nelly was having some connectivity issues because his screen kept freezing up. Apparently a really bad storm was going on in St. Louis and that’s exactly not what we needed for this battle. After a few freezing moments I hopped over and joined Ludacris’ live instead.

By 7:15pm it looked as though everything was ready. Ludacris said it was his and Nelly’s 20th anniversary & shouted out any and everyone that he saw in the comment section. He also took a moment to congratulate Nelly on having a diamond selling album (Country Grammar). Fun Fact: A diamond album is an album that has sold 10 million units. They both took the time to say what an honor it was to be doing the verzuz with the other.

Ludacris (L) 1: Welcome to Atlanta (w/Jermaine Dupri)
Nelly (N) 1: Na-NaNa-Na
L 2: P-Poppin’ (feat Shawnna & Lil Fate)
N 2: E.I. TIPDRILL Remix (feat St. Lunatics)
L 3: My Chick Bad
N 3: Pimp Juice

All while this was happening Nelly kept freezing up at times. One commentor Lil Yachty said that it was taking every inch of his patience to stay tuned in (lol). Finally Nelly froze and we lost Nelly. Luda said, “Damn damn damn” and urged that they help get Nelly’s wifi together because he wanted this moment of greatness to work. So while we waited he debuted a new song produced by none other than Timbaland featuring Lil Wayne called Silence of the Lambs. Many fire symbols ran across the comments as most people seemed to like the song as did I. There was however an eye raising lyric that caught a few people off guard and rubbed some the wrong way. He said, “I love R. Kelly but around my daughters I’m not comfortable.” (I’d give my opinion but that’s a whole article worth of writing so I’ll just say I don’t agree with what he said here). He plays the 1st verse for us a couple times and gets the thumbs up to share another song from Timbaland featuring Chance the Rapper as we awaited Nelly’s return. That track also got many fire comments.

I didn’t think this battle would be able to continue but Nelly’s team said they just needed a few minutes. At about 7:52pm Nelly was back on and everyone was praying that there would be no more mishaps. Nelly apologized and Luda told him it was all good and that he couldn’t control what mother nature does.

L 4: Ho
N 4: Flap Your Wings
L 5: Saturday (Oooh! Oooh!) (feat Sleepy Brown)
N 5: Ride Wit Me (feat City Spud)
L 6: What’s Your Fantasy
N 6: Country Grammar (Hot Shit)
L 7: Rollout (My Business)
N 7: Body On Me (feat Ashanti & Akon)

Mind you they both didn’t do much talking (well at least Luda didn’t). I think that we were all so afraid that we might lose Nelly again so many of the comments kept telling Nelly to do less talking and more music playing. And of course somehow Teddy Riley was brought into it saying, “He must be on that Teddy Riley wifi.” Ironically Teddy Riley was in the comments and jokingly said that didn’t have anything to do with him.

L 8: Splash Waterfalls
N 8: My Place (feat Jaheim)
L 9: Oh (w/Ciara)
N 9: Nasty Girl (w/Notorious B.I.G., Avery, P. Diddy & Jagged Edge)
L 10: Made You Look Remix (w/Nas & J.PERIOD)
N 10: Roc the Mic Remix (w/Freeway, Beanie Sigel & Murphy Lee)

They spoke of the times of BET Uncut which if you are a younger Millennial or definitely a member of Generation Z you have no idea of it’s raunchiness that many loved. Basically all of the raunchy music videos were played after dark there (think of today’s version of “demon time” but even BET Uncut wasn’t as uncut as today). If I’m not mistaken it was Tip Drill’s music video where a credit card was swiped between a woman’s butt cheeks that was the final straw for the late night appearance. Although at the time they were sad that it came to an end they agreed that it had a good run. They commended Deborah Lee the then new CEO of BET Networks for changing the course of the station. Nelly goes out again around 8:05pm but thankfully bounces back quickly.

N 11: 1000 Stacks
L 11: They Know (Dey Know) (w/Shawty Lo)
N 12: Where The Party At (w/Jagged Edge)
L 12: Yeah! (w/Usher & Lil Jon)
N 13: Grillz (feat Paul Wall & Ali & Gipp)
L 13: Stand Up (feat Shawnna)
N 14: Air Forces Ones (feat Murphy Lee, Ali & Kyjuan)
L 14: Southern Hospitality (feat Pharrell Williams)
N 15: Shake Ya Tailfeather (feat Murphy Lee & Diddy)
L: 15 All I Do Is Win (w/DJ Khaled, T-Pain & Snoop Dogg)

Ludacris says that Timbaland is his favorite producer and if I’m not mistaken I think that Nelly said that he needs to do something with Timbaland (but it’s kind of hard to believe that he hasn’t worked with him yet). They both shout out Akon and everything that he’s doing in the world.

N 16: Just A Dream
L 16: Area Codes (feat Nate Dogg)
N 17: E.I.
L 17: Money Maker (feat Pharrell Williams)
N 18: Get Like Me (feat Nicki Minaj & Pharrell Williams)
L 18: How Low
N 19: Hot In Here
L 19: Move Bitch (w/Disturbing Tha Peace & Mystikal)
N 20: Dilemma (feat Kelly Rowland)
L 20: Lovers & Friends (w/Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz)

Luda recognized Nelly and congratulated him on dropping a double album and being successful with it. He said it’s hard enough doing one album so to do a 2-in-1 is a job well done. Nelly then commended Luda for dropping an album every year for 10 years straight. He said he used to wonder how he did it so effortlessly (I feel like for a while Rihanna did this as well).

Now by now the verzuz battle would be over because it’s 20 songs per person. Ten sets from each and then the order is reversed. By now we were approaching or beyond the 10pm mark which was mostly due to technical difficulties throughout. Nelly was still ready to go though and Luda was down for whatever so they kept it going with a few more songs. It was so funny because Nelly played 2 songs and no one knew what they were but he was jamming to them. Luda’s face sometimes were hilarious and I’ve already used one as a meme. The bonus songs that they played are below.

N 21: Here I Am (w/Rick Ross & Avery Storm)
L 21: One Minute Man (w/Missy Elliott)
N 22: Call On Me (w/Janet Jackson)
L 22: Pimpin All Over The World (feat Bobby V.)
L 23: Runaway Love (w/Mary J. Blige)
N 23: Long Gone (w/Plies & Chris Brown)
(We lost Nelly at this point)
L 24: The Potion
L 25: Bia’Bia (w/Chyna Whyte, Big Kap & Too $hort)
The next verzuz takes place tomorrow (May 23rd at 8pm EST on IG Live) and I must admit I’m not familiar with these two too much but I will still tune in to see Bounty Killer vs Beenie Man.
And If you’re up for it there will be another verzuz on May 25th at 8pm EST on IG Live this time between 112 vs Jagged Edge. I’ll be tuning into this as well.