Cozy Thoughts: The lost battle part 1

Marley Malenfant
Cozy Thoughts
Published in
5 min readMay 21, 2020

Since the start of America’s quarantine, Instagram Live has been the unofficial celebratory hub for Hip-Hop, R&B and ratchetness (shoutout to Tory Lanez).

Verzuz can be awkward and clunky but overall fun for the fans. It’s given older acts a chance to showcase their catalog and maybe gain some new fans along the way. Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, the founders of Verzuz, have done a well enough job putting together match ups people want to see and that make sense.

Most have showcased sportsmanship and a respect between artist (the best of that being the RZA-DJ Premier battle), while some have been petty (Sean Garret-The Dream).

Timbo and Swizz said these battles are all about the fans, but if Verzuz is about giving the people what they want, what the hell happened to the Three Six Mafia vs Bone Thugs-In-Harmony battle?

Originally slated for April 30, the battle was postponed and on TBD status. It’s disappointing. Besides being a good match up, these groups had beef history together. Both groups accused of biting each other's style, which was a Hip-Hop sin in those days.

According DJ Paul and Krazyzie Bone, the beef has since been squashed. Bone said the beef started from fan mail while Paul said it stemmed from a misunderstanding.

“I really didn’t understand what the beef was until I talked to somebody on the phone one day,” Bone said to HipHop DX. “It was a conference call with Relativity Records or Live Records or something And they was like, ‘We just want y’all know to know it ain’t no beef, it ain’t no nothing.’ All that stuff was stupid. We was young. Everybody was young… So when the opportunity came to work with Gangsta Boo, I was like, ‘Man, let’s make it happen. Let’s squash some of this beef that’s out there. Let’s do this. It’s about business, for real.’”

Both groups deserved to be celebrated for their heyday and their influences now. Bone Thugs sold so many damn records, put Cleveland on the map as a city that wasn’t cranking out rap starts then and should get credit for the harmony-style, singy-song flow artist use today. Three Six won a Academy Award for their work on “Hustle & Flow,” and laid the foundation for what Trap music is today.

Until this battle does get an official date, I made a playlist based on the Verzuz rules and how I would approach the battle if I was on either side.

Without further ado, hit play and *Juicy J voice* SHUTTHAFUCKUP!!!!!!

Round 1: “Fuck that shit” vs “Thug Love”

The former was a roll call to those getting hyped in the club and sticking the middle finger to security at the height of the Crunk era. The latter was a LA-Midwest connection with the enigmatic Tupac. Krayzie Bone said there was brief tension with Tupac before the record made.

“People didn’t know it was beef with us and ‘Pac at first, because ‘Pac had — when The Box was on TV — he went on there and said something like, “Who’s these thuggish-ruggish-bones dudes, anyway? We lay down the bricks to this Thug stuff,” he said to XXL magazine. “So we were like, okay, when we see him it’s on, it’s going down.”

A close first round. I’d call it a draw.

Round 2: “Sippin on some Syrup” vs “Thuggish Ruggish Bone”

And ode to drinking lean featuring the legendary Texas group UGK. DJ Paul told N.O.R.E and DJ EFN on their Drink Champs show that the single was a risk at the time.

“ It was a risky one for us ’cause we was coming off ‘Tear Da Club Up,’ so soon as we teach the world how to get crunk and fight and do cocaine, we turn around and make a slow song talking about sipping sizzurp. And I think if it wasn’t the fact that they found out that it was a drug, I think it probably wouldn’t have worked. I think that’s what sold it ’cause they were so intrigued, they were curious and they were like, ‘Holy shit, this a drug’ ’cause they ain’t know what the word ‘sizzurp’ means, they thought it was some funny shit.”

“Thuggish Ruggish Bone” is a hard ass single from Bone’s 1994 EP “Creepin on ah Come Up.” The debut single peaked at #17 on the Billboard charts. I gotta lean with Three Six this round.

Round 3: Money Flow” vs “Foe the Love of Money”

“Money Flow” is a deep cut from Three Six’s 1997 album “The End,” that showcased everything that I love about this group. The double-time flow from Lord Infamous, Gangsta Boo’s bravado and Paul and Juicy J on the boards with the hardest baseline and snares. FTLM was one of many hits from Bone Thugs that featured a verse from the man that discovered them, Eazy-E.

Bone wins round 3.

Round 4: “Tear the Club up ‘97” vs “East 1999”

Tear the Club Up earned Three Six Mafia their first gold plaque and caused them a lot of trouble. While touring, club promoters would tell the group they could not perform the song. Of course, Three Six was rebellious.

“Man, they was tearing the club up,” Paul remembers. “We used to have to put in our contracts that we wouldn’t perform that song ’cause they’d know that they would really tear up and then we would just do it last. We’d get all our money up front, talk ’em into it, do it last and tear that muthafucka a part, man. One time, we were in Memphis, man, they knocked the glass out of the door. Club 380 Beale, they were knocking the glass out [of] the fucking window and crazy shit.”

Three Six wins round 4.

Round 5: “Slob on my Knob” vs “Freaks”

Juicy J said he wrote Slob on my Knob song in high school. It sound like something you’d write in the back of the class while the teacher is rambling. But the people love it. It was an underground classic. A$AP Ferg flipped it and made “Plain Jane.”

“Eleventh grade at Northside High School. The teacher was named Papa Owens. Shouts out to him,” Juicy J said to Rolling Stone. “He was a great teacher, man. I was just bullshittin’, you know what I mean? You know, you write some things and, you know, you don’t really take it seriously. I just talked about stuff that went around in my neighborhood. I just consider myself just bullshitting with it.”

Freaks is a single from Dallas based producers Play-N-Skillz featuring Krayzie Bone and Adina Howard. Based on the influence, I’m giving round five to Three Six.

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