Beef is a common occurrence in hip hop with various rap artists, producers, and even executives waging war against one another on wax and off. While many of these mixups are devoid of violence or any real bad blood beyond the moment, at times, these situations can boil over and result in physical altercations, or even worse, a loss of life, all of which has transpired in the past fifteen years between heated rivals Jeezy and Gucci Mane.
Both credited as key architects in building the “Trap Music” sub-genre, the former collaborators had a falling out shortly after the release of their breakout hit, “So Icy,” setting the stage for tension that has lasted way longer than anyone initially expected. While both artists have evolved as men, artists and entrepreneurs, the discord between the two has remained tense with fans of both artists dreaming of the day the two legends would put their differences aside and work together in some capacity.
Well, that dream is on the brink of turning to a reality, as Jeezy and Gucci Mane are slated to kick off the second season of Verzuz with a battle. One of the most anticipated Verzuz matchups thus far, the two going song for song could open the door for them to put their beef to rest while celebrating one.
As we look ahead to the Verzuz between Jeezy and Gucci, we did a deep dive into their checkered past and created a timeline of their beef to get you up to speed ahead of the battle. Peep below.
1. Jeezy Appears On “Black Tee”
Date: May 24, 2005
After being introduced to one another shortly after the release of his mixtape Streetz Iz Watchin’, Jeezy struck a working relationship Gucci Mane by collaborating on Gucci’s ”Black Tee,” a flip of Dem Franchize Boyz’s own breakout hit, “White Tee.” While Gucci later likened Jeezy’s style to a “poor man’s Trick Daddy” in his autobiography, he quickly took a liking to his counterpart, opening the door for future joint efforts between the two.
2. Gucci and Jeezy Team Up Again For “So Icy”
Date: May 2005
“So Icy,” the Jeezy-assisted lead single from Gucci Mane’s debut album, Trap House, was released, sparking a huge buzz for the newcomer and helping bolster Jeezy’s own Q-rating on the mainstream radar. However, discrepancies over ownership of the record, as Jeezy’s request to release the record as part of his own Def Jam debut, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 was rebuffed, led to tension and a precipitous fall out, which planted the seeds for the bad blood that was yet to come.
3. Jeezy Disses Gucci
Date: May 9, 2005
Shortly after, Young Jeezy fired the first shot on wax, dissing Gucci on “Stay Strapped,” name-checking Mr. LaFlare by both his government and rap names, as well as levying various slights and threats atop the instrumental of T.I.’s “ASAP.” Closing out the track by issuing a $10,000 bounty on Gucci’s chain, Jeezy let it be known that all love between the two had certainly been lost.
4. Gucci Disses Jeezy
Date: May 2005
Never one to cower, Gucci Mane fired back at Jeezy quickly with his own retort, “Round 1,” which finds him wasting no time addressing the elephant in the room, stating, “That n**ga Young Jeezy, man, that n**ga fake.”
5. Gucci Kills Jeezy Associate
Date: May 19, 2005
The war of words between Gucci Mane and Jeezy quickly took a grisly turn when Gucci was the victim of a home invasion and attempted robbery, which led to the rapper fatally shooting one of the intruders in self defense. The deceased was later identified as Henry Lee Clark III a.k.a. Pookie Loc, a native of Macon, Georgia and an artist on Jeezy’s Corporate Thugz Entertainment, causing many to conclude the incident was directly connected to Gucci’s beef with the rising rap star. On May 19, just days before the release of his debut album, Trap House, Gucci turned himself in to DeKalb County police to face murder charges in Clark’s death. He later posted a $100,000 bond on the day of his album’s release.
6. Gucci’s Murder Case
Date: May 27, 2005
Shortly after his arrest, Gucci Mane proclaimed his innocence during a phone interview from jail, stating, “I just want to let everyone know I’m not a murderer. I was upset. I was scared a little bit, but I had to do what I had to do. You gotta be a man about it. I’m not a bad person. I have remorse for everything that happened.” He expounded on that remorse years later in his memoir, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, recalling a prayer he made in prison while in an isolation cell, writing, “So pray tonight for Gucci Mane and even pray for Jeezy.”
7. Gucci Beats Murder Charge
Date: January 17, 2006
When Guwop was released on bond while awaiting trial for the murder of Pookie Loc, he returned to prison months later after pleading no contest to a separate assault charge. While serving the six-month sentence for the assault, the charges in his murder case were dropped due to insufficient evidence and eye witness testimony. Gucci admitted to shooting his attackers, but maintained that he acted in self defense, leaving prosecutors with no evidence for a murder charge.
8. Gucci Disses Jeezy On “745”
Date: June 15, 2006
Coming up clean on the other side of a murder rap, Gucci reveled in his victory while launching a verbal assault against Jeezy on the diss track “745” released months after his acquittal. Name-checking his arch-nemesis, rapping, ”Do I smell p***y? Nah, that’s Jeezy. You ain’t a snowman, you more like a snowflake, cupcake, corn flake. N**ga, you too fake,” Gucci makes it clear that his vindication in the eyes of the law hadn’t tempered his disdain for Jeezy one bit.
9. Gucci Works With DJ Drama
Date: September 16, 2008
Taking a page out of the Art of War, Gucci Mane began to align himself with Jeezy’s friends in the industry, first joining forces with longtime Young Jeezy collaborator DJ Drama for his inaugural Gangster Grillz mixtape, The Movie. While the tape didn’t contain any blatant slights against Jeezy, the CTE boss didn’t take to Drama’s new affiliation.
10. Jeezy’s Posse Jumps Drama
Date: January 12, 2009
In the wake of the release of The Movie, DJ Drama and his entourage got into a skirmish with Jeezy’s CTE crew at a screening for the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, Notorious. Jeezy would let his feelings about Drama be known, referring to his former DJ as a “bitch” and “cornball” in an XXL interview in the months following the incident.
11. Gucci Mane Teams Up With Coach K
Date: 2009
Breaking ties with Jeezy in 2007, Coach K, the rapper’s former manager and business partner, branched off on his own and ultimately hopped on board to assist Gucci Mane in his own career following a chance encounter in 2009 at Patchwerk Studios. Establishing that there were no personal issues or bad blood between the two, and that there would be no conflict of interest, Coach K and Gucci would prove to be a successful duo, as Guwop’s next album, The State vs. Radric Davis, would become his most successful at that point in his career.
12. Jeezy Disses Gucci on “24, 23”
Date: June 15, 2009
After remaining mum on the elephant in the room for years, Jeezy broke his silence in 2009 by unleashing the street banger “24, 23,” which included multiple barbs aimed squarely at Mr. 1017. Rhyming, “I’m on some Louie s**t, f**k Gucci Mane/These n**gas still on my dick, they like some groupies mane,” Jeezy, who may have been triggered by Gucci’s new affiliations and partnerships from former members of his circle, throws down the gauntlet once again in their cold war.
13. Jeezy Calls Truce
Date: December 4, 2009
With rumors circulating that Gucci Mane was open to working on a collaboration with Jeezy in late 2009, Jeezy went on DJ Drama’s radio show to squash his beef with the DJ, as well as publicly extend an olive branch to The OG Snowman himself. Calling into the show from jail, Gucci attributed his change of heart to his love for the trio’s hometown, Atlanta, stating, “I’d just like to say, it’s way bigger than all of us. I feel like the way the city’s been supporting all three of us, they deserve this. It’s about that time, man. We’re getting older, growing, so let’s do it for the city.”
14. Gucci Says He’ll Collaborate With Jeezy Again
Date: December 15, 2009
Days later, Gucci Mane made another appearance on radio, this time calling into Power 106 LA for an interview with Big Boy, during which he doubled down on his plans to work with Jeezy and put the beef behind them. “We already collaborated on two songs,” the rapper revealed. “One is already out and one is debuting in a few weeks.”
15. Jeezy/Gucci Entourage Brawl
Date: March 4, 2010
The cease-fire between Gucci Mane and Jeezy was broken just months later, as Waka Flocka Flame and members of Gucci Mane’s crew got into a fight with associates of Jeezy outside of an Atlanta clothing store. Neither Jeezy nor Gucci were present, but one of Waka’s security guards discharged his weapon during the altercation, and Waka allegedly left injured with a black eye at the hands of CTE rapper Slick Pulla. Although the two central figures in the beef were uninvolved in the melee, it silenced all discussions of Jeezy and Gucci burying the hatchet, let alone working together on one accord.
16. Gucci Says He’ll Never Work With Jeezy Again
Date: August 11, 2011
During an interview with Sway Calloway, Gucci doubled back on his willingness to work with Jeezy, stating that the two had “started the conversation,” but that a collaboration seemed unlikely at that juncture. However, he did acknowledge that the beef had since been squashed. ”We just came to a sit down of just respecting the fact that somebody can get hurt, and it ain’t going to be us,” he shared.
17. Jeezy Says Beef Was A Misunderstanding
Date: December 2, 2011
Months after his interview with Gucci, Sway Calloway sat down with Jeezy to get his thoughts on his working and personal relationship with La Flare. Jeezy pointed to a misunderstanding stemming from him not doing live performances of “So Icy” alongside Gucci during the song’s initial release, but blames his hesitancy on medical issues he was experiencing at the time. As a result of recording and performing, Jeezy’s vocal chords were damaged, leading him to have to undergo throat surgery — unbeknownst to the general public and even his own record label.
18. Gucci Says He Has No Respect For Jeezy
Date: October 10, 2012
When friend and fellow Jeezy foe Rick Ross got into an altercation with Jeezy at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, Gucci commented on the incident during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” stating, “Ross is a friend of mine. Of course, Jeezy is not… I ain’t got no respect for him,” which was the first disrespectful remark he’d made about Jeezy since their supposed truce in 2009.
19. Jeezy Disses Gucci Mane In Interview
Date: October 12, 2012
Just days later, Jeezy responded to Gucci’s comments about him during an interview on Power 106, adding, “Man everybody knows that boy is retarded. Ain’t nobody taking him seriously. He has an ice cream cone on his face, let’s be for real… I’m not going back, I’m going forward.” Jeezy also make it a point to mention that it was Gucci who previously reached out for a collaboration, and that he declined, as further evidence of Gucci’s erratic behavior.
20. Gucci Mane Disses Jeezy “Truth”
Date: October 13, 2012
Within a day of Jeezy’s new statements, Guwop unleashed a diss track against Jeezy titled “Truth,” in which he denigrates Jeezy about various perceived shortcomings. Challenging Jeezy’s street credibility, and accusing him of being a bad father and a sucker for love, Gucci holds nothing back in his onslaught — even referencing the 2005 killing of Pookie Loc with the line, “A ten thousand dollar bounty put on my neck. I hope you didn’t pay them cause they didn’t have no success.”
21. Gucci Makes A Bet He Can Beat Up Jeezy
Date: October 13, 2012
The same day of the release of “Truth,” Gucci Mane took to Twitter to further disparage Jeezy by betting $100,000 that he could beat him up if the two were to get into an altercation. Jeezy would not issue a response to the diss track nor La Flare’s additional commentary.
22. Gucci Mane Disses Jeezy On Twitter
Date: August 13, 2013
Infamous for stirring the pot on social media, Gucci Mane challenged the manhood and honor of not only Jeezy, but two other star rappers out of the south, tweeting, “Your Top 3 P***y a** rappers? Mines? Jeezy, Yo gotti & Tip. No brainer. But there are 100s more….Go… #ww3.”
23. Jeezy Opens Up About Pookie Loc’s Death For The First Time
Date: November 12, 2015
Having gone nearly a decade without directly acknowledging the death of Henry Lee Clark III a.k.a. Pookie Loc, Jeezy spoke on his deceased friend’s death on “Forgive Me,” a track from the rapper’s Church In These Streets album. Rapping, “Rest in peace to Pookie Loc, blame it on me never snitching/ Lord knows I ain’t send the homie on no dummy mission,” Jeezy wears his emotions on his sleeve and lends further credence to Gucci’s belief of his involvement in that fateful home invasion in 2006.
24. Jeezy Says He Doesn’t Plan on Speaking With Gucci Mane
Date: November 1, 2016
In an interview with the late Combat Jack in 2016, Jeezy spoke on his relationship with Gucci, who had recently been released from prison at the time. Jeezy revealed that the two hadn’t spoken since his release and admitted to not having any plans to reach out. “Imma tell you like N.O.R.E. I’m just focused on me, man” Jeezy offered. “Me and mine. If it got something to do with that. If it doesn’t. honest man I’m grown.”
25. Gucci Mane Asks Is “Truth” The Hardest Song He’s Ever Made
Date: December 13, 2018
In 2018, years since his last mention of Jeezy or their lengthy beef, Guwop took to Instagram to commemorate ”Truth” by asking his followers if they felt it was “the hardest track ever made?” While the post doesn’t mention his name, being that the song was an all-out assault on Jeezy’s character and went as far as to poke fun at the killing of his close friend, the post can be seen as another shot at Jeezy.
26. Jeezy Challenges Gucci Mane To A Verzuz Battle
Date: November 9, 2020
One topic during Jeezy’s most recent conversation with “The Breakfast Club” was him participating in a Verzuz battle with The Snowman revealing that he reached out to Swizz Beatz personally about battling his longtime nemesis. “Imma keep it a buck,” Jeezy said. “When I even got the call about Verzuz, I got the call from Swizz. Swizz called me. I was like, ‘Yo Swizz if I do it, it’s only one person I’ll do it with.’ And he was like, ‘Who?’ I was like, ‘Gucci. Reach out to him. Let me know what’s up.’” However, according to Jeezy, Gucci respectfully declined, which resulted in him initially being paired up against T.I. instead.
27. Gucci Mane Replaces T.I. In Verzuz Battle Against Jeezy
Date: November 14, 2020
After initially declining an invitation to battle against Jeezy in a Verzuz battle, Gucci Mane suddenly had a change of heart and announced that he’d put their differences aside, and go heads up against The Snowman for the love of the culture. Guwop tweeted, “Tell buddy get ready @verzuzonline,” pitting the matchup as “TrapGod vs Snowcone.” While no one can predict what we’ll be in store for on Nov. 19, what we do know is that it will serves as the next chapter in one of the most illustrious and storied beefs in rap history.