The Verzuz battles assisted in keeping hip hop fans entertained in a major way during quarantine, and even though a lot of artists participated in the music clashes, Ice Cube wanted no parts of it.
Yesterday (Dec. 8), Cube and Mount Westmore members Too $hort and E-40 visited the “Bootleg Kev Podcast,” where the iconic rapper and filmmaker revealed why he never did a Verzuz battle. He said he had offers to go against LL Cool J and Scarface, but rejected them because he would rather celebrate their greatness than compete against them.
“I think they was talking LL at one point, they was talking Scarface at one point,” said the West Coast legend. “I said, ‘No.’ Verzuz is good, but my concept would have been, ‘Yo, I’m a fan. You do this song for me.’ Like, okay, I get to have LL do my favorite LL songs and he gon’ have me do my favorite Ice Cube songs, and it’s not Verzuz, but it’s love. It’s like, ‘Yo, do this, and he do ‘Rock the Bells,’ and he asks me, ‘Yo, do ‘Once Upon a Time in the Projects.’ That would have been my concept.”
He also gave great honor to the two rappers they wanted him to battle. “I can’t go against people I admire. LL is an OG to me in the game, so I can’t see it. Me and Scarface love each other, but we don’t communicate enough to do a Verzuz together. I don’t want it to be competition.”
Today (Dec. 9), Cube and the West Coast collective Mount Westmore dropped its debut album, Snoop Cube 40 $hort. The album contains 16 tracks with only a feature from P-Lo, but received production credits from Rick Rock, Ant Banks, Big Zeke, Soopafly, Kato On the Track, Fredwreck, Dem Jointz, ProHoeZak, and more.
Check out the interview below and go listen to the album, Snoop Cube 40 $hort, whenever you get time.