Gucci Mane decided to take shots at Jeezy on Thursday night during their Verzuz battle, which lead to some tense moments.
In a new interview with The Breakfast Club, Jeezy discussed how he reacted to the disrespect and how he remained unaffected when he was asked by Angela Yee. “I looked at it like we ain’t sixth graders. We not kids,” Jeezy said around the 6:45 mark. “You can’t antagonize me with something that we both understand ‘cause I’m not in the same mental space as I was 20 years ago and I know I can’t let you take me there. That would have been the biggest upset in my life because I have self-control and I’m very self-aware. It’s just like, ‘Hold up man, if that was the case, we might [not have even] came here.’”
He continued, “In my mind, I didn’t feel no way about it because I’ve already heard the song. I already know what people may think of the situation and you know that as well so you can’t antagonize me with that live and think that you’re gonna get a response because I’m not that same person I was 20 years ago when that’s how things spiraled out of control anyway. … I took the last 10 years to better myself because of a lot of things that happened in my life. I just promise myself I would never put myself in those positions again because when you react and somebody gets you off your square and you acting out of anger or you acting out of anxiety, it’s normally not the right decision.”
Among the many diss tracks that Gucci dropped was his 2012 song “Truth,” which references the death of Jeezy’s associate Pookie Loc, who Gucci shot in 2005. He was later charged for the murder but ultimately was acquitted.
Elsewhere, around the :45 second mark, Jeezy commented on whether or not he had plans for the battle, telling The Breakfast Club that his “plan was how I felt.” He continued, “My songs are my life so—that’s with anybody. I’m quite sure any artist feel that way but for me, like I know what I put my blood, sweat, and tears in my music so I could have played any songs—that wasn’t the case. But it was just how I was gonna feel to see what type of emotions any of these records brought back up, that either one of us played. It was more of a mental thing for me.”
Jeezy also explained around the 3:10 minute mark if last night would lead to a real moment of reconciliation between the two rappers: "It’s been going on almost two decades. It was a point when we were cool. … The real shit that went on, that’s just something me and him gonna have to figure out later on but for y’all it’s just like I understand it. The more it goes on, the worse it’s gonna be so we at least the forefront of it so anybody who’s behind us, that’s the way to go… time heals all. But that was effort—it was in front of the world. It wasn’t even for show. It’s real-life; we both gotta come to grips with that. We both gotta really be men.”
Gucci and Jeezy closed out their battle by performing "So Icy" together and had a moment of reconciliation.
He later continued to talk about the beef, healing, trauma, and more.
"Trauma is real," he said around the 19:05 mark. "I started feeling like all these things were blocking people around me I love from their blessing. Even of me being vulnerable and open and honest because I've been guarded for so long because I've been burned so many times."
Earlier this month, when Gucci was first asked to do the Verzuz, he declined—and it was later announced that T.I. and Jeezy would go head-to-head for the Season 2 opener. However, this past weekend, Gucci announced that he was going to battle Jeezy instead.
“To be honest with you, from what I hear, he did respectfully decline, which I respect,” Jeezy said around the 4:10 minute mark. “I guess he looked at in a way I looked at it—just like, ‘Yo bro, there ain’t nobody else they want to see us with,’ and if for once at least mentally it can be about the music instead of it just being me and him and our personal feelings like now you got the world watching. So I feel like as a man, I wasn’t going to not do it ‘cause of what happened because that’s what the platform’s for.”
Jeezy also talks about his newly released album The Recession 2during the interview. The project dropped right after his Verzuz battle with Gucci ended.
Check out the full Breakfast Club interview with Jeezy up top.
