Two of trap music's founding fathers will collide when T.I. and Jeezy go head-to-head in their upcoming Verzuz battle. While Tip might have given the genre its name and Jeezy provided the motivation, there's a third head on this Mount Rushmore in Gucci Mane who gifted trap with its accepted sound. During a conversation with TheBreakfast Club, Jeezy claimed that he was willing to take on Guwop but Gucci ducked the fade.
Around the interview's 12-minute mark, Jeezy explained that he was first approached about participating in Verzuz by the series co-creator, Swizz Beatz.
"Swizz called me and I was like 'Yo, Swizz... If I do it, there's only one person I'd do it with," Jeezy said. "And he was like 'Who?' 'Gucci, reach out to him. Let me know what's up.'"
Unlike T.I. and Jeezy, Gucci Mane doesn't happily co-exist in the tranquil trap landscape. Gucci has sparked rap beefs with both Jeezy and T.I., but his dispute with the former turned into an all-out war.
In 2005, Gucci killed one of Jeezy's associates, Henry "Pookie Loc" Clark III, during an alleged home invasion at Gucci's house. Although Clark's body was found three days after the incident and Gucci didn't call the police at the time of the shooting, the charges were dropped as he claimed to have acted in self-defense. Since then, Gucci has shown no remorse for Clark's death, even posting memes about the killing.
Jeezy has habitually insisted that he didn't provoke Pookie Loc to attempt to rob Gucci. He also seems like he was ready to look past Gucci's transgression to give the fans what they want.
"Swizz hit back and said he respectfully declined," Jeezy continued. "Cool. Done. Kept it moving. I was gonna do it for the culture."
Gucci will probably never confirm that Jeezy reached out to him via Swizz, but the rapper did take to Twitter last month claiming that he's not participating in a Verzuz battle unless Swizz, Timbaland, and the team put a ticket on the table.
"Stop asking me about doing a @verzuzonline battle unless they got a million dollars they scared of Wop," he wrote.
A Gucci/Jeezy Verzuz battle would have been monumental. Yet, The Snowman isn't letting the attention his match-up against Tip is gaining go to waste. He announced on Monday that he would be releasing his new album, The Recession 2, on Nov. 20. This comes after he explained to The Breakfast Club that he took a page out of Jay-Z's book by using a faux retirement as a roll-out for TM104: The Legend Of The Snowman.
Similar to the first Recession, this album is expected to attack political topics in a palatable way. This moved Jeezy to explain that he reached out to Lil Wayne following his meeting with former President Donald Trump.
"I reached out to Tunechi because I wanted to know," Jeezy said. "I just wanted to know like 'Yo, bro like I get it. And even if you going to have those conversations, have the conversation. That don't mean take a picture.' We love you. You been Lil Wayne since the Hot Boys. I grew up on Lil Wayne. ... You can't get to the point where you're oblivious. People will use you. ... I rather you not say nothing."
Jeezy also announced The (Re)Session podcast, a new weekly eight-episode limited podcast series on Charlamagne Tha God and iHeartMedia’s The Black Effect Podcast Network. Episodes will preview songs from the album and you can listen to the first episode with Tony Robbins here.
Watch Jeezy's full appearance on The Breakfast Club above.
