The Keyshia Cole/AshantiVerzuz was delayed several times leading up to the event last week. Although fans were patient, Cole decided to make them wait a little longer as she didn't take her seat until an hour after the battle was scheduled to start. Her delay created a social media firestorm, moving Keyshia to apologize to her fans.
"I want to apologize for not sitting my ass in that seat, because I was there and I should’ve sat down," she said during an Instagram Live session. "I should’ve just sat in the seat, no matter if I felt like the visual wasn’t clear or they said my music wasn’t gonna be right or whatever it was."
Early into the pandemic, Verzuz battles were done through Instagram Live leading to a lot of technical difficulties (namely, the Babyface and Teddy Riley match-up). Although the platform transitioned into putting the artists in the same, COVID safe venue, Verzuz was forced to return to its original format due to reinstated coronavirus regulation. It was this change that led to Keyshia Cole's late appearance.
Keyshia explained to her fans that she didn't want to take her seat because O.T. Genasis—who was there to help start the event—told her that the picture wasn't clear on her end of the stream. She wanted things to be perfect for the battle to keep it from becoming another match-up plagued by technical issues.
"I was really skeptical about that," Cole continued. "I don’t want to go on and they not see me and I’m looking blurry, the connection is not right and everything like that."
Along with warning her about the potential streaming issues, O.T. Genasis was able to end the tension between himself and Cole. The issues started when O.T. turned Cole's hit song "Love" into a Crip-centric ballad, "Never Knew."
After the song went viral, Cole made it clear that she wasn't feeling the parody which led to an exchange of social media words. Cole explained to The Shade Room that O.T. finally decided to take it offline and he apologized several times for his actions.
"OT apologized to me more than once," she said. “A lot of things were said about his character and things just went way too far but we can’t focus on negative bullcrap."
