Jadakiss took some time to reminisce on his years-old beef with 50 Cent.
The rappers started feuding in 2004 over Kiss’ feature on Ja Rule’s song “New York”—Fif wasn't happy that Kiss and Fat Joe were “helping” Ja while 50 was “destroying him.” The exchange between Kiss and Fif became fierce as each went blow for blow, with the latter also releasing his sophomore album The Massacre at the time. In the end, Kiss was eventually crowned the winner.
“I made a lot of money off the 50 thing. It was a different era. ‘Checkmate’ actually charted on Billboards,” Kiss told Real 92.3, referencing the diss track he released following 50's The Massacre around the 37:00 mark. “I was going on tour off that… The whole 50 thing was good for me. I appreciated that more than the [Beanie] Sigel [beef]. The Fif thing was beautiful. He was selling that next album… [‘New York’] was a good segue to try to say I was standing close to his enemy.” Kiss added, “We came in the game with Ja.”
He was then asked if he thought or cared how 50 would feel while making the song: “I liked the song—it was a good song. It was representing New York. I didn’t have to answer to nobody,” Kiss said. “I didn’t think that song made it look like I was partnering up with Ja for his beef.”
The Lox rapper also touched on his beef and epic rap battle with Beanie Sigel in 2001. “That was emotionally the worst one for me because… I really didn’t see that coming. But at the end, they kinda made him do it. That made me feel better than that just happening out of nowhere,” Kiss said.
The two rappers were invited to perform at a concert in Philadelphia, and tensions were already high after both had exchanged disses on their respective mixtapes. During his performance, Kiss spit an acapella verse that called out Sigel in his hometown. Sigel responded in kind.
Kiss also let a few other pieces of news slip, including the existence of a The Lox documentary, which they’ve “been shooting for a few years,” and that Pusha-T is featured on the song “Hunting Season” from Kiss’ forthcoming album Ignatius. He also said he’d consider a collab project with Push.
“Things like that is therapeutic for hip-hop,” Kiss said, citing his collaborative mixtape with Fabolous, Freddy vs. Jason (also known as Friday on Elm Street) as being “therapeutic” as well. It also seems there’s a “good chance” we’ll see the second chapter of the tape after the release of Ignatius and Fab’s next project, Summertime Shootout 3.
In advance of Ignatius, Kiss dropped the video for “Me,” a track that appeared in his newly released short film by the same name. The visual tells the story of a diamond heist that takes a sharp turn. Jadakiss stars in the nine-minute film alongside Peter Greene and Hassan Johnson.
