How do two friends and rap titans go from co-hosts of The Lupe and Royce Show to trading disses? In the case of Royce Da 5’9” and Lupe Fiasco, you can blame Instagram Live, outside forces egging on the banter, and “healthy competition” that quickly became so toxic that the two were soon rapping about shooting sons and saying things like, “I wish they would’ve left Biz here, and fuckin’ took you.”
Here’s the breakdown of the circumstances leading up to Royce and Lupe’s disses toward each other, from the trolling-filled debates about who is the better rapper, to the moment someone was called the B-word, to their reflections on the perceived disrespect of the others’ disses.
On June 25, Royce posted a screenshot of rapper RJ Payne’s claim that he and Ransom are the two best rappers with a chest-thumping caption where he sought to lyrically spar with them. Royce playfully told them, “I’m about that contact and I grew up with brothers so I don’t mind squaring up with family.”
The post came after Royce posted song clips from his Bar Exam 4 mixtape, including a freestyle over Lupe’s “Mural” classic. In the caption of the post, he reflected that Lupe, King Los, Ab-Soul, and Cyhi were “on my list of people to terminate” at the time he made the song, adding, “Ya’ll were too good and y’all talked too goddamn much.” At this point, it seemed Royce was just trying to stir up some healthy competition amongst his fellow lyricists.
June 25: Royce and Lupe have an IG Live convo
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Later that day, Royce and Lupe engaged in a conversation about Royce’s social media posts. Royce clarified that he didn’t like RJ Payne saying he was the best rapper, and he wanted to see Payne and other lyrical peers in the “lion’s den.”
Lupe told Royce that if he wants to prove himself, he should do it at EODUB, a 20-year-old platform where rappers compete in various competitions against each other. Then he said that he feels Osyris Antham, (who later dissed Royce) is currently the best rapper alive because he won the last EODUB competition.
Royce scoffed at the notion and told Lupe to “hop his highly intelligent ass on the URL stage” to battle him because he was “talkin’ too spicy.” Lupe sidestepped the battle challenge, but later told Royce, “If you want smoke, you can have it.” Lupe also stoked discord by telling him he feels Bronx rapper Mickey Factz “elevated” Royce’s style.
Things got a bit awkward when Lupe started cleaning his gun, mid-conversation. Royce jokingly told Lupe to “stop actin’ like a Chicago nigga,” and the conversation ended on good terms with the two planning to talk more about the debate on their next podcast.
June 25: Royce and Lupe have another IG Live session where tension builds
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The conversation continued later that night. Royce, Lupe, Ransom, RJ Payne, and Mickey Factz held an IG Live discussion that went on for almost two hours. The five wordsmiths discussed craft and had a barbershop-type convo about who was better. The tension between Lupe and Royce became evident over the course of the conversation.
The two engaged in more banter about the merit of the EODUB rap platform, and Lupe questioned Royce’s “Greed” appearance by asking why he needed “40 bars to prove a point.” Royce further discussed the potential of doing a song with all the MCs who thought they were the best, while Lupe kept sniping at everyone on the Live about “throwing out bars” but “not rappin’.”
At the one-hour mark, Lupe jumped into a freestyle that was partly trolling, but he was also intent about communicating that he was ready for the participants to put the pen to pad and not merely talk about rapping. Lupe and Royce’s interaction was friendly enough on the surface, but their barbs seemed like they were meant to cut deeper as the convo went on. Royce hinted that he “rained on Lupe’s parade” after Jay-Z and Nas had championed him as “the best nigga,” and Lupe replied by saying the two rap icons “have yet to do anything in public” about Royce.
But at the end of the convo, Lupe stopped trolling and called Royce an “immaculate MC,” telling him, “I do this because I would love to see you come out and (make music) even more.” Royce said he appreciated the “abrasive advice.” At the time, it seemed like the trash talk was all derived from healthy competition.
July 1: Lupe and Royce reference the tension on their podcast
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The next episode of The Lupe and Royce Show began with their co-host Tom Frank asking them if everything was OK, and both men agreed that their banter was harmless. Frank referenced Lupe previously telling him “this is how wolves play” on the phone, and the vibe seemed light.
When Frank asked them to “share more” about their recent dialogue, Lupe jokingly directed listeners to their Patreon page, noting, “You think we didn’t learn from Jake Paul and Floyd Mayweather? Pay Per View goddamnit.” It once again appeared that the IG Live conversations had seemed more serious in the moment than they actually were.
July 15: Artists discuss a battle between Lupe and Royce, but things go left
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After two weeks of diplomacy, things came to a head during an IG Live session with Lupe, Royce, Mickey Factz, and famed engineer Young Guru. Legendary battle rappers Murda Mook and Loaded Lux were on the Live at the start of the conversation, fanning the flames of a potential battle between Lupe and Royce. Lux claimed that he had talked to Lupe, who told him he was down to have a rap battle with Royce.
Young Guru said he had $10,000 on Lupe, and Lux and Mickey bet the same. Murda Mook said he was betting on Royce. A shirtless Lupe showed up in the middle of the Live (to the participants’ dismay) asking, “Why do niggas keep bringing this up?”
Lupe said that he didn’t want to battle on URL, and expressed that he wasn’t interested in battling Royce, but clarified, “That don’t mean I won’t cook niggas if niggas keep pushin’ buttons.” He also told Royce, “If you want to make a professional fool of yourself by runnin’ into a demon, go ‘head.”
Royce didn’t take kindly to Lupe’s aggression, telling him to “get in the ring then, bitch, if you got a motherfuckin’ problem.” Royce asked him, “Who the fuck you think you talkin to?” Then he told him, “You playin’ too much.” The cloak of friendship that had kept their previous conversations from going left was gone, and both men were pissed. Lupe told Royce to “start practicing,” then left the Live. Royce was heated for the rest of the session, calling out Lupe’s “pseudo tough shit” and warning, “We gon’ see about it in person.” Things had officially gone past rap.
July 15: Lupe immediately spits a 15-minute freestyle with shots at Royce
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Right after hopping off the IG Live with Royce, Mickey, and Guru, Lupe jumped on his own Live session and delved into a 15-minute freestyle to show his skills. Throughout the previous IG Live sessions, he had been egging on his fellow MCs to actually rap instead of talking about rap, and he took matters into his own hand this time, going off the top of the head with the kind of craft that many MCs would hope to write.
The rap wasn’t entirely about Royce, but there were some shots thrown: “I have never, ever backed away from a challenge/ I’ll rap on this shit for the next 24 hours/ This nigga wouldn’t even rip off a bandage, and he comin’ at me? Nigga, is you mad? You know we got the footage from Mistah Fab!” It appeared things were going to get worse before they got any better.
July 22: Royce drops “Lambda,” which includes disses toward Lupe
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A week after things went left, Royce dropped “Lambda,” a 7-minute lyrical exercise that featured several shots at Lupe, including the threat to “put a hole in your son while he’s holding your Sun Chips/ While you’re over there with a chip on your shoulder like you Hova or some shit.” The song is a strong display of the “immaculate” skills Lupe commended—but now, they were aimed at him.
July 22: Lupe drops a scathing reply to Royce
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Not to be outdone, Lupe dropped “SLR 3 ½,” a six-minute track of his own where he got back at Royce, accusing him of being an Eminem lackey and rhyming, “Your bars are immemorable, your verses are impenetrable.” He even spit, “I wish they would’ve left Biz here, and fuckin’ took you.” While Royce had plenty of shots, Lupe’s diss cut much deeper.
July 22: Royce responds to Lupe’s diss
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Royce had an IG Live session with rap media personality 3Letterman where he got candid about Lupe’s diss. He said he “enjoyed the energy, but preferred it be not at our expense.” He also expressed feeling like Lupe went too far, saying the Chicago rapper “can get everything he’s lookin’ for if he wasn’t so angry.”
“I can’t write no whole record disparaging Lupe, I don’t have those kind of feelings for him in my heart,” he added. Royce then asked a golden question: “A lot of people sayin’ it’s healthy competition, but is it healthy for him?”
It appeared things hadn’t gone so far left that Royce didn’t still have some kind of love for his (one-time?) friend.
July 23: Lupe announces their podcast is over
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In a surprise to no one who had heard their previous disses, Lupe took to IG Live to tell his fans that The Lupe and Royce Show was over. He said that he “appreciated” the experience, but his heart wasn’t 100% into it, and it had “become an untenable situation.” The tension had erupted to a point that was too far to come back from, and the two men won’t be continuing the show.
After Royce (and Joe Budden) got at Mickey Factz during an IG Live session, the Bronx rapper released a scathing Royce diss of his own. He followed up after Lupe by questioning Royce’s style and his proximity to Eminem, then dissed Royce in the style of Ransom and RJ Payne, two of the MCs who were evoked at the start of the fracture. FWIW, though, Ransom has tweeted that he and Payne are on Royce’s side in this one.
Mickey’s diss was so potent that Royce made an IG post calling out him and Lupe for ganging up on him, and ominously asked, “Nerd know GOAT got rapper friend too?” After this clip, onlookers were wondering what the next chapter in the rap free-for-all would be.
July 28: Lupe responds to Royce on IG Live
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Lupe took to Instagram for an hour-long Live where he expressed that he and Royce were no longer friends. He explained that he only listened to a “minute or so” of “Lambda,” but was disturbed enough by certain bars Royce “haphazardly threw” that he felt like they crossed a line. He told Royce via the Live, “You should feel disjointed, that’s payment for what you said.” Then he added, “I’m not ridin’ with a nigga talkin’ bout, ‘I’mma shoot your son.’” Later, he expressed disappointment that Royce would go there, referencing his Drogas Wave song “Jonylah Forever,” a tribute to 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins, who was fatally shot in Chicago.
He also said Royce’s “you respect white people more than you love Black people” bar on “Lambda” made him feel like the gloves were off while crafting his response, as they had a previous “30, 40 minute” argument about that notion, which was cut out of an episode of their podcast.
July 28: Royce says he and Lupe could have traded disses ‘the right way’
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Royce took to Instagram and clapped back at the pleas for him to reply to Lupe’s “SLR 3 ½” track, noting how their friendly conversation had turned into a lost friendship and podcast. He said, “I love to rap, but I don’t love drama,” adding, “I don’t like the gray area.” He also said he wanted more MCs to jump into the fray and “pivot this narrative” back into healthy competition between hungry lyricists.
In another IG Live with Ransom and King Los, he told media personality 3Letterman that he and Lupe are “straight up not friends,” and that there was room for him and Lupe to “have done this the right way” where “there wouldn’t have been no feelings if everybody would’ve been intentional with making sure that we’re clear on how everybody feel” about the lyrical sparring. Hopefully they can one day have a conversation and come to some sort of understanding.
