Three 6 Mafia & Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Got Into A Brawl And Then Made Up During Their Verzuz Battle
It finally happened. A Verzuz battle finally descended, however briefly, into an actual fistfight. There have been tense moments at previous Verzuz events, but they have never broken out into full-on throwdowns. Last night in Los Angeles, two legendary crews, Memphis’ Three 6 Mafia and Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony faced off against one another, and things fell apart quickly.
Bone and Three 6 spent years beefing with each other, going back to the mid-’90s moment where Three 6 accused Bone of biting their style. Over time, both groups amassed enormous catalogs, scoring hits of their own and guesting on other people’s chart-toppers. Bone were massively popular in their time, while Three 6 were more of an underground sensation that’s proven vastly influential overtime. The show started out volatile, with caution tape dividing the stage down the middle and with members of both groups jawing at each other. But before the battle even started, Bizzy Bone seemed ready to take things to a different level.
Three 6 and Bone ended their feud a long time ago, but apparently nobody told Bizzy Bone, the most famously troubled livewire onstage last night. Before the battle, Bizzy Bone was all over social media, accusing Three 6 of being Satanists and telling them that they needed to renounce the devil from the stage.
A little less than half an hour into the show, Bizzy Bone went off. After a few songs, Bizzy Bone looked at Three 6 and said, “You ugly motherfuckers ain’t finna be mocking me while I’m on motherfuckin’ stage.” Juicy J responded, “Suck my dick.” Then Bizzy Bone threw something — a towel? — at Juicy J. The music stopped, and members of both groups, along with their friends, rushed each other. On microphone, Gangsta Boo berated Bizzy Bone: “You a hater! You must didn’t take your pills!” The stage immediately filled up, and it took a long time to settle everyone down. The livestream actually cut to commercial so that the two groups could clear all their well-wishers off the stage. It was nuts.
When the stream cut back on, Boo was still yelling at Bizzy, and Bizzy was offstage. Somehow, the show eventually picked back up again, and the hostility between the two groups simmered down. A few songs later, Bizzy Bone returned to the stage, embraced Juicy J, and said: “I want to apologize to everybody the fuck out there, on both sides. I’m not trying to fuck this shit up. Pardon me. Let’s get the party motherfuckin’ going.”
From there, the show became a lovefest. The caution tape between the two groups had been broken during the fight, and all the rappers spent the rest of the night roaming freely, embracing one another and cheering each other on. And it turned out to be arguably the most purely entertaining Verzuz battles yet, with both groups pulling from deep reserves of hits and bringing surprise guests out onstage.
Bone brought out Chamillioniare, Lil Jon, the son of their late mentor Eazy-E, and their “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” collaborator Satasha Williams — an impressive list of performers, but nothing like what Three 6 had on deck. Three 6 went crazy with the guests: Lil Flip, Duke Deuce, Wiz Khalifa, Project Pat and La Chat, and a triumphant “Stay Fly” with 8Ball & MJG and Young Buck. They had a mid-set Lil Wayne appearance, which is the sort of thing that most groups would’ve saved until they end. But Three 6 had an even crazier ace: Terrence Howard, who came out to rap “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp,” the song that won Three 6 their Oscar, with serious passion.
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In the end, the fight didn’t matter too much. By the time the show was over, Bizzy Bone and Gangsta Boo were sharing a long, tender hug onstage, and it was happening in the background, while people were still rapping. Really, the only thing that hurt the show was the inexplicably dead LA crowd. It ended, well after midnight eastern time, with the wonderfully insane pairing of “Slob On My Knob” and “Tha Crossroads.” If you love rap music, the whole thing made for a gripping night of internet TV, and you can relive the whole battle below.
