At some point in the mid-early ’90s, at a small, smoke-filled pool hall in the Bronx, a Brooklyn-based emcee named Jay-Z battled an up-and-comer from Yonkers known as DMX. X, who cabbed in to town from Baltimore just for the event, stated in his 2003 autobiography that he had no original intentions of getting involved that night. He was there as a witness, who’d only enter the fray if absolutely necessary. And, soon enough, it was. “The people knew that were the top dogs of our crews,” he wrote, “and they wanted us to go at it and after a few more rounds, I just couldn’t stand to the side anymore. It was time to hold down the fam.”
To this day, details of the battle between Jay (who was an affiliate repping Original Flavor at the time) and DMX (who stood alongside an Uptown-based group called the Harlem Knights) remain murky. So HipHopDX caught up with three people who were in attendance—Original Flavor member Ski (n/k/a Ski Beatz), Jay-Z/Original Flavor associate Sauce Money, and Ruff Ryders co-founder Waah Dean—to learn more about what went down that night. Each of the three admitted that many of the specifics have faded from memory, but that they’d recall what they could.
Waah Dean: We did [the battle] on neutral grounds. Instead of doing it in Brooklyn or Yonkers, we did it in the Bronx.
Ski Beatz: When I rolled up, I was with Dame Dash, Tone Hooker, Jay-Z, and I think some of Dame’s people from Harlem—his crew called The Best Out. That was the name of his crew, from Harlem. I think Dame set [the battle] up. It was like a Brooklyn-Uptown/Harlem kind of thing. So we all met at the pool hall, in the Bronx.
Waah Dean: We heard some things about Jay-Z from Brooklyn, and from Dame, and we’d bump heads with their people every now and again. The word was out that we had these guys that was doing similar things—traveling to different areas and [battling]—so we knew in a matter of time we was gonna be in a place where somebody was gonna make the phone call, and say, ‘Yeah, we got this guy standing here, and they all wanna be here…’ and that happened. So we knew what was up. We didn’t really look for anybody, we just dealt with the situation as it was there. We knew [DMX] was one of the best, one of the greatest, so we wasn’t worried about no artist coming after him.
Sauce Money: Everybody who battled, I think it was myself, there might’ve been a girl—we had a girl, her name was Roughness—and T-Strong, and Jay. We had to get on top of the pool tables, so whoever’s battling, they’re standing on the pool table, going at it.
Waah Dean: There was no room in the building to stand at, so the only way to do it was to stand on the pool tables so everybody could see.
Sauce Money: The pool table was like a boxing ring. We were standing on opposite sides of the pool table going back-and-forth. While we were rapping, niggas were pulling out guns—all kinds of crazy shit.
Ski Beatz: People came in there strapped; people from the Bronx had guns, and people from Harlem had guns. Luckily it didn’t go down like that, but the atmosphere was Hip Hop, [and] at the same time, it was gangsta.
Sauce Money: I battled some nigga real quick, I don’t remember his name though.
Ski Beatz: I battled, man. They had me battling some kid. Some little boy. I wasn’t a gangsta rapper; I was just a rapper. This little kid was just talking about his trials and tribulations from the streets, so it was a weird battle. I can’t remember if I won or lost, [but] it was just a weird battle. I’m rhyming about Hip Hop stuff like microphones, and mic devices, and shit like that, and this kid is talking about crack and guns. And I’m like, “Yo, you’re like 10. What are you talking about?” They had us battling kids. That’s crazy! Young kids from the hood that were hungry. I’m pretty sure one of those kids that was battling is probably someone in the game now.
Waah Dean: [The opening battles] set the tone for the big dons to come in and do the job. It was a good look. A couple of guns were flashed, and things got a little extra with that, but it went well. It was a very intense environment. Jay and X went for hours, going in. DMX came all the way from Maryland for that battle.
Ski Beatz: It was dope. DMX, at the time, I had never really heard of DMX. I didn’t know who this kid was. But to hear him rhyme live, I was like, “This dude is really ill.” He was really good. But the battle was good. Jay did his thing; DMX did his thing. You could tell people from DMX’s side were feelin’ Jay, and you could tell people from Jay’s side were feelin’ DMX. It was a mutual, “Okay, both these guys are dope.”
Waah Dean: Jay-Z spoke a little bit more, X flowed more. Jay-Z more talked in his rhymes. Both came out on top at the end. They learned from each other a lot of different styles. When they left, it was a mutual respect. That battle lasted for about four or five hours.
Sauce Money: I think it went three rounds. Yeah, they did three rounds.
Ski Beatz: It was both of their styles at their purest forms. DMX was definitely on that barking, that whole thing. That was his whole persona. His voice was just raw. Jay was the big willie, hustler poster child king. Everything he was saying was just vivid, street shit that was incredibly well thought out and well put together. You know how Jay-Z is with his word choices. You know he’s street, but at the same time you could feel that he’s super intelligent, which just made it crazy. Both their styles was just coming crazy in that battle.
Waah Dean: It was so close that we kept it mutual. They would’ve gone on an extra five hours if we had let it be.
Sauce Money: It was more about what style of fighter you liked, was what would [decide] the outcome. We were kind of in X’s backyard. They said it was a tie, but that was bullshit. Jay ate that nigga. You can tell when somebody won a battle, when you’re in somebody’s backyard, and they’re calling it a draw. When you’re in somebody’s backyard, even when that person lose, they’re saying he won. Jay got so busy on that shit, they tried to say it was a draw. But it wasn’t no fuckin’ draw.
Ski Beatz: [One side is] gonna say DMX won, then [the other is] gonna say Jay-Z won. In my opinion, to me, Jay-Z just had a little more finesse because of his style. But DMX was incredibly dope. He could not take that away from DMX. [DMX] was a fuckin’ star.
Waah Dean: Dame had a little footage, but at that time we didn’t have anything copywritten and all that stuff, so we didn’t want our stuff out there like that.
Sauce Money: It was pandemonium. It was crazy, just crazy. It was almost like going to Vegas and watching the Mayweather-Paquiao fight.
Waah Dean: The best battle in the world took place between X and Jay-Z in the birthplace of Hip Hop, the Bronx. Cats that came from two different boroughs, came to the Motherland, and did their thing. You know?
dmx=average raping skill=61
Jay z=above average depends on the song mc skill=75
And thats without even reading the article ive heard both these guys albums and that battle
I didn’t know raping skill could be assessed.
a fucking analyst. what are u 12yrs old? I bet you’re the type who thinks you know a lot about everything.
haha clinical assessment.
Hey you cyber bullies, leave my kid alone. He’s only a child, he doesn’t know what he’s doing
the fact this kid said X had average rapping abilities or at least tried to say it, shows how little he knows about 90s hip hop and DMX. DMX is a legend and there’s a reason why he is revered the way he is. He’s one of the few rappers who even past his best can draw attention because just the name brings people back to when he was the #1 artist in the game. A great time.
lol…raping skill…hahaha
man i wish i wuz there im still a big dmx fan…. jayz is gonna go down as one of the greatest also….sum footage wouldve been great…x needs 2 com bac wid dat heat roc…not dat crack roc…
dope. that part is true though about jay-z being more of a talker with ill metaphors. DMX has the flow and voice.
Man Dame … release the footage, stop playin. How you gonna let a crucial piece of Hip Hop history like this be unseen by the people. You can get copyrights now.. release the tape. I know you still got it.
Dame doesnt have the full tape. he only has Jays part. so u still wont b able to tell who won
CRIPPLED SCIENCE MUSIC 2012
http://soundcloud.com/crippledscience/we-are-aliens
I love both guys but it’s pretty obvious that DMX won. X is a much harder freestyle rapper while Jay (Although a great rapper over his own beats) isn’t a great freestyle rapper. Anybody ever heard that A Millie freestyle by Jay? What a multi-topic mess. X has done live freestyles all over the country and the guy thinks up all of this stuff as soon as it comes to his head. I’m thinking X won.
“a multi-topic mess”? What do you think ‘freestyle’ means? It means you can talk about anything. The whole point of a freestyle is that you don’t have to stick to any one topic.
And you base this off of…?
Both guys are legends, but you weren’t there, so sit down and shut up.
i think jay’s a millie freestyle was awesome… and he always sounds great when he does remixs on other artists songs…..diamonds of sierra leone…
“i ain’t a business man, i’m a business maaaaan” lol i love that line…
yeah DMX won!
Jay-Z was probably sick back then. Back in the day when your hungry and your really trying. Jay-z in my opinion had a more thematic and complex rhyme pattern earlier on. Now of course he has mainstream demands to reach out to. You can’t say who won the battle really. All the guys in the interview are affiliates of Jay-Z anyway.
my bad except for the ruff ryder dude but he didn’t say one was greater than the other.
DMX is my number one emcee no +Reasonable+ doubt about it I was into his material before It’s Dark & Hell is Hot… My point is.
@Anonymous Bastard I have DMX book he don’t do freestyles because he said when he first started he forgot some crazy clever shit check the Round Table cypher with Pun, Mos & Canibus etc also rap basement but like fuck am I knocking D I could & never would do that.
We all know Jay writes his shit I caught an interview where he couldn’t remember where he was the night Biggie got killed or the recording session of Public Service Announcement but he can remember 48 bars get the fuck outta here.
It’s not just about delivery & flow it’s about what’s said when it comes to a battle I’m thinking X won because of the raw shit he comes out with Jigga was all slick way back.
Big L was recording this battle, but they told him to stop recording for copyright infringement.
Damn, is it me or do Souja boy look like Jay-Z,wit this old photo of Jay.
it is you
Too bad there is’nt no footage, that shit would be legendary!
I’ve seen footage of them in ciphers, but i guess that was not competing
i miss those days when two rappers of this kind of weight battle against each other, it was like batman and superman going against each other !!
now what do we have ?? rick ross, wale, drake, soulja boy, kanye west, eminem, lil wayne, wiz khalifa, joe budden, j cole etc. so many wack rappers !!
im glad im from that era when hip-hop meant something and being able to watch all these rappers such as kool g rap, big daddy kane, busta rhymes, the wu, nas, mobb deep, onyx, das efx, the lost boyz etc evolving in their career and making music which was marked in your mind for ever !
i really miss this shit ..
not really considerin this happened when neither had dropped albums so neither where heavyweights us 2 up n comers
ok i agreed with ur 1st paragraph an part of ur 2nd. But wale drake J.COLE and EM are trash is insane. u must b crazy, especially considering Cole is co-signed by Jay and Em killed Jay on Renegade. otherwise i agree with u. Sidenote (DMX is one of thee BEST OF ALL TIME) top 5 unquestionably
Do you understand lyrics? I don’t think so. Otherwise you wouldn’t put Joe Budden in the category of whack rappers. The Mood Music series and Escape Route shit on most rapper’s albums. He got the incredible depth and dope wordplay.
You living in the past son.
“It aint 94′ Joe, we can’t go back.” – Common
Appreciate the artists out there today that do make an effort.
Hip-Hop aint dead, it’s just buried over some bullshit.
Get out that “My era” shit and support today’s talent.
@dontgive a fuck, i feel what you saying man :?*&& and im only 24
POINTLESS.
Dont get this article confused with your life.
you sound like a homo thug
i miss that nigga dmx
Niggas can never get excited without pulling guns out. “Yo man, Looney Toons is coming on! BUCK! BUCK! BUCK!”
you say that shit like it was on some college campus and it wasnt street niggas involved! lol you do realize hiphop came from THE STREETS…right?
DMX won all day! jay was nice… but X started out on fire! hell even his first lP’s went platinum off top. the first person to do so im one year! J had to do reasonable doubt twice!
1rst where you there? if not you cant speak on who won. I can understand what homie was saying cause when you had freestyle battle back in the day home fans would try to give the local or favorite artist a boost. But I wasnt there either all I can do is listen to those who where there who both can agree that it was an epic battle. And Jay didn’t do reasonable doubt twice they remastered it years after it was released, similar to what diddy did with ready to die and Deathrow did with All eyez on me and the 7 day theory.
obviously i wasnt there, so going of both of their works
J is not that great. he is a better business man, like diddy. thats why he is on top still. as far as rap, and between him and Dmx, its easy to say D won!
taon, all that home crowd shits just sauce on Jays dick coz they chose a neutral location so their was no home crowd shit thats why a neutral spot was agreed on by both sides
and if anything Jay had crowd advantage coz Dame had all his harlem peoples there aswell as Jays brooklyn crew n X jus had Ruff Riders
@Mr 1-10, Thats like saying Magic Johnson wasn’t all that great he is just rich because he is a great business man. He IS rich because he is a great business man but he also was one of the greatest basketball players ever. The same goes for Jay. DMX is one of my favorite artist but Jay was a far better lyricist. There are not that many rappers who can say they have three albums in their catalog which are better than Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint and The Dynasty. That being said i could see this battle going either way. even tho Jay is more lyrical a battle is as much about showmanship as its about lyrics and DMX was filled with showmanship. I wish they actually had footage it seemed like one of those special moments in Hip hop.
while X is remembered as a lyricist…his first two album are very deep lyrical albums…if u dont agree then u unfortunatly only remember the past his prime X.
lmfao now you’re on dmx’s nuts, at least sauce money was at the damn battle, even ski beatz said jay-z won so get off his nuts, you probably weren’t even born when the battle happened
Jay’s lyrics are on a whole other level.
@jack johnson kil urself. X was one of the most lyrical cats out there. most ppl only kno his radio bangers but dat nigga had so much deep lyrical shyt its crazy. the man could tell a story with ease. alota these kids on here shouldn’t even be speaking about hip-hop since they have such a lack of knowledge on the subject. i saw da footage. dey both killed it from the little bit that was leaked. im more biased toward X but i can see them both throwin down sum ill ass rhymes. (p.s. ima jay fan too so i dnt wana hear no bullshit)
lol, mr big willie had on a champion jersey! really !!
ummmm yeah…champion was in…you say that like it was dorky in the 90’s! lol where u from bro better yet how old are YOU? geez…
Sauce Money is on Jay’s nuts…everybody from back then said it was a draw..Jay doesn’t care about you anymore nigga….
Is it a crime for Sauce money to have his own opinion? He was there, if he felt Jay won thats his opinion, if someone there would have said they felt DMX won, I would be cool with that cause that would be their opinion. Damn when niggas cant appreciate shit unbiasedly they start “hating” If you dont like Jay then thats cool but niggas need to stop all that hating.
Honestly, they left a lot out in that interview. Gucci was there also and he ate both of them.
AHAHAH eat a dick
No. Just no.
So it’s true when people say that Americans have no sense of humor.
Whoop, there’s the token douche bag foreigner ragging on Americans. I was hoping someone would fill that slot on here somewhere.
Ahajdahf Bah DA DAH DAH mana DMX shitttttt ADJAJ BWOIII!
well these guys are over-hyping this a bit. I am sure I saw better battles. 4 to 5 hours of these two going at it? I’m sure it was repetitive..70 minutes of a jay-z or dmx gets to be too much of the same shit on their albums. I guess these dudes had to be brain dead to listen to these guys rap or 4 hours straight.
You’re a complete fucking idiot. Congratulations.
interesting read
WHAT THEY FORGOT TO MENTION IN THIS READ WAS THAT IN OTHER ARTICLES RUMOR HAS IT THAT BIG L WAS THE ONE TAPING…AND IF YOU WATCH THE LIL SCENE THAT DID GET LEAKED OUT OF THE BATTLE YOU CAN HEAR BIG L’S VOICE…L WOULDV’E DESTROYED BOTH OF THEM…
for someone who knows Big L so much, you would know that he himself said DMX was the greatest battle rapper he ever saw….so even L wasnt as sure he was gonna eat X up as u say.
Big L….
…recored the battle.
word….25 years later who’s (still) winning?
the one who sold his soul for everlasting fame on this material world
illuminati want my soul and my body
secret society trying to keep an eye on me
JAYZ
thats a Prodigy line you moron, not Jay Z!
ya dude..its def prodigy…jay samples it on d’evils
U STUPID FUCKS HE SAMPLED IT BUT USED IT ON THE SONG D’EVILS AT SAME TIME HE WAS STARTING TO MAKE A NAME FOR HIMSELF.,,,MEANING SAME SHIT THEY WANTED WITH PRODIGY THEY WANTED WITH HIM AND HE SOLD OUT
well not quite 25, but you get my point.
i go for DMX, X All Day!!!
TRUST ME! HOT 42 year old Blonde gave me my first taste! I remember that shit! Every Damn week, she gave me somme sweet pussy! Dirty Rap music, made shit GOOD! Deep Down, sweet pussy, made Cunty Roots, so HARD! banging her at a damn park one time! Walkin in public, I remeber, people stare. with wonder! A young 27 year old Black man, walking down the street with a damn 42 year Blonde girl. age differce, got us both turn on!
Deep Wonder, Behind Closed Doors, KNEWING white girls, spending them Legs, for some Good Angry County Root! Tonight I knockin her taste sweet Blonde, DANM GOOD! Throbbor, like Mean Black Man!
Niggaz lov somma her shit!
Like Malcolm X, Niggas brewing, knocking HATE, so GOOD, banging shit, sweet Deep Down, Niggaz kncock that shit so GOOD! Lay Sweet shit DEEP! GOOD pussy got VIOLALTED!
Big Old Skoolz Root, made them white girls, feei GOOD!
Hade me skeeting, like non-stop, like STALLION!
sounds like a little you’re a white boy with a fetish for black men
haha what a fkn weirdo
We all know Jay is the better rapper. And I like X. But also; I can’t imagine DMX not winning the crowd. You’ve seen them battling on youtube? Jay’s eaten. This story is biased: check how much each side says (and respect how fair Dean is compared to Sauce).
anybody got coke in here…
THAT U OFFICER RICKY?
LOL
I was there that night. Everyone’s like Jay won / DMX won. But it was that kid who was 10 and rapped about crack and guns that really stole the show.
u talkin bout waka flocka
i was there too and ya dude it was def woka floka…he verbally smoked hov and dmx.. shit was crazy…he was going on about doin it with no hands… you wont believe this but he battled without using his hands..kept them in his pocket…it was nuuuuts
All them n*ggas corny. N*ggas pulling out guns at a rap battle? I ain’t. Never seen a rap battle in person either in the streets, school cipher, barber shop, or hip-hop event were you had guns. Rappers are straight up entertainers man. Maybe that’s why these n*ggas on a whole different level then. I dont know?
STREET HIP HOP!
get out of the sub-urbs.
That was great article, worth my 10 minutes.
that took you ten minutes to read?
hahaha…thats funny… i re-read a few parts so it took me about 10 minutes as well
i heard that jay z lost that battle, i don’t know how true that is but nevertheless, that is one battle worth talking about, unlike these other silly twitter beefs
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I hear so much about that battle to this day i wanna see some footage. DMX said he won, but people in his crew said Jay won. The way Jay was runninh through kats I BELIEVE HE WON. BUSTA RHYMES, GZA, LL COOL J, I even hear that he beat Mase in a battle. Hov earn his medals to be KING OF RAP.
Jay never beat GZA. They were going to battle, but jay back downed. GZA said words were thrown around, no battling.
He got LL too.
ETHERW
You forgot Nas. The little guy from QB who destroyed him.
none of them could even come close to eminem. lyrically he cant be beat. thats why no big name rappers will go at him. they dont want to get their career ended. PLUS NAS did SMOKE jay….. hands down…
@who?
Royce 5’9 raped D12 on diss tracks and shitted all over Em’s name while he was at it…Em wanted no parts of that, even while his crew got ate publicly by another head from Detroit…in the end, they squashed it and now Em just signed Royce’s group to Shady! I’ll be honest, Em does have the ability to beat Royce in a battle/diss tracks and vice-versa but i honestly think Em is kind of scared/intimidated by Royce on some personal shit…he is the one rapper who’s ass Em has consistently kissed…Royce is also just about the only rapper I’ve heard go bar for bar with Em and have folks unsure who’s verse was tighter…i swear, Royce is like Eminem’s kryptonite, but every rapper has at least one ….
just had to say…
oh yeah and c’mon now….Jay is waaay more lyrical than X, especially back in the day…I’m sure DMX must have been something to see, but no way is he gonna take Jay bar for bar, that’s not even his style really…but X’s first album is still incredible, mostly downhill from there after that imho but cant touch that 1st joint lol…
hell yeah, busta rhymes even admitted jay murdered him in a battle when they were in high school, he said jay is the fastest nigga he ever heard spit (and that was back in 1987), and since then busta has been working on his speed-rappin craft, thats why he raps fast now …for example, the song “Look at me now”
Man i ran into DMX out here in Phoenix. And as a real hip hop head, i asked him about this battle. DMX straight said that he took Jigga that night. DMX was on another level grimey lyrically. But you never really know, it’s one of them things that you had to be there. He also said Fredro Star is a straight Bitch!! hahaha..
…oh ok
yeah i too ran into dmx in AZ and i asked him the same shit and he was like yeah “this how it went down u know we was battling and…u got some crack?? come on man give me some crack, i suck yo dick!!”
so i gave em some crack
lmao @crack ED
sadly though, ur story is more believable than reppingaz’s…
i aint gon claim i was at the battle but lets be real in a rap battle situation the dog is gon easy take jigga apart jay has sum nice rhymes and that but dmx would rip his ass up in a 8mile type of battle no doubt also who gives a fuck if x likes to suck on the pipe i mean guy made so many classic tracks if you compare jays 3 best albums and dmx 3 best albums i gotta give it to jay
its dark and hell its hot – resonable doubt dmx win
blueprint and the great depression – jay win
the black album and any dmx album – gotta give it to jay both legends but as much of a dmx fan i am jay got the better catalouge
shut the fuck up. i ran into fuckin lil wayne and smoked a pound with him, drank some syrup and fucked 8 bitches he picked up. shut up nigga
i smashed queen latifa and roxanne shante masturbated in the corner of the room lol
YO I RAN INTO BIRDMAN ONCE IN NO BACK IN THE DAY WHEN CASH MONEY WAS BANGING SO HE LIKE YO PLAYA U GONN ROLL WITH US THE STUNNA WE GONNA GO FUCK THIS YOUNG BITCH SO I WAS LIKE FUCK IT THREESOME ME AND STUNNA FUCK SOME HOE THEN WE ROLL UP IN THERE THERE’S LIL WAYNE NAKED LIKE BABY COME FUCK ME DZAMMMMMMMN ,,NIKKA I JUMPED OUT THE WINDOW
I need more articles like this. Straight hip hop shit. It made my day.
+1
amen. this is the shit we need. not how much money birdman is spending on bets and shit. this is true hip hop.
Agreed. This is the first article on this site that I have read all the way through in a while. Maybe they should arrange a rematch?
Big L wins over all.
very true
fuck big L overrated rick ross ould have beat anyone that night. GO buy his cdz ricky ross the boss !!
Your kidding? I will not say that Officer Rick Ross is talentless, but compared to both of these guys in their prime, he’s a nobody. He’s only got a good voice and reasonable lyrical skill, as a rapper DMX would be a 7/10, because he had immense talent at first but started to fall off. Jay-Z would be a 8/10, “Reasonable Doubt” was a incredible classic…but Jay is a lazy so-and-so, and too many half-arsed albums have been released. Rick Ross would be a 5.5/10, because he’s only mediocre, and only proficient in a few categories of rapping. Is Big L overrated? Yes…but there is no doubt in my mind that if he would have stayed alive he would have become one of the greats of the boom bap era…And he really never got good production, he’s the lost wonder kid. 🙂
I feel the same way about big L’s production,though i did like that shit big l did with kane and preemo
WTF You guys went from talking about big l to some bullshit stories LMAO @ cracked…like everyone else has said, jay z can rap but i always feel like there’s more he could do lyrically i don’t know if thats because he writes in his head but it really does effect his albums.Also DMX seems like his been in a few more battle’s so I think thats why he’s lyrically sharper.
$WonDough$ style is crown royal
JAY-WINNING..DMX-BOTH NIGZ WON..they both got deals and money and dropped classics..what the fuc BIG L GOT TO DO WITH THIS STORY..FUCOUTTAHERE..as for dude that said the “he aint neva seen guns at a show..u prolly wasnt goin to shows in the early 90’s either..GANGSTA SHIT WAS AN ALL-TIME HIGH..everything is not skinny jeans and peace and love
YO IN DMXS AUTOBIOGRAPHY IT SAYS THAT DAME DASH TOLD DMXS CREW THAT HE TOOK JAY Z NIGGGGGGAS. DMX DONE FUCKED JAYZ , JAYZ IS SOFT NOTHING HARD ABOUT THAT NIGGA, YALL NEED TO STFU WHEN YOUR TALKING TO ME.
fuck u, jay-z was clearly the winner, in the battle, and in life sucess, a superior rapper
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Gucci Man will murder Jay z and DMX in a battle.
Don’t even joke about that….Okay I don’t like dmx’s stlye don t get me wrong its dope, I just dont wanna hear an whole album of screaming.DMX and both Jay z are fuckin untouchable compared to fuckin gucci mane,honestly tell me an hot-line that gucci mane has said.Actually forget that if you can joke about being gucci’s fan then you clearly don’t know what an hotline is.
Get the fuck outta here with that Bullshit!! (Gucci)You can’t even understand what the fuck he saying dog!!
lol I swear some of you are beyond pathetic! Niggas demaning video footage from a 20+ yr old battle as if its some smack dvd shit or 2nd guessing an ALREADY historic battle that produced 2 HISTORIC EMCESS as if its overhyped in some way!! How arrogant of yall!! Everything doesnt have footage get real! You cant really add on or say anything positive so you add your brain mush and just comment becuase you know your allowed too!! fuckin sad man. Then you wonder why nobody respects this generation musically or takes anything this generation has to offer serious…jus scroll back and read these stupid fuckin comments…have u guys forgotten that this was the 90s? I mean serisously! you guys are so fuckin spoiled you cant even think logically…Me personally I dont even think this internet generation DESERVES such stories with genuine hip hop history…cause this is how yall act with everything…lawless spoiled and disrespectful…half yall dont even view hip hop as a culture let alone respect it so why do u even care? oh yeah its jay-z…and lord knows half of you act like you cant fucntion if your not rockin with the #1 guy or the richest man in hip hop…anything less is just *shivers*…how shallow…and thats why nobodys selling…with that same stupid internet microwave mentality…thats why yall still drooling over OUR 20+ year old stories from OUR era…losers…
fyi: u cant change history getting online debating facts and acting like a chicken shit hater mad cause your out the loop…
Nice R Truth. This generation may not deserve any exposure to genuine hip hop history, but the rappers themselves are to blame as much as the listeners. Most of the rappers dont respect hip hop enough or appreciate the concept of paying homage to those who came before to make something that wont sell. But what do you expect with money involved? I always respected J because of his ability to sell and not compromise the quality of his music, well at least not compromise as much as others [J compromises plenty though]. But J perpetuated the hustler mentality better than any other artist, and he does to this day. Many rappers have tried to imitate him [jeezy/ye/wayne/ross] and few can do a serviceable job, but it doesnt change the fact that the content is always going to involve cash, drugs, and women [mostly degrading lol] whether you hear it from J or gucci mane. Fact is J chose money at the end of the day… he didnt have to with his talent but he did… and plenty people without his talent followed in his footsteps. How many artists can you think of that will make music that doesn’t pertain to cash/drugs/women with no expectation of sales, but still sell well anyway? Less than a handful nowadays… nas is pretty much the outlier at all times just because that dude cap rap about absolutely anything and sell decent because of pure talent[not like J or em of course but the GOAT when you really think about it]… I wish it was 1994 like everybody else but even these stories wont bring it back…. but I bet J got torn by X… he isnt a good evaluator of his performance in battles [takeover 100 times better than ether J?] LOL
ONE
The HardKnock Life Tour dvd has some footage from this battle. But R truth is right, this battle was from the very early 90’s, when it was big VHS taping recorders. That footage is probablly long gone.
I miss that 90’s shit.
DIDN’T SEE THIS BATTLE BUT I SAW THE BACKSTAGE MOVIE…IN THE CYPHER WIT JAY AND X…AND IT’S PRETTY CLEAR THAT X GOT OUT ON JAY…WHEN IT COMES TO SUCCESS JAY RULE THE GREENBACK…BUT WHEN IT COME TO RAW LEVELS OF EMCEE DMX IS JAM NEAR UNTOUCHABLE…I DO LIKE J.COLE, EMINEM, MGK, BUT RAW EMCEE SKILLS COMES FEW AND FAR IN BETWEEN…
x is broke so fuck him
i swear to god its the same 10 fucking kids who come on here and argue with each other, making sure they post something thats going to get a response, or cause some, “who gives a flying fuck”, hysteria. LOL thats lame dudes. FUCK JAY-Z we all know he was a biter untill he fell off, and FUCK X for not always being there for me when i needed that raw shit.
i saw a clip and it sounded like X was doin him up, but i guess Jay really did take it
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Jay Z been wack since Blueprint 2. X dont want it with Wiz Khalifa. TAYLORGANG 4 LIFE.
lol aight you can kill yourself now
ya fuckin kill urself Shock Value I would kill u myself but I don’t know where u are but I would make u eat every word…that shyt pissed me off!!!
WIZ KHALIFA IS WHACK! GO ONE YOURSELF!
Ski Beatz: People came in there strapped; people from the Bronx had guns, and people from Harlem had guns. Luckily it didn’t go down like that, but the atmosphere was Hip Hop, [and] at the same time, it was gangsta.
The fact that people were strapped lends nothing to the story…if you don’t want people always making the association of guns and violence to hip-hip then leave this shit out…
you could say “the place was packed and it was live but nothing went down, everyone just enjoyed watching what would become history”…nope, instead you choose to mention that people had guns a couple of times in the story (again, it lent nothing to the story)so you can’t get mad when people just assume when something hip-hop is happening there are going to be guns…you’ve helped create it…
So, you want people to leave out facts to promote false reality? What good does that do? Nobody is creating anything but you, they are just reporting truth. For people to not associate hip hop with guns, those guns must largely not be strapped to people and toted around. You don’t see any other genre of music fans doing this in small numbers. I never even think about guns at a R&R show. Sorry for the actual state of hip hop in this regard. Sugar coating the truth doesn’t correct the path and neither does killing the messenger.
true to jon there. sugar coating it definitely isn’t gonna do shit to help any kind of situation. we’re on a fuckin hip hop site, and we’ve chosen to click on a link about two of the illest kids in the game, you think we haven’t heard that shit before? 99.9% of the people who go on this website, let alone click on this article have heard about guns in hip hop before, a small comment is not gonna do shit.
jay used biggie lines
nas already said that 9years ago
i wish i was there… sound dope. young Jay vs young X??? tha tale of tha tape just sound crazy…now thats hip hop…who really wants to here a nigga in tight jeans battle a nigga who make club/love songs? thats all we gone get outta these rappers now a days….Jase Cook bring it back!!!
I’ll tell you what the main problem is…these young-ass little kids coming on here trying to say that Gucci Mane or Wiz Khalifa are better than Jay or X…GTFOHWTBS!!!!!! Ya’ll youngn’s don’t have A CLUE what real hip-hop is and need to get ya’ll asses back in school!! “Fuck X ’cause he broke” NIGGA HOW YOU SOUND??? YOU BROKE TOO, AT LEAST HE PUT OUT RECORDS!!!
agreed. there should be a school for hip-hop history! i doubt it will be added to the horrible school system. a separate academy would be needed. and Im not being sarcastic, this is a part of music history that is very interesting.
yo jus finished that E.A.R.L book, DMX’s biography highly recommended ill shiit,more compelling than decoded,still loved decoded dough,d got his homie to take him up there from b-more J’s man dame told dmx he took it D went bk 2 b-more after da show nuff said.read da book n!ggaz author Smokey D. Fontaine.
I will like to know more about the battle between Jay-Z and the GZA from Wu-Tang.
DMX would win dat truss compare all da tracks dey eva made dissing some one DMX is straight raw
why all these fags want to compare these new rappers to the ol school…wiz was still in diapers when this battle was taking place…show some dam respect
Why peeps gotta come in here talking about Wiz?? wiz is wack trash amd you gonna even put that crackheads name in this post??
*that
*they
*the
*ever
*you
You are one dumb bunch of fuggin faygs. As if two dildos yelling poetry at each other 18 years ago means anything to anybody. This is bull ish that is dead and gone. as are jay-z and dmx. as are wiz and weez. as is rap. DEAD. let another ten years go by and you will see: LYRICS WILL BE NON EXISTENT.
Not only was I there but I played a major part in the battle.
First, it didn’t come down to X and Jay. They say this after both them
became famous cause It makes a better story. Even though they both got off. This shit was about the Harlem Knights. Nobody ever mentioned the whole story cause for some reason Ruff Ryder’s and Rocafella didn’t want the Harlem Knights to get no shine being that we weren’t signed to neither camp. But the truth is myself (MC Wen) and God Origg (the one who pulled the gun out)were the stars of that show. Not to take nothing away from Jay ,DMX or anybody else who spit that night, but the truth is the truth. We could talk about this shit all day, but it’s funny how neither Waah, Ski or Sauce can’t recall the rest of what happen that night. It is what it is, definitely was a legendary battle. Jay and X turned out to be the most famous MC’s but they were NOT the best MC’s standing on them pool tables that night.
MC Wen
MC WEN said it perfect,,, we ate they ass in that battle so hard cats blackballed us in the music game when cracker jack started giving them clowns some dough. Jay an Dmx???
lol!!!!! HARLEM KNIGHTS baby!!!! They barely wanted to mention HARLEM KNIGHTS cause we was nice,,gettin money and we wasn’t having it, we battled cats that knew nothin about going to Rikers Island, hustlin hard, cooking dat white or baggin chicks an robbing cats an letting them hammers go. Yep we schooled them but they said they was battling young cats,, how???? we been in the game years b4 original flavor DMX the warlox mase or JZ. Lol smh yep cats still twisting the story.
Get the book online explains the battle an not from these rappers that got signed and jerked aspect. Smmfh
http://www.lulu.com/shop/lester-marrow/the-streets-of-harlem-part-2/ebook/product-17273593.html
Yep HArLeM KNiGhTs
still fiyyya!!!!!
Cats don’t wanna do it again
who original flavor? who JZ??
who SourceMoney?
HARLEM KNIGHTS is callin yall out
Put ya money up like last time an loose terrible like the judge in the wheelchair said
“this ain’t a battle this a shut out!”
Woww every time I see this interview
I realize how these cats are still hating
on the HARLEM KNIGHTS,, 20 something
odd years later. see why blk ppl r not
striving together,, yep,, because of cats like this.
they excluded our name out of the battle like
we didnt even exist.
First of all, DMX murdered Jay. Punch lines and bars. Jayz, sorry boy I honestly don’t consider you the best rapper of all time. During the battle of DMX he wasn’t signed to Dame Dash yet, and his first album, Remember Dame Dash redid it for him. Then with the beef with “nAS” who I think is one of the best rappers of all time. Who help him battle, Beanie Siegel. He wrote a lot of Jayz rhymes before he left rockafella. That’s why in the blueprint he started to “change” Where is rockafella right now? Exactly. Jayz is a definition of a rat. People admire his work but the root of it he didn’t do all his shit on his own. DMX anyday is a beast lyrically just as the rappers not known today because HIP HOP BEEN DEAD. 1
If u got love of the hiphop game u’ll understand Jay-z’s super intelligent flowin style and on the other side u’ll also recognise X the beast’s powerful voice on the mic wit both throwing shot Jay wud come up best!
Not important, Totally agree, I heard X smoked his ass, dudes from the Roc be portraying that realness even when reality dont match, fluffing up their resumes, If you got footage, Im sure they have it all why not prove your point that jay won str8 bs