Joe Budden wants to see Rick Ross and T.I. take each other on in the Verzuz ring, and he thinks it’ll be a worthwhile battle.
During an episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the former Slaughterhouse lyricist said he wants to see the two Southern stalwarts duke it out on Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s popular battle platform. According to Budden, it’s a good idea to have artists who have already won come back for another battle.
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“I’m down for the person that we’ve seen already that won — ‘Alright, next battle!'” Budden said before proposing: “Rick Ross versus T.I.”
One of Budden’s co-hosts pointed out that Tip has yet to grace the Verzuz stage, to which Budden replied: “But Rick Ross did, and Ross got more than 40 records that he can play with. So now I’m back with a different 20. ‘John’ in front of T.I. looks different than ‘John’ in front of 2 Chainz.”
He continued: “I don’t think Ross will have time for the strippers to come out against T.I. It won’t be time for massages, speeches — that’s T.I. There’s a few people that won that need to come back and do it again.”
After his battle against 2 Chainz, which went down in August 2020, Rick Ross set his sights on T.I. by calling him out on Instagram. According to Rozay, the two had a score to settle.
“Check this out… Tip got unfinished business, Rozay got unfinished business,” he said in the clip. “And after this event, mhmm. It’s time for us to weigh the work. We gotta weigh the work.”
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The only artist to have taken the Verzuz stage twice is Jadakiss, who went up against Fabolous in June 2020 before dismantling Dipset alongside his LOX brethren Styles P and Sheek Louch at NYC’s Madison Square Garden the following summer.
Although T.I. hasn’t participated in Verzuz yet, he did challenge to 50 Cent to a battle in September 2021. However, 50 curved the request and asked Tip to “respectfully stay away” from him.
Lil Flip, one of T.I.’s longest rivals, mentioned earlier this year he would be down to do a Verzuz for the right price. Flip initially had a high asking price, but lowered it after seeing how much fun the battles are.
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“At first my number was, like, $3 [million,] and then it was a million, but now after I got a chance to go be on the Verzuz set in person and have fun, anything around the $500K mark is cool because I had so much fun,” he told VladTV. “When you’re Flip Mayweather, you don’t pick your opponents. Put them in front of me and I’ll handle my business.”
