

Inside MSG’s Hulu Ampitheater, as Michael Buffer announced the two groups to the crowd, Jadakiss looked like he was ready for a heavyweight fight. In 1999, Puffy released them from Bad Boy, and the trio joined the audaciously disrespectful Ruff Ryders Records where, along with the late DMX, they’d put out a string of bona fide classics.
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It was them pushing away from the mainstream and becoming a unique cultural entity with fan bases that have their own code and language. When the Lox asked to be released from the shiny-suit shackles of Bad Boy Records, their lore only doubled. The glossy sheen of No Way Out didn’t fit the crew’s more hardened ethos. It wa s a good debut album, but it felt like the Lox were being underused by Puffy. After signing to Bad Boy Records, the group released 1998’s Money, Power, Respect. This is where the Lox honed their grimy street-level raps, and there is real pride that the citizens there take. Even in the poorest parts of NYC, there’s still a big city mentality.

They came onto the scene with something meaner and unique to their neighborhood. The group started when they were all high school students in Yonkers, and they managed to bring the small city north of the Bronx respect in the rap game. The Lox consist of Jadakiss, Styles P, and Sheek Louch.
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If Kid Cudi taught kids how to be weird, it is simply because they weren’t cool enough to listen to Dipset. Whether it was Juelz dressed in Americana like a Harlem Bruce Springsteen or the infamous photo of Cam in a pink fur coat talking on his flip phone, Dipset’s fashion choices sit right alongside their music as reasons why they remain so beloved. Dipset were unabashedly funny, dark, and amusing in the weirdest way possible. 2003’s Diplomatic Immunity, released under Roc-a-Fella, contains “I Really Mean It,” a song that defines the Dipset era with its swagger and laidback defiance. As such, Dipset made Harlem stand out from the rest of New York. Cam’ron knew how to make lines like “drinking sake on a Suzuki in Osaka Bay” roll off the tongue with a cool ease that nobody can replicate. Dipset was equal parts weird, rebellious, and musical. Led by Cam’ron, Juelz Santana, and Jim Jones, they were a part of Puffy and Mase’s Harlem World scene in the late Nineties and joined Roc-a-Fella Records in the early 2000s. The Harlem rap group the Diplomats, a.k.a Dipset, have had a whirlwind of a career. It would have been a crime to miss out.įor those born outside of the five boroughs, some backstory. As a native New Yorker, this was like seeing the Knicks in the Finals. This was Dipset versus The Lox, Jadakiss versus Cam’ron, D-Block versus Harlem World, Swizz Beatz versus The Heatmakers. It pays to know some good people, especially on this particular occasion.

Eventually, I ran into some friends who were able to secure a ticket from a New York Times critic who had an extra. I wasn’t given tickets outright but was told that if I put in a request they would get back to me via email. I called MSG in the morning and tried to work my polite and boyish charm while talking to the person on the other end of the line. For me, however, there was a real problem: I didn’t actually have a ticket. After all, when you are putting on a hip-hop event, you can expect this sort of thing - big entourages telling security about the connections they have as they try to get into the show. Despite the hectic scene, nobody seems too pressed. Security is telling everyone to move back, encountering issues with holding down a crowd of folks waiting to get into the media entrance.

They’re here to see Dipset and the Lox’s Verzuz battle, and some members of Dipset’s entourage aren’t being allowed in. at Madison Square Garden, and the crowd of people outside is restless.
