Nelly believes Sean “Diddy” Combs would’ve been destroyed by Jermaine Dupri in a Verzuz battle.
During a recent Drink Champs episode, Nelly was asked to pick between Timbaland and Dupri, which sparked talk about the rumored Verzuz showdown between Dupri and Diddy at Madison Square Garden that never materialized.
“Respectfully, and outside of current situations, [Dupri] and Puff do Verzuz—Puff is gonna get murdered. Easy. Wasn’t gonna be close,” Nelly stated around the 1-hour, 33-minute mark in the video linked above.
Nelly doubled down, saying, “Puff is smart. He didn’t want no part. He knew that… Why you think he wanted to hold Verzuz in New York? J.D. can hold a Verzuz anywhere.”
The Country Grammar rapper emphasized his point by highlighting Dupri’s deep catalog going back to Kris Kross.
With Busta Rhymes’ help, Diddy announced in May 2023 that a Verzuz against Dupri was scheduled for September at the Garden. The two had been going back and forth since the COVID-era virtual show began in 2020.
During a 2022 appearance on the Rory & Mal podcast, Dupri expressed doubts about the battle happening at all while questioning who he could bring as a special guest, given his rocky relationship with several Bad Boy artists.
“I feel like it’s a performance-based thing now and the majority of Puff’s records, who’s gonna perform?” Dupri said at the time. “Yeah, [you can bring out] The Lox, but you can’t have nobody do Big’s verses. And I don’t know that Mase would come out with him no more, so I don’t think that it would happen based on that.
“All my people, we rockin’ and we coming’ with a whole lot of energy,” he added.
Watch Nelly’s full Drink Champs episode below.
