Dame Dash reminisced about the long-rumored rap battle between Jay-Z and LL Cool J in the 90s, which LL allegedly lost.
“All I know is we battled LL, and we burned him that day,” Dame told The Art of Dialogue. “Since that day, LL never got over that shit. It was bad. Yeah, we was laughing at L.”
“He gonna say he didn't, but I remember—he said the ‘Funkadelic Relic’ rhyme before it came out,” Dash added of LL’s 1993 song, “Funkadelic Relic.”
“We was like, get that ‘Funkadelic’ shit out of here. Like, we was laughing at him. It was bad. It was embarrassing. It definitely was. … I doubt he ever got over [it].”
Dash went on to describe LL as his “man.”
He continued, “[LL] made albums completely, and these albums were ill, just ripping, dissing Jay, but he never put them out. … Go ask LL…if he made a whole album, dissing Jay, and why he ain't put it out. But I heard that shit. And it was good. LL can rap. And he's very competitive. You know, he's a real rapper.”
In 2024, LL spoke on the alleged rap battle between him and Hov during a conversation with Charlamagne tha God. There was a longstanding rumor that the two rappers had battled in a Manhattan parking lot, and LL used a verse from his song "Funkadelic Relic," which led Jay and his crew to ridicule him.
While the battle happened, LL told Charlamagne that he didn't use that specific verse and instead ran out of rhymes. At that point, LL was already years into his career, while Jay was still trying to get signed. Jay eventually got the best of him as he was a much hungrier rapper than his Queens counterpart.
“You know, these are guys that ain't had that deal. So when I ain't have a deal, there was a suitcase of rhymes. Now I'm albums in,” LL explained. “I said a couple of rhymes. Then I said a little bit of a song, 'Ain't No Stopping This.' A little bit. Then Jay came up rapping. I was out of rhymes, b. In no scenario was I fully loaded and ready to rhyme. If I was, I'm not exactly the first rapper that you really want to get into that shit with.”
During their careers, the two artists engaged in a subtle rivalry and often traded jabs. Their feud heightened during Jay’s term as President of Def Jam Recordings, the label that LL first signed to as a teenager. His first record, 1984’s “I Need a Beat,” was one of Def Jam’s first releases.
