Pioneering rappers LL Cool J (real name James Todd Smith) and Ice-T (born Tracy Lauren Marrow) have reportedly ended their 20-year-long beef.
Although they aren’t besties who go for lunch occasionally, Ice-T told AllHipHop that he and LL Cool J ended their feud years ago, making their Grammy performance for Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary easy breezy.
“LL and I have been together on different occasions,” Ice-T said, noting that they weren’t seen together often before their reconciliation. “I’ve worked with him on Rock The Bells, we’ve done podcasts and stuff, but as far as an actual physical picture of us? I think there’s probably one other one out there. And I think the other one was before we actually really sat down and talked like grown men about it. But yeah, that’s over, and lol the beef never really escalated. It was just rap beef.”
The beef stemmed from LL Cool J calling himself “the baddest rapper in the history of rap itself” in his 1987 hit “I’m Bad.” Both rappers were newbies in the hip-hop industry at the time of the release.
“That was the gist of it, absolutely,” Ice-T affirmed. “Those things can always escalate because you have fans, and if they catch me out there, they’re gonna talk to me about LL. That can always escalate easily.”
Before mending things, both rappers released diss tracks targeting each other.
Ice-T’s diss track for the “Mama Said Knock You Out” rapper was titled “I’m Your Pusher/Pusherman.” In the bridge, the rapper is offered records from various hip-hop icons like Doug E. Fresh, which he gladly accepted. However, when offered an LL Cool J record, he declined.
“Nah, nah, man, I don’t want none of that. You can keep that man,” the lyrics read.
LL Cool J’s diss track for the Body Count frontman was called “To Da Break Of Dawn,” where he raps, “How dare you stand beside, I’m Cool, I freeze I-C-E. On your trail, I’ma cut that bull tail. You’re disobedient with the wrong ingredient. But I’ma drink you down over the rocks while I freak on your album cover jocks.”
He also rapped, “I’m not Scarface, but I want more beef. Before you rapped, you was a downtown car thief workin’ in a parking lot. A brother with a perm deserves to get burned.”
The two performed together during the Grammys hip-hop 50th-anniversary tribute performance, where different generations of hip-hop collaborated for the 12-minute nod to the genre. Legendary rappers like Missy Elliot, Queen Latifah, Wu-Tang, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi and more were a part of the performance.
Ice-T posted a picture of him and LL Cool J at rehearsals for the Grammys. Questlove, who produced the tribute, commented he was worried about the two of them on stage together.
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“I was worried about this but…this is exemplary of true black excellence,” Questlove’s comment read.
