After multiple postponements and plenty of chatter, Keyshia Cole and Ashanti finally took their turn on the Verzuz stage Thursday night, Jan. 21, 20201. While the evening didn’t exactly get off to the smooth start most fans were hoping for, it is safe to say it ended in harmony.
The performance area was adorned with Doritos, Ciroc and two majestic chairs, fitting for two queens who’ve created nostalgic moments with their hits and heavenly voices. The only problem an hour into the event was that Cole was nowhere to be found. Not only was she missing in action, but her Instagram page showed no signs of promotion for the event.
Go DJ Hi-C, Cole’s official deejay, who spoke to Houston’s 97.9 The Box, said there was good reason for the confusion.
“It started out weird… just stuff that y’all don’t see behind the scenes,” he said. “Not to say nothing bad about Verzuz, but the show didn’t start on time. Everybody knows that. But [in] Keyshia’s defense, she didn’t want to come out because her screen was blurry. She was there on time. I was there, but she didn’t want to come out on time because the screen was blurry. Stuff wasn’t right. We couldn’t hear their side. So it was a lot of technical stuff going on in there.”
When Cole finally decided to join Ashanti, she was noticeably upset, and Hi-C says that despite his best efforts to uplift her spirits, the Oakland-bred songstress just wasn’t into it.
“She’s a perfectionist, and when stuff don’t go the right way, it’s downhill from there,” he reasoned. “She was already upset about it being pushed back like it was, but it’s COVID. So there was buildup and it made her have to push her record back, so it just threw her energy off. I did the best I could to bring her back, but by that time she was already upset.”
Fortunately, cooler heads — and Ciroc — prevailed, and Cole eventually softened her stance. She even brought out OT Genesis, who sang along with her on the seminal ballad “Love,” (which he famously butchered like a bad piece of meat), signaling an end to their very public feud.
Check out the visual of the two after the jump.
