Source: Sakura/WENN.com / WENN
Ashanti and Keyshia Cole finally faced off for their highly anticipated Verzuz battle, but not without a few hiccups.
On Thursday (Jan 21), the heavily fan-requested battle kicked off after being postponed twice, with the two chart-topping heavy hitters appearing in the original Verzuz format due to Covid-19 concerns. At the start of the show, there were a few delays which resulted in the battle beginning more than an hour behind schedule.
After the fact, The Box Houston’s new morning show, Good Morning H-Town caught up with GoDJ Hi-C, who is Keisha Cole’s DJ, who explained what happened.
Back to last night, Ashanti did her best to kick off the show while fans awaited the arrival of Keyshia Cole.
Of course in true Black Twitter fashion, jokes began to fly as time continue to tick on while fans began to wonder if the battle would once again be placed on hold after waiting almost two hours for the battle to begin before Keyshia Cole arrived and kicked off the event.
Jumping off with more than 1.1 Million viewers who were ready to see the songstresses vocally duke it out, Cole finally arrived and appeared eager to get started.
While in traditional Verzuz fashion there was no winner declared, Ashanti brought out the big guns playing all of her Murder Inc. era hits, including “Down 4 U” with Ja Rule, before bringing back all the old school vibes with her debut hit “Happy” and the follow up “Baby,” harmonizing on the track just like it was the early ’00s. “See I can never feel at home with you/I gave up everything I owned for you,” she sang, looking incredible in a sexy blazer dress with a long pearl necklace over it. Of course, she couldn’t miss the classics “What’s Luv” with Fat Joe and her version of “Into You” with Fabolous.
Keyshia Cole also came out swinging opening the battle with her debut hit “I Changed My Mind” before showing off her vocal range with the 2008 classic, “Playa Cardz Right” featuring 2Pac. Before playing the record, Cole shouted out the late rapper who was a close friend of her brothers noting that she was almost a part of the Death Row roster as a teenager.
“I was almost signed to Death Row Records — that was so long ago,” she reflected on her teen years when she was first starting out. “The fact I was still able to make it after knowing [2Pac and the Death Row group] — my brother was really close with ‘Pac and everything…he died when I was 16. I made it so many years after he told me I would, and we were able to do a song with him…It’s a blessing to say I made it so far after so much time invested.”
The “Heaven Sent” singer also performed her unforgettable collaboration with Diddy, “Last Night,” before surprising fans with a special appearance from O.T. Genasis for a special dueted performance of “Love,” a song he remade in 2019.
Despite the minor setbacks and the unforgettable moments, it was Black Twitter who ultimately won the night by supplying endless jokes on every aspect of the battle from the delayed start to the Ashanti and Cole’s reactions while the other was performing–Twitter didn’t miss a beat and we loved to see it.
Check out a few of the most hilarious tweets below.