How Ludacris and T.I. ended their complicated beef: “When he would jab I would jab right back”
T.I. and Ludacris were two of Atalanta’s most prominent mainstream artists during the 2000s. Aside from being excellent musicians, they made some iconic anthems that have lasted the test of time, and to this day, they are credited with helping push Atlanta to the forefront of hip-hop. That said, there was a point in time when they didn’t get along.
During an interview, Ludacris explained why, in his early days as an emcee, he decided there was an issue between him and T.I. Firstly, he was sure that the I’m Serious creator was talking about him on certain records, explaining, “From my perspective, it was always a little subliminals, and I just heard subliminals.”
Luda admitted that when he hears potential shots his competitive spirit kicks in and he feels like he has to respond. As such, he decided to send subliminals at T.I. Detailing this, he told Noreaga, the host of Drink Champs, “I’m extremely competitive, so I’m always with the subliminals. So… when he would jab I would jab right back in records.”
Despite these pretty irrelevant jabs that were mainly noticed by the two artists and people in the city of Atlanta, it was in 2004, when the pair appeared on Young Buck’s track ‘Stomp’, that things began to get serious. On the track, Ludacris disclosed that he heard a diss aimed at him when T.I. rhymed, “Me gettin’ beat down? / That’s ludicrous.”
This prompted an official beef, which saw them exchange subliminal diss tracks back and forth. However, in 2007, things came to a head when T.I. got into a fistfight with Ludacris’ manager, Chaka Zulu, which the ‘Run This Town’ rhymer publicly apologised for at the BET Awards.
Still, they didn’t settle their problems for years and in a strange turn of events in 2020, the pair ended up on a plane to attend George Floyd’s funeral service. The Word Of Mouf creator unveiled that it was during the flight that the two ended up on the same page.
Speaking about the flight, Luda told Noreaga and DJ EFN, “It’s crazy because, again, in retrospect, we were actually on a flight together on a plane. We went to George Floyd’s funeral services together. Will Packer put a bunch of people together on this plane, and so we literally were on there talking for two or three hours. [Talking about] everything, the whole history, and you know, I just told him to his face, like, ‘Brother, I never start any fucking thing. You know what I’m saying?’ I come from a world where I mind my own fucking business; this is what Ludacris does.”
The ‘Stand Up’ performer admitted to T.I. that although sometimes he might send jabs, he will only ever do it in response to something and clarified that he isn’t the type of person to start a beef for no reason. Reasserting his position to the hosts, Ludacris doubled down, “I hear people talk stuff, and people take jabs, and people take shots, and then I decide whether or not I want to send the shots back. But at the end of the day, I just don’t start shit. I finish it; that’s what I do.”
At the end of the flight, according to Ludacris, the two MCs were just laughing about the past and couldn’t believe all the petty stuff they did in their youth and put it behind them, concluding, “That’s what maturity and that’s what growth is all about, but we gave people what they wanted for a certain amount of time, and that’s what hip-hop is,” he added. “It starts from competition, and we going to give you that.”