Think of The Lox
Today is a special day.
It’s the 2nd anniversary of The Lox-Dipset Verzuz Special that happened August 3, 2021.
Almost as important, it’s my son Fela’s birthday.
Fela’s birthday is obviously much more important to me, even though I do think there’s a strong argument for New Yorkers to make August 3rd Jadakiss Day.
I decided, as an avid practitioner of what I’m calling Modern Immigrant Dad Management (MIDM - we’re still workshopping it), that on Fela’s birthday, I would give him the best gift an Immigrant Dad can give.
A lecture.
A long lecture too, because immigrant dad love is actually measured in lecture minutes. Everyone knows that. Now, because I’m modernizing immigrant dad management, I decided to use The Lox-Dipset Verzuz special as a prop to explain life lessons to Fela. I dutifully started watching the YouTube video to extract a few lessons to impart on Fela that I knew he would cherish for the rest of his life.
And, y’all, 30 minutes into watching the video - I cut it off for two reasons.
One, I realized there was no way that the father in me could let Fela watch this video because I would have to kill him if he used any of the language in the video in my house. Who knew NYC rappers were such potty mouths? It’s alright, because I plan to give this lecture every year on his birthday until he can watch the video when he’s 18.
And two, because it was already evident 30 minutes into the video that The Lox had completely dominated Dipset and I had all the lessons I needed.
As a service to Modern Immigrant Dads everywhere, I’m open sourcing my notes for your use. No need to give me credit, that’s not how immigrant dads work.
Before The Lox vs Dipset Verzuz started, it was assumed that it would be close or that Dipset might even win! Why? Because while know one reasonable would argue that Dipset were the more lyrical rappers, Dipset had charisma. They dominated the early 2000s with flash and style. Camron had NYC thugs wearing all fur everything in the summer in 2004. Their hits are catchy and hard to forget.
While some people were thinking The Lox might win, no one expected The Lox to completely dominate, but they did. Here are the reasons why:
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Right from the first minute, it was clear that The Lox prepared for this show! They had theme music when they walked to the stage and, while it wasn’t clear on streaming, had posted pictures of Jim Jones (a Diplomat member) crying in a then-recent interview he had done.
At the beginning of one of their songs, Styles P and Jadakiss stood back to back right before the song started - they had a formation! It was just clear that they had practiced giving a show and worked hard to get it right.
Diplomats took forever to actually come onto the stage, they had too many people on the stage and eventually had to remove people from the stage, and clearly were mumbling through some of the songs with the heavy TV track in the background for each song.
I feel like Dipset believed they would do well and win because they were Dipset - Harlem’s finest. They are charismatic dudes. You know how much charm and confidence and cool it took to pull off this look in 2003 and not only avoid getting clowned, but inspire other people to dress like this! This man had a pink flip phone.
But, that charisma was not, and talent is not, ever enough. You have to know that someone is preparing, thinking of all the ways to win against you, even with your talent.
Learn from your lessons
For almost everyone on stage, it was their first Verzuz. Remember, this is 2021, we all just got back outside of the house, and we had a lot of different types of Verzuz. The one person who had already been on a Verzuz stage is Jadakiss.
And. it. Showed.
Jadakiss had what many call a narrow victory against Fabolous, but he took everything he learned from that first experience, shared it with the rest of The Lox and they leveraged it to create a truly dominant performance.
He even talks about how The Lox leveraged what he learned in his victory lap interview on The Breakfast Club interview a few days after the battle. Jadakiss understood that this battle would be unlike most - it was the dreaded hybrid - a lot of people live and a lot more people watching on Zoom. It’s hard to understand the dynamics, but he understood that live crowd reactions would influence Zoom crowd experience and ultimately the outcome of the battle.
The lesson is that sometimes we try new things and we don’t get the outcome we want or we get the outcome, but just barely. The truth is that the second (or third or fourth) time is when we have the knowledge to make things happen.
Jadakiss has always been respected, but he became a rap legend during that Verzuz.
Play to your strengths/ride the hot hand
One interesting comment that The Lox talked about is how they went audible and actually changed the lineup of their songs during the show because of how dominant Jada had been. Essentially, they let him go off even though that is not how it was planned.
When The Lox saw how well Jadakiss’s comments and jokes were landing with the live audience, they changed their strategy to give him more songs, more freestyles, and more airtime. It kept working and turned into more and more of a lopsided victory.
That’s being agile.
Exploit your opponents weaknesses
Check out The Lox strategy:
“But being that it was in the mecca of New York, I knew we can go live—and [Dipset] wasn’t gonna do that, and we can do some freestyles, and they wasn’t gonna do that. So I knew that was gonna be a good counter, and that was gonna be building-shakers right there.”
In the first 30 minutes, Jadakiss and Styles P freestyled, with some a cappella, and just brought the house down. They said a lot of stuff I won’t repeat here, but it’s the type of stuff that NYC rap is made of and NYC rap fans go crazy for.
The Lox knew that even if Dipset was at their most charming, they weren’t going to do live rapping (without the rap playing in the background) and they were not going to freestyle.
They leaned into that. And combining that with the clear understanding of the hybrid crowd, they had the live crowd hyping up the Zoom crowd, and it snowballed from there.
In life, you have to study your challenges and understand the points where you can have that snowball effect. A good shotblocker is great, but a good shotblocker that can throw great outlets is a great way to make it to the playoffs.
Love your craft and the value it provides
One thing that stood out to me when watching the Verzuz is that when The Lox wanted crowd participation, they asked for it. They would hold the mic out to the crowd so they could sing along. In the 30 minutes I watched, Dipset didn’t ask for crowd participation, they just expected it. They wouldn’t hold the mic out to the crowd, they would simply stop singing. And when you combined that with the fact that they had TV tracks playing, it made it seem like the crowd was there for the ride rather than in for a show.
Jada called Dipset out multiple times for using TV tracks and not giving them a show, even saying, “This is New York - the crowd is here to see us sweat and y’all are mumbling over your words.”
And he was right. The power of hip-hop as an art form has always been in its ability to rock a crowd.
As you can see from watching The Lox and listening to their raps, they are in it for the craft. They have always been lyrical. Jadakiss was 46 years old jumping around on that stage. They studied their opponents, crafted new lyrics, practiced formations, changed their strategy mid-battle. All of it stemmed from a love of the craft of rapping on stage.
Find the craft that you love like Jadakiss loves rap and work at it every day.
Now son, when you are not wanting to do your homework, or not feeling like shooting a few more free throws, or tired even though you have a few more things to do - Think of The Lox.
There you have it. Use those lectures wisely. And remember, when your kids roll their eyes, it is only so they cement those learnings into their brain. That’s how eye rolls work. Look it up.
Happy Birthday again Fela!