Once upon a time, Ice Cube was beefing with Common. While we often hear tales of the East Coast versus West Coast rap beef taking the lives of some of our favorite artists, those who lived through it have stories of face-to-face confrontations between rappers. In 1994, Common released "I Used To Love H.E.R." where he seemed to take aim at the West Coast hip hop scene as he referenced Eazy-E's hit "Boyz-N-The-Hood." It reportedly wasn't meant as a diss but a take on the rap scene moving into gang culture, but Ice Cube and his crew—including his Westside Connection collaborator Mack 10—took the lyrics as being offensive.
A back and forth ensued and there was a point when the beef was escalating to heights that worried the industry. The two were able to mend their differences, but Mack 10 revisited those days with Vlad TV when he was asked about an incident that occurred in Los Angeles with Common. According to the interview, Fat Joe and Common recently caught up and spoke about Common running into Mack 10 and his crew in L.A. Common was apparently in the City of Angels filming a commercial when he bumped into the rapper. Fat Joe was also there, and as a friend of both Common and Mack 10, he stepped in and made sure that nothing went down. Joe reportedly said that he saved Common's life that day.
"The issue was with his homeboy. It wasn't even about the diss record," Mack 10 said. "The issue came [from] his homeboy stepped out. I don't know, maybe he was feeling some kind of way about the diss record. So, it was Common's homeboy that kicked it off." Mack 10 paused so Vlad interjected and said, "Things started to escalate." Mack replied, "They did escalate." Vlad said, "Fat Joe managed to diffuse it?" Mack replied, "With Common."
Mack 10 clarified and said they were able to smooth things over with Common, but the rapper's friend was another story. Watch Mack 10 tell his side of the story below.