While 50 Cent has been involved in many different feuds throughout the years, few put him to the test quite like Jadakiss, Styles P, and Sheek Louch. To this day, fans still reflect fondly on some of the diss tracks from that era, namely Jada's "Checkmate," which actually ended up charting. Now, over a decade removed from the height of the tension, Sheek chopped it up with DJ Vlad and shared a few thoughts on the matter.
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"That whole G-Unit beef was really nothing to do with me and Styles, if you want the truth," explains Louch. "None of them said our name at all, not cause they were scared or nothin'. Anybody that was on the song with Ja Rule, that's who 50 had a problem with. If you got on that "New York" record -- and the song was biggin' up New York, that was a whole New York record that was hot to death -- he had a problem with you. But us, the kinda n***as we were, were like get the fuck outta here. Lyrically who want it? That's it!"
When Vlad brings up "Window Shopper," Sheek acknowledges that the song was "cool," though he hesitates to declare it truly scathing. "It wasn't battle-ready," says Sheek. "It caught on, even became a top ten record. But from our world, that record didn't hit or hurt. Lyrically it wasn't that." Laughing that The LOX retaliated "about a million fuckin' times," Sheek proceeds to explain why he kept it running for so long.
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"The reason I went so long with it is that I felt like he would have," he explains. "I knew they had nothing on us lyrically. Banks could have, but he stayed out of that shit. He wasn't on it. It wasn't no game. So lyrically I felt they would have been on us like that. He kept going at Joe like that cause he could, but us? We were ready-ready."
Sheek reveals that Jadakiss was able to bury the hatchet with 50, though he makes sure to credit a shift in the New York state of mind. "Before it was like, no rappers would do a song with each other," he reflects. "We ain't have no unity here for mad long. Everywhere else was getting money together and doing big shit together. The South was growing while everybody else was beefing...After a while, New York started changing back to some cool shit."
Clearly, Sheek feels confident that The LOX was more than ready to handle business on a lyrical level -- though he did make sure to clarify that Lloyd Banks would have been able to put in work. Check out his reflection below, and show some love to Sheek Louch for keeping it real. And for more LOX history, our own interview with the legendary crew is available for your viewing pleasure right here.