Common has admitted that he feared his beef with Ice Cube could get “ugly” when the two exchanged disses in the mid-’90s.
Appearing on Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero’s podcast 7PM in Brooklyn, the Chicago rap veteran reflected on his feud with the N.W.A legend, which produced iconic diss songs such as “The Bitch In Yoo.”
Talking about his decision to do battle with Cube, Common said: “I’m a warrior too. I’m from the South Side of Chicago. At a certain point, if you come at me, I’ma defend myself and I’ma go at you. I’ma fight to kill, John Wick style.”
The 52-year-old also detailed how things nearly escalated beyond diss songs: “Ultimately, I felt good that we kept it on wax. It was getting to that point with me and Cube, because they was looking at me like, ‘Oh, Common’s just the backpack dude.’
“But then we had a little confrontation in Atlanta and this was like ’95 where — and like I said, me and Cube, it’s all love now — but at that point we had a little confrontation and I was like, ‘Man, this might get ugly.’”
Common also praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan for helping settle the beef: “And thank God for Minister Farrakhan ‘cause at that time, Biggie had just passed, obviously ‘Pac had passed before him and it was just like, ‘Man, you don’t know who going to do what.’”
Farrakhan helped mediate the dispute between Common and Ice Cube, who was a member of the Nation of Islam at the time.
The sit down between the two rap titans happened at the organization’s headquarters in Chicago and was also attended by other Hip Hop luminaries such as Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Nate Dogg, Mack 10, WC, Too $hort, Fat Joe and Chuck D.
The beef started after Cube took issue with lyrics in Common’s classic hit “I Used to Love H.E.R.” where he rapped: “I wasn’t salty she was with them Boyz N the Hood.”
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The rapper/actor fired back on Mack 10’s “Westside Slaughterhouse” before Common famously responded on the Pete Rock-produced “The Bitch In Yoo.”
Cube reflected on the feud himself last year and revealed that the Be MC actually came to his rescue before they became adversaries.
“Love Chicago. My first big show outside of L.A. was at the Regal Theater in Chicago,” he said in a documentary on the Chicago White Sox.
“We forgot one of our records that we were performing. Guess who took me to the record store to buy the record? I had to go buy our own record. It was Common.”
He continued: “He was opening up for us. I mean, we didn’t really know who he was and that’s just, you know, one of those footnotes. [But] Chicago has always welcomed us before the rest of the country.”