Could the ambitions of Upstate New York trump the legacy of New York City’s finest? That’s basically the question that’s hovering over the independent rap scene right now. If you haven’t heard, 38 Spesh has been looking for all the smoke with Jadakiss. It began when they worked on a song back in 2019, where Spesh determined that he smoked Jada on the record. And since then, Spesh has been under the impression that Jadakiss has been ducking him on wax.
However, when he shared his feelings about Jadakiss during an interview, it had a ripple effect. At this point, Jadakiss’ pen can’t really be questioned, nor can his ability to stand on his own two feet in a rap battle. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jada has sparred with the best of them. But for Spesh, his issues with Jada ultimately turned into a feud with anyone on Jada’s side: Fat Joe, DJ Khaled, and even Jim Jones. And while each of them responded in various degrees, Spesh’s recent release put the game on notice.
Where Does This Begin?
As much as Spesh has had praise for Jadakiss in the past, the issues between them seemingly begin with “Sunday School,” a song from Benny The Butcher that brought the two rappers together. Spesh not only feels like he had the better verse on the song but claimed that’s why Jadakiss hasn’t worked with him since. “I smoked the record and Kiss never did a song with me again,” Spesh said on BagFuel.
“You got a chance to come redeem yourself, ‘Kiss. C’mon. Come outside,” he said. “He been ducking me since. Y’all gon’ have to re-order your top 5, man, you heard?”
“The Aroma”
The comments lingered online. ‘Kiss vowed to do some Samurai Swording. “They asked for it. I tried to be a father, a businessman, but they wanna bring me outta my element,” he said.
However, the most obvious response was barely an obvious response. The Joe & Jada podcast formed a tight relationship with Stove God Cooks, leading to their collaboration, “The Aroma.” The song itself fuses Stove God Cooks’ soulful melodies with Joe and Jadakiss’ New York City sensibilities but it was ‘Kiss verse that succinctly fired back at Spesh. “I’ve been obliterating rappers for years, is this about a verse or is this about a career,” he raps on the song.
The song debuted on the podcast with DJ Khaled in attendance. The song, produced by Cool & Dre, quickly gained steam, and ‘Kiss response for Spesh wasn’t ignored by any means.
Spesh quickly clapped back during another episode of BagFuel where he called out Fat Joe, Jadakiss, and DJ Khaled for the record.
“Kiss, you spit the verse. You got f*cking Khaled and Fat Joe as your backup dancers. You wearing a book bag that another man gave you,” he said. “Fat Joe, he more happy about your verse than his. DJ Khaled jumping on the couch. He don’t know what’s going on. He just happy to be around n***as.”
Enter Jim Jones…
A common pattern here is that most issues seem to stem from comments on podcasts. For Jim Jones, he offered his two cents on the matter. Although he didn’t hold back on giving Spesh his props, he basically suggested that he’s shooting above his class.
“Shout out to ‘Kiss but he needs to get in that booth a little bit more. 38 Spesh, he shouldn’t have–I respect what he did, he’s in the game, n***as gotta go… c’mon, bro. And 38 Spesh is nice,” he said. “Shout out to 38 but he might an FN with the switch and change his whole name to f*ck with Jada… I don't think you got enough ammo in your arsenal and enough years playing with these guns to really be shooting at a marksman like that.”
Unfortunately, the conversation, as it usually goes with Jim, boiled down to aesthetic, which earned him a response from 38 Spesh who basically told him that he isn’t mentioned among the great lyricists to even participate in this conversation.
Eventually, Jim Jones fired back, claiming that he’d get one of his young boys to respond to Spesh. He also said that Spesh didn’t have enough money to mention him in the first place.
That’s when Spesh quickly reminded him of a time when he was opening up for him at a 1000 seat venue. Around that time, Fat Joe tried to state that he wasn’t even aware of who 38 Spesh was.
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Fat Joe’s Militia, Jadakiss Warning & Summer Jam
During another episode of the Joe & Jada podcast, Joe revealed that he has, in fact, met 38 Spesh when Fred the Godson introduced them. However, he made it clear that he didn’t appreciate the tone in which Spesh carried himself when talking about this bubbling feud. “Don’t believe you can disrespect Fat Joe and not run into the militia, the landmines,” Joe said, something that Jadakiss later echoed on Instagram posts in the days that followed.
With that said, Spesh made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t backing down. At Summer Jam, he debuted some new bars that went at Joe, Stove God Cooks, Jadakiss, and Jim Jones. Then backstage, he poked fun at this supposed militia remark, especially as after performing in their turf.
“Fool’s Mate” & The Rap Battle Proposal
Ultimately, it all led to the release of “Fool’s Mate.” With production from AraabMuzik and a video using AI, 38 Spesh unleashed on Jadakiss and Fat Joe while primarily targeting Jim Jones with a few lowblows: he talks the foreclosure, Jimmy’s gang ties, and goes as far as bringing in Chrissy Lampkin into it and her connection to Alpo. Spesh clarified that he only had a few bars from Jadakiss because that’s how many Jada sent in his direction.
“Capo disrespected me. Kiss ain’t disrespect,” he said. “Jimmy had to get the f*ck out of here.”
Elsewhere, 38 Spesh offered to bring the feud to a battle rap arena where they go three verses each to determine who comes out on top. “If Jada wants to do something, we don’t have to go back-and-forth, right? I have a half a million dollars on me right now. We could do three verses on a stage… round for round, three verses,” he said. “If you don’t have the cash, have Fat Joe put it up.”
Spesh basically said he doesn’t want this to be a situation where they throw shots at each other on other people’s records. And he offered to have three OGs, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, and Rakim, as the judges.
