In the most recent installment of Instagram live “Versuz” battles started by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, Mannie Fresh took on Scott Storch Wednesday night. Previous battles included The Dream vs. Sean Garrett and Ne-Yo vs. Jonhta Austin. Originally, Scott was slated to take on T-Pain, but according to a tweet from T-Pain earlier that day, although he was ready, producer versus songwriter didn’t make sense, so in came Mannie Fresh.
Throughout the day, both parties built up anticipation for that night by dropping videos on Instagram. In a now deleted Instagram video Mannie recorded himself saying today is a sad day as he “gotta pick out a casket for my homeboy, Scott Storch.”
At the scheduled time for the live battle, Scott showed up from his page in front of the keyboard, eyes covered in his signature shades before shortly being joined by Mannie Fresh. Mannie came out swinging in round one dropping “Go DJ” and Scott answering with Jay-Z’s “The Watcher 2.
The first several rounds were a walk down memory lane until Scott wanted to remind us that he is indeed, still working. He let everyone know “I’m still outside” before dropping Roddy Ricch’s “Down Below.” While Mannie would preface something of his records with fake news skits poking fun at Scott. Scott at one point said “You got many skits, but not hits.”
From the moment I first saw this matchup, I wasn’t sure that it was fair since Scott’s discography is much more versatile from working with more and bigger artists, thus having more range than Mannie’s catalog made up mostly of Southern artists, although he no doubt has HITS and timeless anthems. I feel that most people counted him out from the beginning, but all bias aside, Mannie held his own.
Being from New Orleans, I appreciate Mannie’s discography much more than the common listener would. When it came to the final round, the record both producers dropped was no surprise to anyone - Mannie with “Back That Ass Up” and Scott with “Still D.R.E”. Although they talked a lot of mess the entire time, at the end, they were both singing each other’s praises and letting everyone know it’s all in fun. This was a highly entertaining battle and I think both are legends in their own right. As one fan commented, they are “both geniuses, just in different weight classes.”
So we want to know, who do you think won this battle?
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