Even if the event was chaotic, the Bow Wow-Soulja Boy Verzuz will go down as one of the most memorable and entertaining nights in the history of the Trill series, which set records for guest appearances – from DJ Paul to Romeo – and had a song split three times played.
Even if Soulja Boy and Bow Wow seemingly lost track of the rounds and didn’t reach the targeted 20, check out our scorecard below.
Round 1: Soulja Boys “She Make It Clap” vs. Destiny Child feat. Bow Wow, Da Brat & Jermaine Dupris “Jumpin, Jumpin (So So Def Remix)”
Big Draco opened the night with his 2021 TikTok hit “She Make It Clap”, which landed at number 1 poster‘s top trill chart in April. Bow Wow takes the stage replicating the look of his first album with braids and a Cleveland Browns Tim Couch leotard. The Ohio native responds with a boast that he worked with Beyoncé and one of the legendary R&B groups on his first of many remix verses during the battle.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 2: Soulja Boys “Turn My Swag On” vs. Chris Brown’s “Run It (Remix)”
Soulja points out how Beyoncé actually sampled him for “Hold Up” before he turned the heat up a bit with 2008’s “Turn My Swag On”. Bow tries to respond, but the So So Def rework isn’t even the most popular “Run It” remix. Akademiks also enters the building as a representative of the Soulja Boy team, and Bow Wow tells him to “stay in his place”.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
Round 3: Soulja Boy feat. Sammies “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” vs. Bow Wow feat. Xscapes “Bounce With Me”
Chris Brown reportedly turned down the opportunity to sing the hook on “Kiss Me Thru the Phone,” which would turn out to be a move he likely regrets. Still in DJ playlist rotations over a decade later, “KMTTP” hit # 3 on the Hot 100. Fans get their first dose of comedy when Soulja Boy pokes fun at Bow Wow’s acting career. “I don’t play, everything is real,” he joked about his lifestyle.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
Round 4: Soulja Boys “Pretty Boy Swag” vs. Bow Wow feat. R. Kelly’s “I’m a Flirt”
“I’m a Flirt” actually landed on Bow Wow’s fifth studio album The price of fame as a bonus track before the disgraced R&B singer repackaged the tune for a more commercially successful run by doing the remix with TI and T-Pain. Still, there is strong competition here with Big Draco’s breast-puff anthem “Pretty Boy Swag”, which cracked the Top 40 of the Hot 100 in 2010.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 5: Soulja Boy feat. Nicki Minaj’s “She Make It Clap (Remix)” vs. Bow Wow feat. Chris Brown & Johnta Austin’s “Shortie Like Mine”
These next two rounds become wasted bullets for Soulja Boy and free points for Bow Wow. Soulja does a “She Make It Clap” remix with vocals from Nicki Minaj, but admits on Twitter that it was just a drop she recorded for the event, and not a full-blown verse. Bow Wow takes a nap in the middle of the stage.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 6: Soulja Boy feat. French Montana’s “She Make It Clap (Remix)” vs. Bow Wow feat. “That’s my name” by Snoop Dogg
For the third time in six rounds, Big Draco is bringing out his “She Make It Clap” hit, but this time he’s bringing French Montana to perform his verse live for the fans – who weren’t exactly thrilled to see the Coke Boys -Frontmann. Bow Wow annoys Soulja that he doesn’t have enough records to hang with him for 20 laps, so he has to recycle tracks.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 7: Soulja Boys “Yahhh!” vs. Bow Wow feat. Birdman’s “Let’s Get Down”
Soulja Boy resumes the momentum of the Battle of Verzuz by picking up a bottle of Ciroc and signing up when Bow Wow suggests having a celebratory shot of alcohol to end the fight. “Let’s Get Down” was the first single Bow Wow released in 2003 without the Lil ‘in front of his name, and it even had a permanent place in the charts.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 8: Soulja Boys “I Got Me Some Bapes” vs. Bow Wow feat. Omar’s “girlfriend”
“I was the first rapper to wear Bape,” insists Soulja Boy, even if it’s factual or not. Anyway, Bow Wow shows off some props to his Millennium Tour runner-up by picking up the bassline on “I Got Me Some Bapes”.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
Round 9: Soulja Boy feat. Shawty Lo & Gucci Manes “Gucci Bandana” vs. Bow Wows “Take Ya Home”
As comedian actor Haha Davis best put it in the comment section, “We all wanted to be Bow Wow at the time.” Comes from Like Mike, where “Take Ya Home” lived on the movie’s soundtrack, Bow Wow was one of the coolest teenagers on the planet and had a life almost anyone would have traded theirs with.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 10: Soulja Boys “Donk” vs. Huey feat. Bow Wow & T-Pains “Pop, Lock & Drop It (Remix)”
Bow Wow demands that DJ Akademiks actually be Soulja’s DJ for the rest of the fight, and he will give him $ 20,000. Ak takes over, but the former college DJ is rusty. He’s lucky that a track like “Donk” can’t even be influenced by technical problems.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
Round 11: Nicki Minaj feat. “Yasss Bish” by Soulja Boy vs. “Basketball” by Bow Wow
One of the rather crooked victories of the night. “I need to tap into Calvin Cambridge,” says Bow Wow, channeling his role in 2002 Like Mike where he led the fictional knights to the NBA playoffs. This was the first track Bow Wow ever wrote for himself and it definitely gave him even more confidence to keep moving his pen. Big Draco had some funny jokes when he said Bow Wow should “moderate this s – t” after Bow called himself Mr. 106 & Park.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 12: Roscoe Dash & Soulja Boys “All the Way Turnt Up” vs. Jagged Edge feat. Bow Wow, Nelly & Jermaine Dupris “Where the Party At (Remix)”
As the innovator he is, Soulja Boy extended its run into the new decade with the release of “All the Way Turnt Up” in 2010. The ubiquitous track was inevitable and the song’s title became a catchphrase – and received a lot of Remixes by Lupe Fiasco, Machine Gun Kelly and more.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
Round 13: Trey Songz feat. Soulja Boy & Gucci Manes “LOL :)” vs. Bow Wow feat. T-Pains “Outta My System”
Soulja Boy is getting on Bow Wow’s nerves at this point. He and Akademiks make sure the entire song is played, taking minutes just to reach Soulja’s verse, infuriating Bow Wow. As the avid rap fan Big Biz put it on Twitter, “Lol :)” is a “Blackberry BBM classic”.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
Round 14: Soulja Boys “Let Me Get Em” vs. Dem Franchize Boyz feat. Bow Wow, Jermaine Dupri & Da Brats “I Think They Like Me (Remix)”
Bow Wow tries to turn the Battle of Verzuz into a concert by Bow Wow and friends, with the So So Def Army serving as his reinforcements. He calls on his mentors Jermaine Dupri and Da Brat to stand on stage with Pimpin ‘from Dem Franchize Boyz to perform “I Think They Like Me (Remix)”.
WINNER: Bow Wow
Round 15: Drake feat. Soulja Boys “We Made It” vs. Three 6 Mafia feat. Bow Wow & Project Pats “Side to Side (Remix)”
“Like you never did a song with Drake,” jokes Soulja with Bow Wow. A Drake collaboration was a secret weapon in Verzuz battles, and it works here. Soulja’s connection with the 6 God was a moment in 2010s hip hop and takes on the easy win over Bow Wow, bringing out Three Six Mafias DJ Paul for a surprise guest appearance. The only thing missing was for Drake to show up – and he commented on Instagram that he would surely have done it if Soulja had asked him to come out.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
Round 16: Lil Romeo’s “2-Way” vs. Bow Wow feat. Mike Jones “Fresh Az I’m Iz”
Here the battle for Verzuz took a turn no one could have expected, but it was a heartfelt moment. Romeo appeared in basketball jerseys with the No Limit Army and played one of his early standouts with “2-Way”. Romeo initially threw his name into the ring for a possible battle for Verzuz, but this cameo will have to do.
“It shouldn’t have taken 20 years to be here,” he says of the stage with Bow Wow. Romeo then bizarre compared Bow Wow to the “Michael Jordan of that era” while calling Soulja Boy as LeBron James and mistaking himself for the late Kobe Bryant.
WINNER: Tie
Round 17: Soulja Boys “Crank Dat” vs. Bow Wow feat. Omarions “let me hold you”
Bow Wow could have just hoisted the white flag here because there is nothing in his arsenal that can compete with the monstrous tidal wave of “Crank Dat”. Soulja Boy broke into the signature dance, where he easily remembers the moves and the Verzuz comes to an early end after round 17. No matter when and where this song is played, there is sure to be someone who will dance until the end of time.
WINNER: Soulja Boy
BONUS ROUND
Overtime: N / A
It wouldn’t be fair to get the overtime as Bow Wow snuck into his Ciara-sponsored bang “Like You” with no reaction from Soulja Boy. They carried out their “Marco Polo” collaboration together before giving each other their flowers.
“My brother, you deserve every inch of respect. I never intended to make a Verzuz, ”admits Bow Wow. Soulja credits Bow Wow for inspiring him to try music and change his whole life. As he lights another blunt, Soulja Boy reveals his as well Great Draco Album will be released on July 28th.
Biggest snub: Soulja Boys “Report Card” (point Bow Wow)
A big mistake by Soulja Boy here so as not to shoot his down Souljaboytellem.com deep cut “Report Card”. This would have served as a nice filler instead of playing his “She Make It Clap” track three times in the first six rounds.
Best banter: tie
The playful back and forth provided the best entertainment of the evening. Whether Big Draco called Bow Wow “Lil Pee Wee” or Bow Wow made fun of Soulja Boy because he thought he was the first to do anything, they definitely got the audience laughing. With Bow Wows acting history and Soulja Boy as one of the internet pioneers of rap, the duo know how to play each other off.
Broader catalog: Bow Wow
Bow Wow was deep in his pocket and wanted to show his longevity and versatility in the rap game with his selection of songs. He reminded everyone of working with Three 6 Mafia, Destiny’s Child, Huey, Mike Jones and Birdman.
Biggest KO: Soulja Boy
Bow Wow’s eleventh round could also land here when he landed a haymaker with “Basketball”, but you just can’t compete with Soulja Boy’s world anthem “Crank Dat”.
People’s champion: Bow Wow
The audience consensus seems to be Bow Wow, who pulls the excitement and takes the win home with ease, but Soulja Boy also provided quality entertainment and deserves his respect. Our bottom line is probably not an indication of how close this fight actually was.
END POINTS: Bow Wow, 11-9-2
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