In the summer of 2021, Royce 5’9 went from podcast cohosts to adversaries trading diss bars in songs. The two Midwestern veterans abruptly ceased The Lupe & Royce Show, which was one of many successful podcasts created by talented MCs. This week on The Breakfast Club, Royce addresses the year-old incident.

“I like [Lupe Fiasco]—I still do. I like him as a person; I think he’s real cool,” Royce said at 44:30. “I disagree with a lot of the sh*t that he has to say,” Royce added with a laugh during a recap of the falling out. Recalling the turn of events, Royce spoke of an Instagram Live that escalated as tempers flared. “He kept yellin’ and yellin’ and yellin’ and yellin’, and then I called him ‘a b*tch.’ And that was the thing that I did that I gotta hold myself accountable for.” DJ Envy asks Nickel Nine if he regrets the moment. “Do I regret it? I don’t know if ‘regret’ is the right word, but I’m not happy about saying [it], ’cause I don’t think he’s a b*tch; I don’t think we should speak to each other that way. But I do understand why I said it, ’cause it was just a reaction—it was a point [that] I got pushed to. I feel like I gave a lot of warning points, a lot of lead-in to it. That’s me knowing myself,” responds Royce. “I think I would regret it if he had apologized, then I definitely would apologize, and then it would go down as a regret. But as of right now, like the way that everything got kinda summed up, it is what it is, but I don’t feel good about it.” The guest confirmed that the two men have not spoken since the summer 2021 fallout.

Lupe Fiasco & Royce 5’9 Trade Savage Diss Records

Royce then speaks of his “Silence Of The Lambda,” and Lupe Fiasco’s “Steve Jobs: SLR 3 1/2″ songs, respectively. “The record—when I did mine, it was still in the friendly competition. But after I did mine, that’s when he unfollowed me; that’s when he stopped the podcast. So, to me, that’s an unofficial fallout. So, to me, that’s no longer a battle, that’s just a fallout. Now I regret the song. That’s why I never responded to what he did.” Charlamagne Tha God asks who won. “He can have it,” replies Royce. “It was never about who can rap better, who can win in battle. It was never really about that, man.” The MC then speaks of the podcast. “It was…we sparked up conversation to have a friendly conversation with a whole lot of different guys to speak to a whole lot of different audiences all together so people could follow one clear precise narrative. There was a point in my career where it was important to me to be the best lyricist. I’ve grown from that.” Royce is candid that his opponent did not bring his A-game. “I don’t think what he did is him at his best—not from me as a fan. It sounded like a bunch of angry sh*t—a bunch of angry, scathing sh*t that he said because he was mad.” Charlamagne points out that many Hip-Hop fans felt both MCs’ disses were underwhelming given their prowess and capability. “It wasn’t that kind of atmosphere. It wasn’t planned for us to go at each other like that; everything just happened spur of the moment. I blame the pandemic too.”

The Breakfast Club hosts then mention Mickey Factz. The Bronx, New York MC was present for some of the Lupe Fiasco and Royce 5’9″ exchanges, as well as a tense conversation with Royce and Joe Budden. That convo prompted “Wraith,” a July 2021 diss song that was a complex attack of Royce 5’9 mimicking other MCs’ deliveries and more. Mickey eventually broke down his strategy in an Ambrosia For Heads interview alongside Blu.

Mickey Factz Details The Strategy He Used In His Battle With Royce 5’9 (Video)

“Mickey Factz just kind of inserted himself,” Royce responds. “I think he just looked at it as an opportunity to get into the mix,” he says of the former collaborator. “He turned around and did his diss record and sh*t, and I think him and Lu’ were kind of in cahoots with it because I think Lu’ was like, ‘Okay, now you do that, that means I don’t have to respond back and say nothing; I don’t have to go back-and-forth.’ ‘Cause I think part of Lu’ felt like I had planned sh*t the whole time.” Royce then speaks to why he never responded to Mickey Factz last year, and why the clash with Lupe Fiasco came to an unceremonious halt. “So he thought that I was gonna keep goin’. So that was one of the reasons why I made sure that I didn’t respond, ’cause I didn’t want it to seem like I had even planned that. I don’t want to put Lu’ in the position to where he’s viewed a certain way. That ain’t what I’m here to do. So I just had to let it go. The Mickey Factz thing, people were like, ‘Yo, you gotta respond! You gotta respond,’ and that’s exactly why I didn’t respond. Don’t tell me I gotta respond; I ain’t gotta do sh*t. That’s another thing: the fans or the followers or whatever you want to call them, they think we work for them. They think we’re Stepin Fetchit and sh*t. They think we just rap when they say they want to be entertained.”

This Friday, August 12, Royce 5’9 is releasing The Heaven Experience Vol. 1. The compilation, featuring four new songs, is named after Nickel’s Detroit, Michigan studio. The collection celebrates the acquisition of the masters to Royce’s expansive solo catalog, spanning more than 20 years. Earlier this year, Lupe dropped DRILL MUSIC IN ZION. Some selections from that LP are currently on the official Ambrosia For Heads playlist.

Royce 5’9’s Most Powerful Song Of His Career Is A Call For Solidarity & Pride

Lupe Fiasco press photo provided by Audible Treats.

#BonusBeat: A 2021 Ambrosia For Heads’ What’s The Headline podcast breakdown of the Royce 5’9 and Lupe Fiasco fallout and diss songs: