Kanye West Reveals Dipset Tried To ‘Kill’ Him Over JAY-Z’s ‘Izzo’ Beat
Kanye West has revealed that his decision to give JAY-Z the beat for Izzo (H.O.V.A.) sparked serious backlash from Dipset, who had originally wanted the instrumental for themselves.
During an appearance on The Download podcast with Justin Laboy, the rap mogul reflected on the tension his move created, claiming that Dipset members Cam’ron and Jim Jones were furious with him.
“I remember the story. They was gonna kill me for that ‘H to the Izzo’ beat!” Kanye recalled while in a studio in Japan with Jim Jones. He added that the fallout made him wary for months. “I stayed in Jersey for about three months. I was like, ‘Gee [Roberson, his manager at the time], you know them, right? ‘Cause Jimmy was screaming pretty loud on the phone, man.’”
Despite the past tension, Jim Jones laughed off the situation, suggesting that any hard feelings had long since faded.
Cam’ron previously addressed the controversy in 2022, revealing that he had originally secured the beat from Kanye before finding out it had been given to JAY-Z. Speaking on Million Dollaz Worth of Game, he admitted to being angry at Kanye for a long time.
“I was mad at Kanye for a long time until I got to Roc-A-Fella,” Cam’ron said. “He would play beats for me when I had my deal with Sony and Epic. He played this beat for me, and I was like, ‘Oh, nah. I want that one.’ I wrote the song that night.”
However, just weeks later, he was blindsided when he heard JAY-Z’s now-iconic track.
“Two weeks later, I heard, ‘H to the Izzo, V to the Izzay.’ I was like, ‘Is this the fucking beat you just told me I could have?’ He gave it to Hov and I was pissed.”
Cam’ron’s work on the track didn’t go to waste, though. He later repurposed the lyrics for Live My Life (Leave Me Alone) from his 2002 album Come Home With Me.
“If you listen to the song… ‘Leave me alone, let me just live my life.’ That’s to that beat,” he explained. “Listen to the pianos and all that. I wrote it to that.”
Despite the initial fallout, the incident is now part of hip-hop history, highlighting the competitive nature of the industry and the lasting impact of The Blueprint on Kanye’s rise to fame.
Check out the segment at 26:21 mark below.
