Ice Cube and Common Laugh At Their Epic Rap Beef 20 Years Later

Hope you enjoyed VH1's special "Behind The Movie: Exploring Chicago with the Cast of Barbershop: The Next Cut" as much as we did. The star-studded panel, which featured the stars of the upcoming film Barbershop: The Next Cut, had a wide-ranging discussion on everything from gun violence to $1200 hairdos.

One of the show's lighter moments came when the movie's co-stars, Ice Cube and Common, discussed their roles in an epic hip-hop beef. Two decades ago the music vets engaged in a nasty lyrical battle that eventually came to an end after a peace summit with Minster Louis Farrakhan. They've both come a long way since that time.

Basically things got ugly after Common released his 1994 single "I Used to Love H.E.R.," Ice Cube and a handful of Cali rappers took offense to Common's mention that hip-hop lost its way when the West Coast became the dominant region. A year later Cube and Westside Connect dropped the diss song "Westside Slaughterhouse" taking direct aim at the then-Chicago upstart. Of course Common clapped back with the scathing song "The B-tch in Yoo," which ruffled enough feathers amid the brewing East Coast vs. West Coast rap beef that a truce had to be called to cool things off.

Fast-forward 20 years and both participants can now look back on the moment and laugh. When asked about the beef by Sway Calloway, Common recalls thinking at the time, “Damn Cube know me? Then I was just sitting there like, ‘damn Cube dissed me.’”

While Common was shocked that the hip hop legend even targeted him for battle, Cube valued the teaching moment in the whole situation.

“It was total misunderstanding," Cube said. "Doing a movie together and showing people that even if you got a beef that you can reconcile with your brother."

Peep the clip of the discussion.

Battling a legend like Ice Cube is definitely a huge feather in the cap for Common, but the influence he's had throughout his career wasn't built on that one moment. Check out the clip below where the Chicago hip hop elder statesmen and rising star Vic Mensa discuss what they do to pave the way for others in their hometown.