22 Jan Keyshia Cole’s DJ Explains Why She Was Late to Verzuz

Keyshia Cole had fans waiting for over an hour for her Verzuz battle with Ashanti on Thursday night.

But it wasn’t her fault, according to her DJ. In an interview with Houston’s 97.9 The Box, GoDJ Hi-C says behind-the-scenes technical difficulties led to the delayed start.

“It started out weird. Stuff that you don’t see behind the scenes,” explained GoDJ Hi-C, who provided the warm-up soundtrack. “In Keyshia’s defense, I can truly say that she didn’t want to come out ’cause her screen was blurry.”

Keyshia was waiting for the issues to be resolved before she appeared on screen. “She was there but she didn’t want to come out because the screen was blurry and stuff wasn’t right. We couldn’t hear [Ashanti’s] side so there was a lot of technical stuff going on in there,” he said.

“Because she’s a perfectionist and when stuff don’t go the right way, it’s downhill from there,” he added. “She was already upset about it being pushed back like it was anyway but there’s COVID. So the buildup and it made her have to push her record back…It just threw her energy off, but I did the best I could to try to bring her back but by that time, she was already upset.”

Fans had been waiting over a month for the long-awaited matchup. Their original Verzuz was slated for Dec. 12, but it was delayed at the last minute after Ashanti tested positive for COVID-19. It was rescheduled to Jan. 8 before ultimately being pushed to Jan. 21.

When things finally did get underway, Keyshia and Ashanti treated the million-plus viewers to their biggest hits and Keyshia even brought out O.T. Genasis to duet with her on “Love.” Both ladies also debuted their new singles—Ashanti dropped “2:35 (I Want You)” while Keyshia’s new single “I Don’t Want to Be in Love” hits streaming services on Feb. 5.

At the end of Verzuz, Keyshia thanked fans for putting up with all the delays and alluded to problems behind the scenes. “You guys have no idea what it took for me to get here tonight, but it’s all good. We’ll talk about that later,” she said.

During the livestream, Swizz Beatz also shared his frustration over the wait. “This is very disrespectful can’t lie man,” he wrote in the Instagram group chat.

If you missed it, watch the full stream below.