If you were one of the people who tuned into the Verzuz battle between Ludacris and Nelly on Instagram Live last night ready to shake ya tail feather to bops from the 2000s, you were likely disappointed because of Nelly’s shitty wifi.
For some reason the stream from the St. Louis rapper, whose Country Grammar is one of only ten rap albums in history to gain Diamond certification, was blurry and choppy and buffering for most of the session. I got so annoyed by it that I eventually tapped out of watching the Live.
Ludacris had way more patience than me and kept playing hits like “Welcome to Atlanta” and “Pimpin All Over the World,” even while Nelly kept periodically disappearing from his own video screen.
It was reminiscent of the technical difficulties that notoriously plagued Teddy Riley during his first Verzuz with Babyface, and Black Twitter reliably responded to last night’s debacle with comedy that ended up being more entertaining than the main event:
Despite everyone yelling at Nelly that his internet needed fixing, the rapper still seemed to be having the time of his life during the session—playing songs like “Hot in Herre,” but also lesser known tracks from recent years that absolutely no one but him was checking for.
His commitment to his own joy in the midst of madness was kinda admirable.
Verzuz organizer Swizz Beatz has reportedly said Nelly was provided with all he needed to avoid the technical snafus that plagued last night’s battle. But all’s well that ends well, since we now have some hilarious parodies of the livestream to humor us: