Verzuz, Once Beloved, Is Now Dead. We Just Haven’t Buried It Yet.

Remember 2020? COVID-19 shut the world down, and we were all stuck at home. Back then, Verzuz felt like church. You logged on, got your snacks, and argued in the group chat like your life depended on it. It was joy in the middle of a world that felt like it was falling apart. But that time has passed. We are back outside. Now these battles feel like Smokey Robinson singing about gang banging.

The energy is off, the stakes are low, and the culture is not excited anymore. What once felt necessary now feels like an obligation.

Real talk, Verzuz is not dying. It is already dead.

Verzuz is dead. Even if it did attempt a comeback, it won't be the same.

You can't recapture that magic when everyone was stuck in the house in the pandemic, and it was like a concert at home.

— Old Head Energy (@Cheamane) February 24, 2025

Let’s be clear. I am not hating. I loved these battles. They were needed because we were locked in the house with nowhere to go and our lives were in danger. They gave us a chance to watch two legendary artists go hit for hit when we needed it most. Even the technical mishaps were part of the charm. We argued about catalogs and clowned the setups at the same time. Who could forget the joy the Teddy Riley vs Babyface or the 112 vs Jagged Edge technical issues brought Black folks around the globe?

But the world is different now. People can watch Jay-Z perform at Yankee Stadium or see Brandy, Monica, and Cardi B at Essence Fest. Ain’t nobody rushing home to watch two C-level R&B acts that could not sell out a high school gym in your city. (Let’s be honest. That is what Tank and Tyrese are. Sorry ladies.) Watching these two ashy knee-grows politely scroll through their catalogs on Instagram Live is not an event.

So are tank and Tyrese both doing 20 songs each???? Like….. can it be lowered to 10 for them. Maybe 5?? Because that’s gonna be a lot of deeeeeep cuts that the GP doesn’t know at all. A verzuz is supposed to be HIT FOR HIT!

— Don’t let em fool you, Ci got it from the mudd… (@chris__period) March 19, 2026

What felt like a lifeline in 2020 now feels like a relic. You cannot recreate urgency when the moment that created it is gone.

Verzuz stopped feeling like ours the moment it got cleaned up for sponsors and big platforms. What made it hit was the mess. The bad WiFi, the random stories, the feeling that anything could happen. Now it feels rehearsed, packaged, and safe. Like somebody ran Black culture through a boardroom and came back with a product.

The intimacy is gone, and the rough edges that made it special have been smoothed out. And once you lose that, you are just another show competing for our attention.

Verzuz did not fall off by accident. It got polished into irrelevance. Not everything that defined a moment deserves to outlive it.

Dragging it out now just cheapens what it was. The culture has moved on. It is time for Verzuz to do the same.