“Now, what y’all wanna do? Wanna be ballers? Shot-callers? Brawlers?” You don’t have to be a fan of hip hop to know where those lyrics are pulled from. “It’s All About the Benjamins” dropped way back when in 1997, but it’s still a relevant hip hop, party jam. The Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie-produced classic had multiple versions that featured Diddy, Notorious B.I.G., Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Lil Kim. Diddy’s bars are some of the most memorable from “It’s All About the Benjamins,” and Jadakiss talked about penning Puff Daddy’s lines during a recent visit with People’s Party with Talib Kweli.

According to Jadakiss, he was just minding his business, spittin’ a few bars when Diddy overheard him. “I already had that rhyme,” the rapper said of Diddy’s verse. “He heard it and was like, ‘Nah, that’s me. Let me get that rhyme right there. He took that and put that on ‘Benjamins.’ Me and [Sheek Louch] didn’t like the ‘Benjamins.’ He almost forced us to record the verses that we have on there. We didn’t really understand what that beat…it [didn’t] grasp us at the time. We wasn’t eager to just record it.”

Yet, Diddy had a vision and knew it would be a hit. “That’s what makes Diddy Diddy,” Jadakiss added. “That really was like, our first commercial and ‘hood hit that catapulted us besides the mixtape stuff that we was doing.” Diddy’s final “All About the Benjamins” verse wasn’t how it was initially penned, because Jadakiss also revealed that the rap mogul “did about four versions of it.”

Check out what else Jadakiss had to say below, including bits about Mase writing for Kanye and how he felt about being mentioned in Yeezy‘s 2005 hit “Touch the Sky.”

Once upon a time, The Lox was signed to Bad Boy Records. Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Styles P would grow disenchanted with their deal because their style wasn’t meshing well with Bad Boy’s sound, but parting ways was easier said than done. Jadakiss recently revealed that Diddy decided to let them go after a heated exchange resulted in Styles P throwing a chair at the mogul, but the group was still at odds with Puff over their publishing. 

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Back in 2005, The Lox visited Hot 97 and chatted with Angie Martinez about their gripes with Diddy. The group talked about signing over most of their publishing to the Bad Boy founder when they inked their contracts, and things took a turn when Diddy called the station to discuss their concerns. An angry Jadakiss told Diddy he’d throw a refrigerator at him, but thankfully, no one has had furniture tossed their way.

Recently, former Bad Boy rapper Mase took to Instagram to publicly call out Diddy for not selling him his publishing. He said that Diddy talks about “black excellence,” but when Mase approached Diddy with $2 million, Diddy allegedly rejected the offer because someone else was interested. Diddy has yet to respond to the allegations, but MRECK TV caught up with Jadakiss to get the rapper’s thoughts on Mase’s beef with Diddy.

“I think Mase got a good enough relationship, he can go talk to Diddy,” Jadakiss said. “The way we did it on the radio with Angie [Martinez], that was different. We was young kids. We ain’t understand business the way we do now, being business owners and fathers and grown men about it. Mase gotta better relationship with Diddy than we actually had, so he can go talk to him.”

“In his defense, I don’t know how it was going down so he’s doing what he gotta do,” the rapper added. “I just know I would handle it different at this point in life. When we did the whole ‘Let The Lox Go’ campaign we was still teenagers. Twenty-years-old, early twenties. Everybody’s grown men known and they know right from wrong… You can go talk to a man as a man and handle your differences, settle your differences without this foolishness or without social media.” Check it out below.

Prior to being known as The Lox, the New York hip hop group went by The Warlocks. Sheek Louch, Styles P, and Jadakiss endured a name change at the hands of Sean “Diddy” Combs when he inked a deal with them in 1995, and they were happy to adjust because it was during a time when Bad Boy Records was in its prime. 

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However, years later, The Lox members were ready to leave Bad Boy because their more hardcore rap style wasn’t blending well with the label’s creative direction. They did their best to legally be released from their contract, but Jadakiss reveals what led to Diddy finally letting the rappers move on with their careers with Bad Boy in their rearview.

Jadakiss took a trip down memory lane with HipHopDX and revisited some 1990s moments. “[Diddy] just changed our name and just walked out the room,” Jadakiss said with a smile. “At that time he was like MJ in his prime so it was like, everything he said was golden so we was young hungry whippersnappers coming from Yonkers. He knew a lot about marketing and said Warlocks wasn’t marketable and Lox was more marketable.”

Then, he shared how The Lox managed to break ties with the label. “It was probably after the argument with Diddy,” Jadakiss revealed. “When Styles threw the chair at Puff. I ain’t sure, but that was probably the last straw for that. Prior to that we was…conversations amongst the group and things of that nature, but after that little incident happened, I think that’s when we decided to part ways.”

Watch the rapper’s full clip below and listen to how his friend was responsible for giving him his rap moniker.