Keyshia Cole Was Late to Her ‘Verzuz’ Match Against Ashanti For a Reason out of Her Control

People across the globe have enjoyed viewing their favorite artists battle one another on the Verzuz official Instagram live broadcast hosted by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland. During the event, the participating artists play their nostalgia-inducing tracks as viewers recall the first time they heard the songs and share their delight in the comments and on other social media platforms such as Twitter. Though the event is pitched as a battle between the music artists, the two often share their admiration for each other and enjoy listening to the opposing artist’s discography as well

During a recent edition of the event, singers Keyshia Cole and Ashanti were the two expected to perform. After the first scheduling of the event was postponed due to Ashanti contracting coronavirus (COVID-19), fans were elated to see the event was rescheduled. However, many were frustrated during the night of the event because Cole was over an hour late. 

The ‘Verzuz’ match between Ashanti and Keyshia Cole finally happened

The event was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EST but it did not begin until over an hour later. Many took to social media to discuss the delay and shared they were no longer interested in watching the event.

Once Cole was able to successfully join the event, over 1 million viewers participated and many enjoyed the event. Still, many could not help but wonder why Cole was so late to appear on-screen. 

GoDJ Hi-C reveals why Keyshia Cole was late to the ‘Verzuz’ match

Cole’s DJ, GoDJ Hi-C, recently spoke out in an interview, sharing additional information on why the “I Should Have Cheated” singer was so late.

According to GoDJ Hi-C, it wasn’t the singer’s fault she was so late to the event as technical difficulties prevented her from joining.

“It started out weird. Stuff that you don’t see behind the scenes,” GoDJ Hi-C explained in an interview with Houston’s 97.9 The Box. “In Keyshia’s defense, I can truly say that she didn’t want to come out ’cause her screen was blurry. Because she’s a perfectionist and when stuff don’t go the right way, it’s downhill from there, 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.” 

While many believed Cole hadn’t appeared because she was not on the set at the time, GoDJ Hi-C refuted this idea and claimed this was not true.

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

Technical difficulties aside, many viewers still enjoyed the event and both artists subsequently promoted their new projects for all fans to see.