By SaChina Russell

The Verzuz battle between Ashanti and Keyshia Cole finally went down after having to be rescheduled, first from December 12 last year to January 9 and then to January 21.

Back in December, the show was cancelled at the last minute after Ashanti confirmed only hours before the event that she had tested positive for COVID-19.

Verzuz is an American webcast series, produced by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, that was introduced during the pandemic as a platform for virtual DJ battles.

Timbaland and Swizz were the first artistes to face off in March 2020, using Instagram Live to broadcast the virtual event.

Verzuz was introduced really as a socially distant production, hence the use of Instagram Live, but as the series became more popular in Summer 2020, and after the game-changing battle between Jamaica’s Bounty Killer and Beenie Man, the standard became for the meetings to take place in person.

After the second postponement, due to rising COVID-19 cases, the ladies were finally able to go hit for hit on Thursday night.

Mimicking the Verzuz battles from the earlier days of quarantine, the battle between Cole and Ashanti was set up with the artistes being videoed simultaneously, but not in the same room, in order to adhere to social distancing protocols.

They were both seated on actual throwns, sponsored by brands Cîroc and Doritos. The scene was also colour coded with red representing Ashanti and blue for Cole.

Fans had to wait six extra weeks for the clash to finally go down but, as soon as it did, viewers were greeted with disappointment.

Cole was surprisingly unprofessional, starting off with her arriving over an hour late.

Ashanti, on the other hand, was sitting pretty, patiently waiting and cheering up the fans as she tried to get in contact with Cole.

When finally arrived and the battle got under way, she seemed restless and agitated. Her attitude was just not pleasant.

But, despite the need for an attitude check, music can always bring individuals back in line, or at least it helps to smoothen out any rough situations.

The songs Cole led with were related to relationships. She broke out her some of her classics like I Should Have Cheated, Love, Trust and Believe, and Give it Up to Me which featured Jamaican reggae artiste Sean Paul.

Ashanti went for songs like What’s Luv, Foolish, Baby, Rain on Me and closing out with all-time favourite Always on Time featuring Ja Rule.

Overall, Ashanti, took the battle with ease. Her aura was calm and she just confidently and beautifully snatched the title of Verzuz winner.