Top Five Hip-Hop Foes Turned Friends

Marco Torres

​Some rivalries are beyond repair. You'll never catch Kobe and Shaq trading smiles at a joint family picnic. 50 Cent and The Game will still be mugging at each other at the 2021 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. Batman will always despise that sonamabitch The Joker.

Truth be told, hip-hop is a competitive sport. Sometimes competitive firepower can turn friends into enemies. But once in a while, we'll see two warring sides move past their differences and break bread together.

In the light of the recent Trae/Z-Ro reunion, here are five other hip-hop rivals who later became buddies.

5. Joe Budden and Saigon

MTV Rap Fix

​Joe Budden delivered the first blow when he released "Letter to Saigon" and labeled Saigon "desperate." Sai responded with a hastily banged-out missive of his own, "Underachiever." While Saigon's response packed a few uppercuts, he lost points by dragging Budden's son and girlfriend into the ring.

There's no quicker way to earn hip-hop's rarely bestowed douchebag label than by talking sideways about another man's family. Following the intervention of their mutual collaborator Just Blaze, the two rappers called a truce. To further affirm their friendship, they decided to cut a song together. The track, "Bring Me Down," appears on Saigon's oft-delayed album, Greatest Story Ever Told, due out in February.

Saigon told Rap Fix that he always respected Joe Budden. "I always thought Joe was dope, even when we were going through our little thing," Saigon said. "I always thought he was one of the more talented MCs. I look at it like you'd rather have a good guy on your team than play against them.

"I'm sure Dwayne Wade is happy he could pass the ball to LeBron [James] now, instead of trying to have to block one of those thunderous dunks."

4. T.I. and Ludacris

Necolebitchie.com

​Tip and Luda went at each other's throat for years. One of the most memorable moments of their battle was when the two ATL-iens dissed each other on the same song - "Stomp," a posse cut from Young Buck's Straight Outta Cashville LP.

Luda would later clarify that he never had any personal conflict with Tip. He blamed the feud on the petty power play of the music biz. They later reconciled and teamed up for a proper collaboration on Luda's Theater of the Mind album. The news surprised the hell out of Atlanta rapper Alfamega at the time.

"It's showing that once great minds set their differences aside, they can make something happen," said Alfamega at the 2006 Ozone Awards. "That's two grown men, not two grown males, grown men!"