Earlier today, Plaxico Burress and Fabolous were two of the guests featured on ESPN First Take, which is being broadcast live from Bryant Park in New York City this week. First, Burress appeared on the show to talk about the Super Bowl with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith:
And later—towards the end of the show—Fabolous made an appearance to talk about Macklemore's Grammy wins and his Super Bowl predictions:
Now, ordinarily, having a former athlete and a rapper on the same episode of First Take wouldn't be a big deal. Former athletes and rappers have become regulars on the program. But today was a little bit different because, as you might remember, Burress and Fabolous had a pretty serious beef a few years ago—a beef that, to the best of our knowledge, was never really cleared up and deaded.
Back in 2011—roughly three years after Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg at an NYC nightclub in November 2008—the New York Daily Newspublished an article that featured Burress talking about how he had carried a gun to the Latin Quarter nightclub the night that he was shot in order to protect himself from a "crew of stickup kids" called Street Family from Brooklyn (the same crew that allegedly robbed Sebastian Telfair in 2006). He told the Daily News that he had heard the crew had robbed several high-profile celebrities and athletes, and he wanted to avoid becoming their next victim. And that did not sit well with Fabolous, who is a Street Family affiliate and even runs a record label called Street Family.
So towards the end of 2011, Fabolous released a song called "Lord Knows," which appeared on his mixtape, There Is No Competition III: Death Comes in 3s, that featured him addressing the Daily News article and taking shots at Burress.
"Problem is, assholes always saying shit/But money talks—you ain't got it, then you shouldn't be saying shit," he rapped on the song, "Lord Knows." "Like Plaxi-ho, oops, I mean Plaxico/Talking 'bout we got 'em robbed—shut the fuck up, Cheddar Bob."
And last year, during an interview on Power 105's Breakfast Club, Fabolous took the time to explain why he was so upset at Burress in 2011.
"I even had a little issue with Plaxico," he said. "Cause one time, he had went to a newspaper, sayin' the reason that he carried a gun and shot his self was 'cause Fab and the Street Fam was robbin' athletes and stuff. I was just like, 'Whoa.' It was a thrown-under-the-bus situation…I don't know why he chose to throw our names or make me any kind affiliation with that…It was a dry snitch-type situation."
With all of that in mind, we were pretty surprised to see Burress and Fabolous pop up on First Take on the same day this morning. And we weren't alone, either. Apparently, quite a few people out there remember the beef they had back in 2011—with more than a few of them referencing it on Twitter after the show aired today:
I find it funny that plaxiho oops I mean plaxico lol was on first take the same day as @myfabolouslife
@myfabolouslife did u run into or say anything to Plaxico on the first take set this morning? #OOPSIMEANPLAXIHO
Lmao plaxiHOE oops I mean plaxico burress(fab voice) probably snuck out the back door hoping he don't run into @myfabolouslife
We reached out to ESPN earlier this afternoon to try and find out how Burress and Fabolous ended up on the same show and they declined to comment. But all indications are that Burress and Fabolous did not run into each other before or after their First Take segments today. And that's probably for the best. Given their history—and the fact that it doesn't sound like they ever resolved their beef—it had the potential to be bad.
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