Keyshia Cole Explains Late Start To VERZUZ Battle

On Thursday, fans finally got to see the highly anticipated VERZUZ between Ashanti and Keyshia Cole. However, the battle got off to a severely delayed start. Keyshia Cole took to Instagram to explain and apologize for the late start.
During an interview on Instagram live, Keyshia offered her sincerest apologies for the late start and explained that she was in the building but not on camera. Because of behind the scenes technical issues, she decided to stay off-camera until they were resolved. She explained that she wasn't ok with the lighting, the blurry screen, and she couldn’t hear Ashanti’s side.
“I want to apologize for not sitting my ass in that seat. OK? Because I was there and I should’ve sat down. I should’ve just sat in the seat no matter if I felt like the visual wasn’t clear… they said my music wasn’t gonna be right or whatever it was,” she said in the live.
“I think, more so than anything, people wanted me to sit, be present…even though they didn’t know that I was present.”
Even with the delayed start, the battle set a new Instagram record with over six million viewers, breaking the previous record held by the Jeezy and Gucci Mane battle. According to VERZUZ, the Keyshia Cole versus Ashanti battle was also the second most tweeted matchup thus far.