It has often been whispered about behind the scenes of the music industry that Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez have had a long standing beef for nearly two decades. In fact, their beef dates back to 2002 and based on their more recent shade towards each other- like Mariah publicly saying ‘she doesn’t know J. Lo’; or J. Lo’s  dry response to Mariah’s performance at the Billboard Music Awards- the feud is apparently still in full force, like it just happened yesterday.

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The feud was reportedly sparked by Mariah’s ex-husband and then Sony Music exec (whom Michael Jackson also couldn’t stand), Tommy Mottola, allegedly doing some shady business in a quest to sabotage Mariah’s project, Glitter. According to Murder Inc. label owner, Irv Gotti, Tommy Mottola called him up and wanted a collabo’ between J. Lo and Ja Rule to sound a lot like the one Ja Rule had just recorded with Mariah for her Glitter movie and soundtrack. Here’s how it all went down, according to Irv and Fox News:

Not only was a song sample Carey intended to use taken from Glitter, but a concept as well.

All of this has to do with Lopez’s hit song, “I’m Real,” which in fact is two different songs.

On Lopez’s album J.LO, “I’m Real” appears as an upbeat dance number. There’s no rapping or male vocal accompaniment. The record does sample the old disco song, “Firecracker.”

The remixed “I’m Real,” which was released a few weeks later, is quite different. It’s a slow give and take duet between Lopez and rapper Ja Rule. This version became Lopez’s hit single. Two songs, one title.For Glitter, Mariah Carey had found the “Firecracker” sample and recorded it on her soundtrack as “Loverboy.” For another Glitter track called “If We,” she and Ja Rule recorded a slow give and take vocal. On J.LO, the upbeat “I’m Real” ripped off Carey’s planned — and subsequently scuttled version — of “Loverboy.” The remixed version of “I’m Real” — which Irv Gotti referred to in his XXL interview — copied the style and substance of “If We.” Creatively, Carey — who’d worked hard on Glitter for a year in secret — could say she was plundered twice.

In XXL, Gotti is asked by writer Keith Murphy: “Is it true that Tommy Mottola asked Murder Inc. [Gotti’s production company] to do the remix of [Jennifer Lopez’s] “I’m Real” after hearing a song Ja Rule did with Mariah Carey on theGlitter soundtrack?”Gotti replies: “Ja wrote a song with him and Mariah singing back and forth on the title track. I get a call from Tommy Mottola, who I have a great relationship with, and he’s like, ‘I need you to do me a favor. I want you to do this remix for Jennifer Lopez. I want you to put Ja on the record.’ Immediately I knew what he was doing because we just finished the Mariah record.”

And this whole jack move now makes sense with the reportedly ongoing tension between the two ladies and their sometimes public shade.