Ladies and gentlemen, the long and twisted tale of Lupe Fiasco and Pete Rock’s week-long sample dispute.

Things started heating up last weekend when Lupe released ‘Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)’, the lead single from forthcoming double album Food & Liquour II: The Great American Rap Album. The track borrows liberally from – or, at the very least, nods heavily towards – ‘T.R.O.Y (They Reminisce Over You)’, Pete Rock & C.L Smooth’s untouchable tribute to their deceased associate Troy ‘Trouble T’ Dixon (of Heavy D & The Boyz).

On Monday, Rock turned to Twitter to express his disdain for ‘Around My Way’, claiming: “No disrespect to lupe fiasco and i like him alot but TROY should be left alone. Feel so violated,the beat is next to my heart and was made Outta anguish and pain. When it’s like that it should not be touched by no one”. Things got moderately more heated: “I’m not flattered @ all. Dat sh– is wack, and the producer should be ashamed of his f–kin self”.

Lupe responded the following day by Tweeting links to other ‘T.R.O.Y’ remakes, tributes and reworks (including Mann’s recent straight-up rubbish ‘Reminisce’). He also paid tribute to the original song, linking to the video with the strap “#20YearsLaterStillTheBest”. The pair appeared conciliatory, with Rock tweeting that he and Lupe had been on the phone and “worked out our differences” and hinted that they might work together.

By Wednesday, things had soured. Lupe, apparently stung that Rock had announced a possible collaboration too hastily, went on a ten minute radio rant in his defence. Pete Rock has now issued a long statement in response, claiming that the sample had been used only on the basis of a loose conditional ‘yes’. He also suggests that Lupe’s label Atlantic Records only approached him when he was in mourning after Heavy D’s recent death, and that the label failed to keep him abreast of developments with the track. You can read the full statement over at Complex.

You can stream both the original and the offending rework below.