The back and forth between DJ Akademiks and Ebro Darden has been going on for years and a resurfaced clip has reignited the conversation. Ebro has consistently vocalized his displeasure with how Akademiks makes moves in the industry, while his foe has responded with blistering takes on Ebro and Peter Rosenberg being outdated. Things kicked up a notch recently after Akademiks reportedly went off about the Hot 97 pair once again, and the radio hosts responded by airing out their grievances.
Earlier this year, Ebro said that his issues with Akademiks are much like others who have criticized that social media star. "The things that he promotes and monetizes, a, he's not from or apart of, which is, you know, he has a fetish, like many young people do and suburbanites do with gangsterism and gangs and you know, all of that," he said.
"The whole pill-pop culture and all of that other nonsense, and the fact that a lot of the artists that he enjoys are just not good rappers. They're just not good at rapping," Ebro continued. Rosenberg chimed in to speak about Akademiks thumb-thugging "from his basement" while yelling on Twitch. Rosenberg recalled working in the same building as Ak and experiencing a much quieter, shy version of the blogger.
Ebro also mentioned that despite Akademiks saying he isn't a pawn of record labels, there is proof—somewhere—that he gets paid to promote music. "You prisoner to your own lifestyle, my guy. You shook. Look him up. I don't even dislike you like Rosenberg," said Ebro. "I just want you to understand what you perpetuatin' is a dead end. Is a dead end. You might have got some bread courtesy of the labels."
"Now, I'mma tell Akademiks this: If you keep poppin' that, I'm going to pull one of them invoices from one of them record labels," he continued. "You keep talking that you don't get money from record labels. It ain't nothing for me to call an accounting department and talk about those bulk record deals that you have. Those bulk promo deals where they pay you to promote music. It ain't nothin' but a thing, my G."
Listen to these two going off about their issues with Akademiks below.