Ebro Calls Out DJ Akademiks For "Popping All That Sh*t"

BYCole Blake4.3K Views
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The Fast Company Innovation Festival - Day 1
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 20: Ebro Darden, Global Editorial Head of Hip-Hop and R&B, Apple Music, speaks onstage during The Fast Company Innovation Festival - Day 1 on September 20, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company)
Ebro says that he doesn't have the power to blackball artists.

Ebro called out DJ Akademiks for alleging that the Hot 97 morning show host blackballed DaBaby out of mainstream success. Ebro says that, not only does he not have that power, but that he's tired of Akademiks “popping all that shit.”

“I don’t have that power,” he told Baller Alert in an interview on Wednesday. “If the fans ain’t coming to your concerts, and the fans aren’t streaming your music– the music is on every platform. If the fans really want to go stream your shit, they type in your name and stream your shit.”

(Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for D'USSE)

He continued: “All programmers, all DJs, all radio people, they’re out in the clubs, they’re looking at social media, they’re seeing what people are sharing and streaming– if people are fucking with it, people play it."

Ebro added that he's sick of Akademiks “popping all that shit," and that he'd confront him over it, but he doesn’t “come outside.” He also said that Ak is only focused on covering DaBaby, NBA YoungBoy, Tory Lanez, and 6ix9ine.

Akademiks had called out Ebro while reporting that DaBaby's new project, Baby on Baby 2, was only projected to sell less than 20K.

“Now yall understand my Ebro convo," he wrote on Twitter while recalling how Blame It on Baby moved 124K in its first week. "DSPs control who is hot and who is not. Fall out of favor with them… UR DONE.”

[Via]

About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.
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