DJ Vlad, real name Vladislav Lyubovny, is best known for his website, VladTV, where he holds interviews with celebrities from all spheres of entertainment. Vlad however, is no stranger to controversy. The Ukrainian-American personality is quite a polarizing figure in culture, and frequently receives backlash for his content. Recently, he earned the backlash of the Black community following his comments on the ongoing beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake. His comments led to a heated Twitter exchange with Princeton University professor, Morgan Jenkins. With this, many claimed DJ Vlad attempted to weaponize his white privilege unlike ever before.
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What Did DJ Vlad Say And Why Is He Under Fire?
The rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has spanned a few weeks now, with each blasting the other via diss tracks. Kendrick Lamar’s latest entry to the battle, “Not Like Us,” was released on May 4, on the heels of his previous entry, “Meet The Grahams.” As expected, “Not Like Us” went viral immediately for its catchy beat and lyrics. But what stood out the most was Kendrick doubling down on all his allegations against Drake.
However, somewhere in the heat of the viral moment was DJ Vlad. He took to Twitter to share his criticism of K-Dot’s latest entry. “Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” needed a better mix,” he began. “It takes away from the song.” It didn’t take long for his tweet to garner a pile of backlash. DJ Vlad’s comments were deemed “unnecessary,” as well as an attempt to put the spotlight on himself.
Among the backlash was a tweet from Princeton University professor, Morgan Jenkins who simply responded, “You are WHITE. This is a BLACK FOLK AFFAIR.” This sentiment has been shared by several against non-Black people who have attempted to leave commentary on the diss tracks. Vlad responded negatively to Jerkins’ post and began to tag Princeton, her employer, in his subsequent responses.
DJ Vlad Pulls A Karen
DJ Vlad tagged the institution in multiple tweets against Jerkins, seemingly attempting to get her fired from her position. In one of his tweets, he said, “Wait, so a professor at @Princeton is telling me that a white person shouldn’t be allowed to voice their opinion about Hip-Hop? Is that how you interact with your students?” Jerkins, who is the niece of Hip-Hop icon Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins eventually clarified that the semester was over and her current contract with Princeton was completed, but that didn’t stop Vlad from continuing to tag the institution.
In his tweets, he seemingly urged the university to fire Jerkins, claiming that her comments were “ignorant and bigoted." In a tweet to Jerkins, he said, "Good luck being a professor at @Princeton again. I doubt the university supports their faculty telling non-black students to shut the fuck up about anything Hip-Hop related because of their skin color."
Was There An Apology?
Following the exchange, Jerkins received an outpour of support online. Many people accused DJ Vlad of weaponizing his whiteness against a Black woman, something that he has been accused of in the past. Furthermore, social media users were also quick to point out that Vlad's initial tweet got multiple disagreeing responses from men of all races, many of whom shared the same sentiment as Jerkins. The fact that he chose to double down on hers, and immediately escalated it to the point of including her place of work, led to him getting slammed on Twitter.
Things were quiet over the weekend for Vlad, but other Twitter users continued to fire at him for his comments. Unsurprisingly, he was also labeled a “Karen." Furthermore, it led to users digging deeper into Vlad’s history of involving himself with Black culture. On Monday, May 6, however, Vlad attempted to take back his statements.
He tweeted, "Since it's Monday, let me clear the air and state that I never had any intention of filing a complaint to Princeton for former professor Morgan Jerkins saying that white people aren't allowed to comment on Kendrick Lamar's music. She trolled me and I trolled back." Jerkins responded to this tweet stating that DJ Vlad was lying, as he had already tagged Princeton multiple times. Moreover, he had even allegedly tried to contact her family.
On Wednesday, May 8, DJ Vlad took to his Twitter once more. However, this time was to issue a public apology to Jerkins. The apology stated, "After considerable reflection, I would like to apologize to @MorganJerkins for tagging her job in my replies during our Twitter exchange last weekend." Unsurprisingly, the apology rang hollow to many. Vlad also deleted all his tweets from the exchange with Jerkins before publicly apologizing.