In the hip-hop landscape, there is no shortage of polarizing figures. Whether it’s their approach to the artform, their persona or their dealings with their fellow MC’s, rappers have always evoked strong emotions from audiences in ways that last way beyond the duration of a track.
Yet in today’s era, there is another degree of animosity which is reserved for the modern-day hip-hop commentator. From Joe Budden to Charlamagne Tha God and even Anthony Fantano of TheNeedleDrop, the size of their platforms and their tendency to make bold, sweeping statements means that when they go against the grain with a new perspective, they can catch plenty of flak from social media. In more extreme cases, their words can be so pointed as to merit a response from the artists whom they’d placed under the microscope.
Yet for all that Budde or Charlamagne may occasionally rile up fan bases and rappers alike, no one excels at embroiling himself in controversies quite like DJ Akademiks.
Since launching his YouTube channel in July of 2015, Akademiks– real name Livingston Allen– has gone from a reporter on the peripheral outskirts of hip-hop to finding himself entrenched in the game to such an extent that he even put out a half-satirical project of his own.
No stranger to mingling with the game’s biggest stars, ‘Ak’ has appeared on livestreams with Drake, served as the go-to correspondent during the rise and unceremonious fall of 6ix9ine, once starred alongside Joe Budden on Everyday Struggle, and has made more money off of Twitch than practically anyone in the industry.
Along the way, he’s also found himself in regular verbal sparring matches with artists, media personalities, and everyone in-between that have made him into an inescapable force in the broader culture.
Beloved by the patrons of his chat and held in utter contempt by countless others, controversy is never far away where AK is concerned.
Hot on the heels of his latest war of words with a bonafide hip-hop megastar, it’s time to take a look at some of the biggest storms that Akademiks– both the brand and the man behind it— has ever had to weather.
Vic Mensa Stands Up for Chicago
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During the early portion of his career, one ongoing fixture of his YouTube content that helped to establish Ak as a prominent commentator was his “War In Chiraq” series. So much of a staple of his output that it eventually merited its own channel, this platform saw Ak recapping the murders, fizzling beefs, and other combustible developments that were happening on the streets of Chicago.
Given that he wasn’t from there, it was unsurprising that some natives of Chi-town took umbrage with his decision to chronicle the gritty, often heartbreaking goings-on that they were playing out on their streets. Considering that there is no shortage of stars who emanate from the windy city, it seemed like only a matter of time until someone would check him for it.
As it turns out, that person was none other than former SAVEMONEY collective member and artistic chameleon Vic Mensa. During a 2017 trip to Everyday Struggle, Vic confronted Ak and made it clear that he believed him to be complicit in glorifying the situation in his city, even going as far as to threaten violence against him.
"I wanted to slap you in your face honestly," said a riled-up Vic. "I’m just seeing you here for the first time and this is a tame environment so I am going to keep it to my words, but it’s people like you who sensationalized and made a following off of clowning situations that we go through in real life. I think n****s didn’t have no right, you specifically like you didn’t never have a right. Whatever gave you the right to have a perspective on our people dying on a daily basis?
"There was nothing constructive about what you were doing," Vic elaborated. "To tell you the truth, I really think you’re a bitch to be honest because there is a video that you put up about a person named Tre-57, making all these jokes calling him stupid, n***a this is not a video game; that’s a n***a that I grew up with, that I have known since I was five-years-old. To see you clowning him on the internet with this corny ass little voice and making jokes about it, I was waiting to see you."
Thankfully for Akademiks, things never devolved into a physical confrontation. But while Ak is usually eager to defend himself on stream, this face-to-face exchange proved to be one occasion in which he was conspicuously quiet and it’s safe to say that it has loomed large in the cultural memory ever since.
Akademiks Vs Megan Thee Stallion
When all of the drama unfolded between former beaus turned bitter enemies Tory Lanez and Megan Thee Stallion, most people within hip-hop didn’t hesitate to nail their flag to the mast in support of one party or the other.
Sure enough, Ak was no different and for the most part, he made it clear that he felt that Tory’s alleged shooting of Megan was a concerted effort to derail Tory’s career.
Initially, the Houston artist– who evidently felt that she had bigger fish to fry– chose to ignore his provocations and keep pursuing what she sees as justice. However, this would all change when it came time for the latest court hearing on the matter.
After Ak had reported that no shred of Tory’s DNA was found on the gun, Megan wasted little time in rebuking his claims.
"Yall got breaking news 15 minutes before court started and nobody has even been called in yet?" Meg wrote via Instagram. "Yall tryna win a social media campaign, this is my real life! Yall tryna get retweets spreading false narratives! @iamakademiks why are you lying? What did you gain?"
Intent on defending the veracity of his reporting, Akademiks quickly went on the offensive. In the wake of her disputing his claims– which lawyer Alex Spiro labeled as :nothing more than the dishonest machinations of a desperate man"-- Ak would go in on the platinum-selling artist on Twitter and amid demanding a formal retraction and apology, he also took aim at her contractual obligations--
"@theestallion .. U cant lil n***a me never in ur life," he proclaimed. "U literally signed to a n***a.. managed by a firm and signed to another conglomerate.. U dont own nothing u put out. U literally won all ur awards off sympathy off this u got shot story line... GET UR MASTERS BACK then holla. u so bothered over my TWEETING out FACTS about tory case. GO ASK THE DA... DNA RESULTS WAS SUBMITTED in discovery... why u care so much what the internet says? OH i know.. U been living off a narrative and its sad u made it where if tory dont go to jail u dont win."
With both parties unwilling to back down, you can expect that the final chapter in Ak’s latest war of words has yet to be written.
Threatened By the Queen
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Although he may be engaged in online warfare with the woman otherwise known as Tina Snow at the moment, Meg is by no means the only prominent female MC that Ak's fallen afoul of.
Years before he was even a household name, AK had made his feelings known on the break-up of Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill. Allegedly, his comments proved to be inflammatory in the eyes of the Young Money artist, and without hesitation, she began to ask around for his location.
As any longtime fan will know, Nicki isn’t shy about airing her grievances with journalists and as AK’s profile continued to grow, she refused to let bygones be bygones.
First revealed during Ak’s recent interview with DJ Vlad, Nicki’s distaste for Ak eventually compelled her to slide into the online commentator’s DMs.
"You’ve been mad since I made a joke about you with Joe on my show," Nicki declared. "The people you rep won’t stop your job from being broke. I know too much about your family for you to be playing with me, you hoe ass rat. Where you at now? Send your number. My husband wants to talk to you. If I were you, I’d send the number ’cause you’re gonna make it worse."
In spite of the threats made against not only himself but his family, AK has praised Nicki at length over the years for her power to command a devoted and unwavering fanbase.
Ak Vs Freddie Gibbs
If you’re going to decry an artist’s star power on a public forum such as the internet, you probably shouldn’t be too surprised if they go out of their way to respond to you. In the case of Akademiks’ attempted belittling of Gary Indiana’s own Freddie Gibbs, that’s exactly what happened.
Although it feels like these two have been nemeses since birth at this point, the discord between Gibbs and Ak all started after he stuck his oar into Gangsta Gibbs’ ongoing feud with Jeezy
"If Jeezy is irrelevant, Freddie Gibbs, you are absolutely irrelevant as well," the Twitch host declared on his infamous stream. "If Jeezy drops an album right now, he will sell 50,000... Relevancy means is your music actually doing anything? And to be honest, other than the few people who f*** with Freddie Gibbs, what relevance does he have?"
Almost immediately, Akademiks’ comments were seen as shortsighted by hip-hop fans at large and downplayed the importance that Gibbs holds within the genre in the present day. Unwilling to let his fanbase defend his honor, Freddie soon waded into the fray and used his acerbic wit to issue some brutal putdowns to his new foe. Although there was no shortage of verbal sparring, his offhand declaration of "bitch u built like a teletubby" garnered such a response online that it was even parlayed into a merch line.
Ever since then, the two have been at odds and every time that their rival sustains any sort of public L-- whether being suspended from Twitch or getting into a fight with Jim Jones-- the other party is always waiting in the wings to capitalize with another barbed comment.
Recently, Akademiks has changed tact, and now, he’s focused his attention on convincing the world that Gibbs’ entire persona is fraudulent.
"This is when I realized that Freddie Gibbs is 6ix9ine. Freddie Gibbs is the son of a cop. Okay, let's keep all these things in mind. Father, cop. Brother, district attorney. Other brother, a doctor," AK affirmed. "Remember, these are the gangster rappers. He's claiming he's Vice Lord, he's big, tough and everything. He's tweeting out public threats to me. [Saying] I could have killed you."
Despite Akademiks recently prodding the bear by saying that the sales figures of Gunna’s DS4- which contains a diss of sorts towards Gibbs– would be the biggest that they’d ever be associated with, Freddie has relented for now. However, you can bet that it will surge to the fore again before long.
Akademiks Vs Other Media Figures
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As far as Akademiks sees it, he is the vanguard of a new era in hip-hop journalism that has rendered many of the previous tastemakers obsolete. Purporting himself as the biggest name in rap reportage, Ak has since doubled down and expanded his efforts to the world of podcasting too.
However, that doesn’t mean for one second that he nurtures a healthy respect for his fellow media personalities.
Over the years, Ak has had run-ins with a wide variety of his fellow press outlets. From other YouTubers such as DomIsLive and Adam22 of No Jumper to Showtime’s Desus and Mero, Ak has gotten on the bad side of almost everybody in his bracket.
But if any feud has been particularly long-lasting and volatile, it is that of himself and former The Joe Budden Podcast former co-hosts, Rory and Mal.
Ever since Rory accused him of being an “instigator” and a “bozo” after the untimely passing of XXXtentacion, Akademiks has done his utmost to decry the pair. More specifically, taking aim at the very contracts and remuneration that would eventually leave them to depart from the show:
"Listen, I'm not Rory and I'm not [Mal]. It should be very evident what I built because them bum ass n****s are struggling," Ak remarked in 2020. "Facts! I’m gonna be aight. You know what I like about what Joe did?... Joe making millions, he don’t care. You see them little bum ass n***s that y'all be like Rory and Mini Mal? Them n****s is living like check-to-check. Them n****s is really down bad. That was never me."
Later down the line, Ak would go as far as to pry into Rory’s personal life and even chronicled Farrell’s split from his fiancee in excruciating detail.
Aside from Rory and Mal, another duo who have received plenty of smoke from Akademiks over the years is Ebro Darden and Peter Rosenberg of Hot 97.
After sporadically throwing shots at each other since December of 2020, things have now degenerated to the point that the popular Twitch streamer has suggested that he’d be willing to throw hands over it.
"Rosenberg, I probably made more this year on Spotify than you’ve made your entire career at Hot 97," he declared. "I don’t f*ck with y’all n*ggas. Y’all been knew. I never apologize to none of y’all, I ain’t f*ck with y’all, I created my own sh*t. So, good, I’m glad you said that. It’s on now.
"Here’s the last conversation I had with you Rosenberg, when you thought I was p*ssy and you said, ‘Yo, Ak, you only talk on the internet,’ this, that and the third, and I hit you up and I said, ‘N*gga, if you really think I’m scared of you, we can meet up and box. I’m not doing it on no celebrity thing."
The Chrissy Teigen Incident
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For the most part, Akademiks’ status as his own boss has meant that no matter how objectionable a comment may be, there's usually little to no consequences. But when he trained his sights on model and celebrity chef Chrissy Teigen, he soon discovered that he wasn’t completely beyond reproach.
On yet another blistering, Henny-fuelled Twitch stream, Ak decided to look at what he saw as the lackluster first-week sales of John Legend’s 2020 album, stating,
"It’s bewildering to me. His b***h be talking mad s**t online. What’s… I dislike this b***h so much, I can’t even lie to you. One time she sneak-dissed me so f**k that hoe. Straight up and John Legend could hear that. Don’t have your b***h dissing me because I don’t give two f***s about none of y’all n****s. One time she was sneak dissing me. I don’t play that. I don’t care if you John Legend’s b***h or any other b***h. How about you take that f*****g big ass mouth of yours and that f*****g weird-ass looking face and start promoting your man’s album and maybe he wouldn’t do 25,000 f*****g first week."
In the wake of his comments, Ak was largely condemned online and found himself suspended from Everyday Struggle for a week. In later interviews, Akademiks has pointed to this situation as the beginning of the end for the panel show overall.
Canceled By Meek Mill
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Where many of Akademiks’ beefs are akin to sudden volcanic eruptions, the seeds of his differences with Philadelphia’s Meek Mill were sown long ago. Way back in 2018, Akademiks posted what was a fairly innocuous tweet about the sales figures of Meek’s Legends Of The Summer EP, In response, Meek saw fit to air him out, proclaiming that, "I gotta follow this page and keep my eyes on y’all, this like a mumble rapper promo page."
As it transpired, that’s exactly what he did and while they didn’t interact for a few years, June of 2020 saw Meek provide his formal decree on what must be done with Akademiks.
"Akademiks canceled because he’s a bad police and our culture don’t need them," Mill said on Twitter. "He also gassed a lot of beef that got people killed and hurt and never donated a dollar to the culture! We gone holla at you next run champ lol."
Despite the Dreamchasers CEO calling for a boycott, Ak has refused to back down and even engaged in a 21 Savage-moderated confrontation with him during the streamer’s welcome party to Clubhouse.
At present, it appears that these two are destined to despise one another and after Meek’s album, Expensive Pain, underperformed on the charts, Ak was quick to claim that he purchased sponsored posts on various Instagram accounts.
Nipsey Hussle Clowns Ak
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At the moment, Akademiks’ brand seems fairly solidified and while it might not be to everyone’s taste, there is no indication that he’ll be slipping into irrelevance anytime soon. That said, one man who was convinced that AK would gradually fade into insignificance was none other than the late Nipsey Hussle. After encountering Ak at Complex, Nipsey decided that he couldn’t stand idly by without giving his assessment of the media figure to the wider world.
"He’s a buster. He’s a weirdo. N****s will hoop his ass in real life," Nip declared. "He’s behind the camera and you guys let clowns be clowns, man. I was on Everyday Struggle and I walked out just because I’m not a clown. I don’t come from that world. You make jokes about [it], we used to fuck n***s up for trying to film fights."
"He got a little internet run going on, but we gotta just let him self-destruct because he’s on the path."
An assessment that many of Akademiks detractors uphold to this day, Nipsey’s sentiments weren’t too dissimilar from others who’ve seen Ak as a scourge upon the hip-hop world whose primary function is to instigate, rather than investigate.
But according to Akademiks, he and the late West Coast artist didn’t necessarily end on bad terms.
"We spoke on the phone," Akademiks later said in a livestream. "We gon’ leave it like that. It’s no more back-and-forth with the words. I gave him my word. He gave me his word. So, I would like to leave that there."
Whatever transpired with Ak and Nipsey when they were away from the prying eyes of the public, you can guarantee that his call with him wouldn’t be the last time that he has an aggrieved MC on the other end of the line. Nonetheless, as long as he keeps courting controversy, you can guarantee that there’ll always be a rabid audience that's ready to engage with his content.