There's no love lost between Akadmiks and Yung Bans. By now, the animosity is well-documented, especially in light of Bans' Misunderstood project hitting streaming platforms. Yesterday, the Everyday Struggle host took to Instagram to clown Yung Bans' ostensibly low sales numbers. "Its confirmed that Yung Bans 'Misunderstood' album failed to chart on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart in its first week despite features from YNW Melly, Lil Durk, Gunna, Young Thug, xxxtentacion, Nav & more," wrote Ak, via Twitter. "Which means it didn't even sell 5K first week. SAD!"
At this point, Ak seemed vigilant in his mission to obliterate Bans' morale, continuing to double down on his disrespect. Eventually, Bans himself came through to clear the air on his own Instagram page, clapping back to defend his honor. "It’s confirmed that academics sucks dick for a living these real streams in real life flop where? Major who?" he writes. "Stop lying to the world and hating on a n***a 10 years younger then you and 10x RICHER THEN YOU WHILE ON HOUSE ARREST CLOWN 🤡 and thanks for da free promo pussy boy the streams doubled now. GO STREAM MISUNDERSTOOD NOW I LOVE YALL 1OF14E."
Ak wasn't finished. He responded directly to Bans' post, calling the authenticity of the rapper's claims into question. "Ur source is clearly miscalculated. Ur album would have been on the Billboard Top 200 this week if U sold over 4 k," retorts Ak. "U flopped. And ur lil advance light money. Just remember how torturous this week was for u before u ever try to ride a wave and start randomly hating on me. I do this for fun." Clearly, this one is personal.
In truth, this whole debacle sheds an interesting light on a harsh truth: these numbers got people fuc*ked up. As Bans explains it, 9.5 million listenened to his music on Apple Music alone. That's a staggering number, and any aspiring artist would likely value such an audience - yet given the current streaming rubric and arrival of "album-equivalent units," even millions of streams can be rendered to an underwhelming total. Still, that didn't stop Bans from using numbers as a weapon against another foe, Quality Control's Lil Yachty. "@lilyachty you sold 29k and you got 9 Million followers idk why u was ever laughing kid," he writes, in response to another comment on his post.
Is Bans right in standing up for himself? After all, both Ak and Yachty appear relentless in their verbal assault, and a man does have his limits. Perhaps the rapper truly is Misunderstood after all.