DJ Akademiks Agrees With Young Thug's Kendrick Lamar Criticism

BY Gabriel Bras Nevares 3.1K Views
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DJ Akademiks Young Thug Kendrick Lamar Hip Hop News
Feb 6, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Kendrick Lamar during a press conference for the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show at Media Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
DJ Akademiks compared Kendrick Lamar to Drake while reacting to Young Thug's criticism of the Compton lyricist.

Young Thug recently ruffled a lot of feathers by criticizing Kendrick Lamar in an alleged leaked audio clip, with the issue stemming around Kendrick's no-show response to a feature request. Furthermore, fan opinions are divided, but DJ Akademiks understands Thugger's frustration.

In a clip from his livestream caught by joebuddenclips/fanpage on Twitter, he explained why he agrees with this take despite Thug coming off as "a little bit entitled" in his view. "It seems like he really wanted his feature, but I agree with him," Ak posited.

"Kendrick wants to be Drake without doing Drake s**t," DJ Akademiks said of Kendrick Lamar. "If you want to be the guy who's this number one really super popular dude, you got to do some of these things. [...] Kendrick doesn't do that. Putting people on, that actually shows how your impact is. Kendrick just keeps everything for himself, and we don't know how much his influence and impact is on other artists."

From there, Akademiks praised Drizzy's genre crossovers and public demonstrations of his success in comparison to the Compton lyricist. As such, he agrees with Young Thug's claim that Lamar will never be as big as the 6ix God. In addition, the media personality and reporter also brought up Baby Keem and other Kendrick affiliates who are not getting a proportionate buzz in relation to his dominance.

Young Thug Kendrick Lamar Beef

All in all, DJ Akademiks dismisses Kendrick Lamar's Drake beef because he thinks Kendrick needs to move similarly to The Boy if he really wants to claim the top spot. He also claimed that a lot of big hip-hop artists share this same animosity towards the pgLang creative's "lame-a** rappity rap s**t." "All the street n***as, they think this, I'm telling you," Akademiks alleged.

Elsewhere, Ak created a contrast between Kendrick Lamar's "rap world" and Drake's "real world" in his view, claiming that the former's fans are deluding themselves into thinking Kendrick's dominant in the latter's world. He also added that he thinks the Toronto superstar will stay loyal amid Young Thug's controversies and that Thug would've been the only Atlanta rapper to speak out against Kendrick's "Not Like Us" diss, if he wasn't in jail at the time.

Finally, DJ Akademiks said folks should hold the same energy for Kendrick they do for Aubrey Graham when it comes to a lack of interviews with hip-hop media.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.

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