DJ Akademiks is a massive hip-hop fan and a self-proclaimed top dog in the culture, but his recent assessment of recent and self-driven Drake updates in comparison to the long-awaited J. Cole album this week shows that he definitely has his biases. During a livestream caught by CY Chels on Twitter, he claimed that the recent Drizzy snippet from ICEMAN got more buzz than the release of Cole's The Fall-Off last night (Friday, February 6).
"I think that those snippets upstaged the entire J. Cole album," the commentator remarked. For those unaware, Ak was the one who had shared these presumed ICEMAN snippets online, which many pages have since taken down. He even claimed that the 6ix God was mad at him for doing this, particularly on this night, and the removal of those snippets from the Internet lends credibility to that allegation. The snippets featured The Boy unsurprisingly talking about his opposition.
"When people say, 'Why would Ak do it?,' well, I did it for that moment, to be the n***a who did it for that moment," DJ Akademiks continued. "If I had a Kendrick [Lamar] snippet, I'd have played it then, even with Drake. If I had a J. Cole snippet, I'd play it during the stream for Drake too. I don't care. At the end of the day, you know I'm hip-hop, bro. It's funny 'cause I don't think no one's happy with me about that... Drake isn't that happy. I imagine Cole's people are throwing a little hissy fit."
"The timing was me," he continued. "I literally announced I got some Drake songs, I don't know if y'all want to hear it. When I tease it the fans say, 'Ak, we don't want to hear it, you're f***ing it up.' But then people want to know, 'When is ICEMAN?' So that morning, when I was going to do the J. Cole stream... Alright, hip-hop's going to be in the building... It's a hip-hop moment. I want this year to be spicy. So I said, 'Yo, I'm dropping it today. I'ma just tease it right before I get into Cole's album.'"
Do Drake & J. Cole Have Beef?
Of course, DJ Akademiks is not a big J. Cole fan, so many fans think this isn't telling the full story of intent. He has been very critical of Cole's apology in the K.Dot and Drizzy beef and the more contemplative nature of his music.
"And I play it, and when I wake up in the morning, maybe I'm a little wrong, but there's more headlines of the snippet being teased than about Cole's album," Ak alleged, hinting toward his biases in the end. "Which was a little bit shocking, but not really."
As for Drake and J. Cole's dynamic, we really have no idea at this point. Some fans look to "Port Antonio" as evidence of good vibes, others think Birthday Blizzard '26 contained a diss at the Toronto superstar, a few think that the OVO mogul is mad at Cole, but most people are unclear. With no clear answers from the Dreamville boss, even though many assume he's got no smoke, we'll see if ICEMAN provides any clarity.
Read More: The Fractured History Of Drake & Rihanna
