Ebro Refutes The Belief That He's A Hater Of Independent Media

BY Cole Blake
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Feb 5, 2026; San Francisco, CA, USA; Ebro Darden moderates the Super Bowl LX halftime show press conference at Moscone Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Ebro says he's always been one to crack jokes about DJ Akademiks and other creators, but he wasn't going after independent media.

Ebro says that he's not a hater of independent voices in hip-hop media, using his new podcast, The Ebro Laura Rosenberg Show, to explain himself. He began by citing his feud with DJ Akademiks, arguing that he used to poke fun at him, but never wanted it to escalate to anything more.

He even praised Akademiks for being "consistent" on his platforms and building out a community of fans. "That's what it takes and he's willing to do the work," he said. From there, he revealed that he reached out to Akademiks in the late 2000s when he was still making YouTube videos about rap beef.

He explained that everyone cracks jokes about Akademiks, but at some point, "he wanted to start talking real brawlic to me, like he was really gonna do something. I never responded to Akademiks with any of that. You can go back and look at his old tweets where he's like, 'F*ck you p*ssy, what are you gonna do when I see you?' I was like, 'That's what we're doing?' I've never been on that type of time."

"And furthermore, when Akademiks decided he wanted to deal with your personal life, Rosenberg, and that whole thing, we never done that. I've never done any of that to him," he continued.

Ebro & DJ Akademiks' Beef

Akademiks and Ebro have been contentious for years, but the drama escalated when Hot 97 canceled Ebro's morning show. In the following weeks, they traded tons of shots on social media.

Later in the podcast episode discussion, Ebro refuted the idea that he would hate on other independent voices in media. "I used to make little jokes like, 'We broadcast and you podcast.' Or, I'd be like, 'On your little YouTube page,' or whatever... But, I'm just taking shots. That's what we do in the game. Everybody takes shots," he said. Peter Rosenberg then joined in to add that Ebro would even clown on his podcast as well, but he didn't take offense.

About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.

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