DJ Akademiks has received a wave of backlash in the hip-hop community after calling pioneers in the game "dusty" and implying that they mismanaged their finances.
LL Cool J responded to Akademiks, and he stated that equating value with someone's net worth is "a bad idea" and 'misinformed." Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons also joined the conversation, and he agreed that the founding fathers of hip-hop didn't get rich, but he went on to speak about seeing people like Kanye and Jay-Z be some of the richest people in the world.
In light of the conversation, DJ Akademiks doubled down on his comments, stating on Twitch, "A lot of n***as grew up watching you, and they all signed the same f****d up deal. 10-15 years later after you did. What the f*** did you do, my n***a. It's not that I don't respect older artists. It's just that I know when it comes to business, yall didn't do nothing."
