LL Cool J, who has graced the hip-hop scene since the ’80s, took to Instagram on Wednesday (Sept. 21) to check hip-hop commentator DJ Akademiks for calling old-school hip-hop heads “dusty.”
“A DJ basically said that a lot of the pioneers in hip-hop, they’re dusty or how can they be the person that invented hip-hop if they don’t have a lot of money, or if they don’t represent like they have a lot of dough,” the two-time Grammy winner said, option to not say DJ Akademiks’ name. “Let me explain something to you: Don’t think just because somebody knows how to get money — or fails to get money — that they didn’t make a contribution to the culture.”
“No one discusses Miles Davis’ bank account,” the “I Need Love” MC continued. “We don’t talk about John Coltrane’s bank account. A lot of even rock musicians … a lot of great country artists, we don’t talk about their bank accounts … This idea that you have to have money or else you don’t have any value is a bad idea and it’s a misinformed way of looking at the world and the culture.”
LL didn’t stop there.
“Today, you can come up with your five-year plan, your 10-year plan, your 20-year plan. You can go find a manager, you can find an accountant, you can find a team that helps your career go to the next level … When hip-hop first started, there were no managers, there were no accountants that believed in it. Record companies didn’t even believe in it. Nobody believed in it. How can you make a five-year plan or a 10-year plan on something that doesn’t even exist yet?”
“So just because [the founders of hip-hop] didn’t get rich, just because they weren’t able to pile up millions or billions of dollars, does not mean that they didn’t make a contribution to this culture. They created an industry that we all ate off of! They created an industry that you eat off of,” he concluded.
What did DJ Akademiks say to get LL Cool J so riled up?
“Them old rappers, man. Have you seen any of these old rappers who be like, yo, they’re the foundation of Hip Hop really living good?” Akademiks said recently on Twitch. “Them n—-s be looking really dusty, I kid you not,” Ak continued. “And none of y’all try to come for me ’cause I don’t f–k with y’all n—-s either, so I’m just telling y’all the truth … Every time there be like an old, old n—-s talking about hip-hop, you be like, ‘Yo, bro. You sure you invented this? ‘Cause everybody else is looking better than you.’ Facts.”
Watch LL Cool J’s reaction to Akademiks below:
Story by Sierra Porter
