LL Cool J Appears to Scold DJ Akademiks for Calling Older Rappers ‘Dusty’
American rap icon, LL Cool J recently took to Instagram to address statements made by a “DJ” who recently made some disparaging comments about older MCs.
“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 rap legend stated. “Let me explain something to you and say this of you guys: 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,” LL Cool J continued. “We don’t talk about John Coltrane’s bank account. We don’t talk about 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.”
He added, “So just because they 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.”
“Think before you speak,” he concluded.
LL Cool J’s impassioned speech seems to be in direct response to a statement DJ Akademiks made on Twitch recently.
“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 during the live taping. “Them niggas be looking really dusty, I kid you not. And none of y’all try to come for me ’cause I don’t fuck with y’all niggas either, so I’m just telling y’all the truth.”
This article was originally published on XXL.
