Maino Calls Out Akademiks For “Dangerous” Age-Gap Rhetoric

The tension between media personality Akademiks and the rapper Maino has flared up within the last few days, and Maino explained his reasons in an interview, pointing out that Akademiks’ comments are “dangerous” in adding to the age-gap divide in Hip-Hop culture.

“Well you wearing a baseball cap n—-a. What are baseball caps made for? Baseball. Ok, so this is hip-hop, none of the things that we wear in fashion, we’re not wearing it for that particular thing,” Maino said in an interview with media personality DJ Vlad.

The beef began when Akademiks made fun of Fabolous for wearing a headband in a recent episode of the Let’s Rap About It podcast he co-hosts with Maino, Jim Jones, and Dave East. Akademiks said that Fabolous was going through a “midlife crisis”, which prompted Maino to insult him back by calling him “a jar of relish” and a “wet bag of laundry”. 

Maino further crtiqued Akademiks for being hypocritical, noting that it was his generation that established the trends that the former Everyday Struggle host and others follow. “It’s a topic I really could’ve schooled them on. The things that’s hot today were the things that were made hot in our generation,” he said, brushing aside claims that he’s a “disgruntled” veteran on the scene. “I’ve never been that guy. I’m not that guy. You can’t find no piece of footage where I ever spoke down on no young artist, ever. Not from the South, not from New York, nowhere.”

Maino called out Akademiks for being too egotistical, and wasn’t thrilled with the streamer referring to himself as someone who made traditional radio outmoded. “I don’t need seven securities to come out to make me feel good,” he stated. “I’m not out here, you know, extra angry with women”. He also declared that the two could’ve had a more productive and thorough conversation on the topic if Akademiks “didn’t let his pride get to him.”

Check out the clip from the full interview above.