Things Done Changed
After decades of radio personalities and DJs being the go-to source for sharing inside information and leaking new records, recent beefs revealed a major shift. Podcasters and streamers now hold weight in how music and messages are disseminated.
Interview: William E. Ketchum III
Editor’s Note: This story appears in the Summer 2024 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now.
This past March, the rap world was on its heels when Kendrick Lamar sent shots toward Drake with a surprise verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s song “Like That.” Years of indirect subliminal shots between K-Dot and Drake had finally congealed into an all-out war, and fans were ready for two of rap’s heavyweights to square off.
When it came time to keep up with the minute-by-minute updates and commentary about the beef, the destination was clear: streamers and podcasters were taking over as the go-to source for the real-time happenings in hip-hop.
Before any solo songs were released during the feud, podcasts like The Joe Budden Podcast and New Rory & MAL got conversations flowing with buzz about what they had heard regarding more disses that Drake and Kendrick were working on. When there were questions about the authenticity of a leaked version of Drake’s “Push Ups” amid fake songs circulating online this past April, Drizzy reached out to streaming personality DJ Akademiks, host of the Off the Record with DJ Akademiks podcast, to confirm that the song was genuine.
Drake even added an audio clip of Akademiks wildly reacting to the track on the song’s final version. Other artists also enlisted Ak in their beefs throughout April and May: Rick Ross had Ak premiere his Drake diss “Champagne Moments.” Quavo hit Ak up to drop “Over H*es & Bi**hes (OHB),” his diss toward Chris Brown, and The Game gave Ak the Rick Ross diss “Freeway’s Revenge.” The Game even gave the popular streamer a shout-out on the diss track: “Akademiks, get this ni**a Ozempic starter pack.”
All streamers and podcasters use different delivery methods. Akademiks live streams for seemingly days at a time, spilling tea on industry drama, meshing his perspective with what artists have shared with him, and premiering songs. His streams live on Rumble, a platform known for its embrace of conservative and right-wing voices, and also Twitch, a livestreaming platform which has a focus that spans across video gaming, music, sports and more. He also hosts a pre-recorded interview show called Off the Record and uses X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce streams and break news. The podcast New Rory & MAL provides insight into the music industry, pop culture and entertainment in general on a show that releases free episodes twice a week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, and one Patreon episode weekly. The Joe Budden Podcast commemorates major occasions like Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s beef with hours-long, line-by-line breakdowns of diss songs. They release two episodes per week, and tap into audiences with Patreon-exclusive episodes conversations on X Spaces and an X-specific community.
Adam22’s No Jumper brand uses YouTube to post a series of hours-long sit-down interviews with up-and-coming artists and industry figures, freestyles and commentary on industry news. Burgeoning streaming powerhouse Kai Cenat gives reactions to songs and welcomes celebrity guests for sleepovers that have them hanging out and playing games.
Artists and their labels reach out to streamers and podcasters because audiences trust them. While rappers use their social media pages to connect with fans, speaking through podcasters and streamers gives them a different opportunity to control the narrative. In doing so, artists can maintain an air of inaccessibility that elevates celebrity. Simultaneously, they also hold a safe distance from their fan base while still getting out the message they want to send.
Meanwhile, audiences have an even stronger relationship with podcasters and streamers than with artists sometimes. They watch and listen to these personalities as part of a schedule of their regular lives, chat with them on social media and see them in person or at live events. These personalities are sources of information that fans can rely on between their favorite rappers’ album releases and give perspectives that fuel conversations about the music once it actually comes out.
“[Listeners and viewers] gravitate towards people that they feel have a different perspective and a different angle, especially if you have a personal relationship with the artist involved,” MAL of the New Rory & MAL podcast says. “We have real information, not just rumors online.
I think [artists] respect it more because they know we’re not in the same game as radio guys.
o r We’re not playing the programming game. We’re fans, we respect the music and we’re being honest from our point of view.”
MAL has a personal relationship with Drake, and he’s used his show with Rory to clue listeners in on Drake’s perspective. Ahead of Drake releasing the Kendrick diss “Push Ups” in April, MAL hinted that a response was in the works. Rory even coyly referenced a lyric from the song before it came out.
After Rick Ross dropped “Champagne Moments” in April, Mal shared Drake’s reaction to the track on the New Rory & Mal podcast: “He was like, ‘He said he was richer than me, and
I turned it off.’”
MAL also told their pod listeners that Drake was uncertain whether he should appear as a surprise guest at J. Cole’s Dreamville Fest this past April because any performance together would be framed as a response to Kendrick’s diss. “He might get mad at me for talking about this, but he knows he’s my ni**a,” MAL said, referring to Drake on the show before recounting the conversation.
MAL keeps himself in check by understanding what to keep private and what to share with his audience. He’ll often use his relationships to dispel misinformation. However, artists he has friendships with are still intentional about what they want to be shared and what they want to stay behind closed doors. “A lot of people that I’ve had relationships with before I had this platform, they feel so weird saying, ‘By the way, this stays between us,’” MAL shares. “Whereas before, they never had to say that. It’s funny to watch how dynamics have changed.”
While MAL’s relationship with Drake has made for engaging conversation in the beef with fans who want to know more, it’s also led to some listeners questioning the podcaster’s allegiances. An explosive debate between him and his cohosts after diss tracks from Kendrick and Drake were released had audiences accusing him of analyzing the battle through a pro-Drake bias. New Rory & MAL leaned into this with its promotional materials, calling him “OVO MAL” on social media clips.
For his part, MAL insists that he’s not biased at all. “I’m a tougher critic when I have a real relationship with somebody,” he insists. “If this is my real homie, I’m only gonna tell you what’s real and be honest with you.” MAL understands that fans will have their beliefs either way and that it isn’t worth trying to prove them wrong. “I can’t fight it. That’s a losing battle,” he adds.
For his part, Akademiks spoke on streams late in the battle that seemed to go against his presumed allegiances: he pushed back against Drake’s statement that he covertly fed Kendrick false information to rap about and alleged that both rappers lied about each other in pursuit of victory. Ak’s role as a source to premiere the rappers’ diss tracks and share information from the MCs with his audience was timely and efficient.
“These days, people are much more engaged,” Ak told XXL in April. “We live in a TikTok era. People wanna consume the content quickly and get it as they want it, not as it’s served up.”
Hip-hop’s target audience is the youth, and new media caters to a younger audience’s way of thinking. “The technology has only advanced now as radio has become less of a thing that the whole culture tunes into,” Ak said. “People still want that live premiere. So, that’s always going to be a thing…Most of hip-hop is not trying to sway the adults. It’s trying to sway the kids. So, it’s like, what mediums are the kids going to and watching?”
Streamers’ ability to disseminate messages loudly and speedily gives artists a powerful tool. Adam22, a podcaster and the founder of the No Jumper content platform, which includes a popular YouTube channel, social media accounts and a podcast, says that the technological advantages for streamers and podcasters make radio DJs “nearly irrelevant.”
“If anything, why the f**k would we live in a world in which people were rushing to give [songs] to the radio?” Adam22 says. “Nobody’s paying attention to legacy radio station DJs or anything like that. If anything, it’s shocking that this transition took this long.”
Adam22 understands that Kendrick Lamar and Drake had different strategies for approaching their battle. Kendrick stayed inaccessible, simply sharing links to his songs without saying anything else. Drake, meanwhile, wanted to excite his presentation and gauge fans’ reactions before pulling the trigger on an official release. Adam22 says he “couldn’t fathom a scenario” in which Drake would choose another media personality to help him accomplish that as well as Akademiks.
“I feel like Drake really wanted to control the rollout of a lot of these songs,” Adam explains. “I think Drake wanted to get a vibe for what the people thought about the songs before he fully dropped them. Releasing it through an Akademiks stream is a great way to get everybody talking about it, but it’s not as committal as putting it on streaming services.”
Adam had his own small role in the beef as well. As other artists began to diss Drake, Adam revealed on X that someone sent him an early link to Ye’s remix of Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That” featuring Kendrick Lamar. However, Adam was “forbidden” to release it. “I have the Kanye ‘like that’ remix. I have been forbidden to leak it at this time,” he tweeted.
Adam ended up leaking the song in what could be seen as daring or disrespectful. Unfortunately, Ye’s manager, John Monopoly, reached out to ask Adam to share a finished version instead; the leak Adam had, they said, was actually early and incomplete. Adam usually likes to receive unreleased music early only if he can share it or he will talk about it in an interview with the artist.
“I think that that person just had [the song] from a different source, and they just knew that I was somebody who would probably inevitably end up getting it out there,” Adam maintains. “[But] I don’t know why the person had it. At first, they seemed very serious about me not leaking it. And then I leaked it, and they totally didn’t give a sh*t. Kind of a surprise, from my perspective, because I don’t think I’ve ever really leaked a record before.”
Recently, Adam22 announced that he was cutting the daily news show from No Jumper. He says that commentating on more popular artists is different from the channel’s specialty and that he’s more likely to get satisfaction from an interview with an up-and-coming drill rapper that would only top out at a couple hundred thousand views. The podcast and streaming landscape can be just as diverse as the artists themselves, and there’s a different option for everyone who wants to keep up.
In the past, many of hip-hop’s iconic real-time moments have come through DJs on radio airwaves. Angie Martinez played Nas’ “Ether” on Hot 97 in 2001, allowed Jay-Z to react to the song in real-time and welcomed calls from listeners around New York City to vote for the beef’s winner. Famed Hot 97 DJ Funkmaster Flex excitedly premiering Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Otis” in 2011 is the stuff of internet legend, as fans listened through a hilarious 20-minute assault of constant restarts, screams and bomb drops every few bars. Mixtape DJs such as Whoo Kid and Kay Slay were known for releasing tapes that were jam-packed with exclusive diss records.
However, streamers and podcasters bring just as much personality since they can access worldwide audiences instead of the region-specific listenership that radio DJs have had.
Justin Credible, a DJ who hosts Justin Credible’s Liftoff Show on Power 106 in Los Angeles, embraces the changes that streamers are bringing to the industry. He recognizes the advantage that 24/7 streamers have over his dedicated five-hour radio time slot. Credible admits that he loves streamers’ ability to play dirty versions of songs and speak their unfiltered opinions, compared to radio DJs’ requirement to edit out profanity. But putting his competitive nature aside, Credible prefers having an amount of leeway to give his input on what’s happening in hip-hop instead of having to keep up in real-time.
“I like actually lining my ducks up and preparing,” Justin Credible insists. “I know the feeling of being live on the radio, and you’re trying to digest something. Everybody wants that real-time response; I get it. But I have to live with this forever. Before I get too deep into thoughts, opinions and reactions, I want to digest and hear all the information. And with as hard as Kendrick and Drake were going, we needed a moment to really digest.”
Radio DJs can still bring artists by for on-air freestyles and interviews. Credible insists they have a crucial role in amplifying songs once they’re out, even if the initial exclusive isn’t in the cards anymore. As a case in point, check the closing chapters in the Drake and Kendrick beef. Even though streamers and podcasters kept fans updated throughout the face-off, radio still played an essential part. After Kendrick Lamar released “Not Like Us” on a Saturday evening in May via his YouTube channel, DJs embraced it on the radio and at parties that proved to be the song’s coronation.
Rick Ross shared footage of the song playing at a pool party in Las Vegas, and personalities in Los Angeles and the Bay Area spoke about how the song was uniting the West and the record trended on X and YouTube for several days. When “Not Like Us” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in May, it made an early case for the hottest song of the upcoming summer and propelled the belief that Kendrick had won the battle.
Even Drake knows that DJs bring a certain level of credibility. He may rely on personalities such as Akademiks and MAL to share some messages, but he starts “Push Ups” with a drop from DJ Whoo Kid, who hosted 50 Cent’s war-path of disses in the 2000s.
But streamers and podcasters are running the game now. “Everyone is realizing the cultural shift and how things are happening,” Akademiks says. “And this is playing a part of that.”
MAL recognizes that he has a platform but downplays his role in how the beef turned out “What part did I play? I think I was no more than just a guy that was just watching it unfold,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to have access to the dressing room and speak to the artist before the fight.”
Stream on.
Read how podcasters and streamers are playing a major role in rap beef in the Freshman issue, on newsstands now. In addition to interviews with the 2024 Freshman Class and producer Southside, there are also conversations with Sexyy Red, Ski Mask The Slump God, Mustard, Rubi Rose, Ken Carson, Ghostface Killah, Lola Brooke and more, plus, a look back at what the 2023 XXL Freshman Class has been doing and a deep dive into the ongoing scamming and fraud plaguing hip-hop. The issue is on sale here, along with some exclusive Freshmen merch.