Akademiks Explains Frustrations With Erykah Badu

LONG BEACH, CA - NOVEMBER 03: DJ Akademiks attends 2018 ComplexCon-Day 1 at Long Beach Convention Center on November 3, 2018 in Long Beach, California.
(Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images)

DJ Akademiks is no stranger to feuds with artists in the music industry. One of his more recent tiffs caught several people by surprise, however. A few months ago, he had a few unpleasant words for Erykah Badu and he’s finally opening up about them.

In a conversation with VladTV, he said that he felt Badu would continuously throw subliminal jabs at him on social media after she once said he looked like Jerry the mouse from Tom & Jerry.

“I seen her make a few vague references and kind of like retweet in the sense of ‘oh yeah, I got that b*tch ass n*gga,’” he explained. “And I was like, you know I’m the best at this gotcha sh*t right?”

In a livestream back in August, a fan mentioned the joke once more and led him to go off on a misogynist rant about the singer. He admitted in the interview that maybe it was harsh.

“I was feeling hateful,” he expressed, “I kinda went in on her. She took it in stride. She dropped some incense and put the Tom & Jerry mouse on it. And it sold out.”

Several years ago, when Akademiks was a host on Everyday Struggle, the Window Seat singer joined the show as a guest. Badu made the Jerry joke and the clip of that moment went viral. For years, Akademiks was the butt of the joke often because of this, prompting him to go off on his rant that night in August.

He explained to Vlad, however, that the beef is squashed. He even expressed that the original viral clip was not an issue for him because it drove up revenue and he is happy that Badu was able to get paid from the interaction as well.