"Bro forgot Ye" — Internet reacts to DJ Akademiks saying The Big 5 is Drake, Kendrick, Travis, Future and Playboi Carti

During a recent livestream, DJ Akademiks revealed his list of the current Big 5 rappers in hip-hop: Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Future, and Playboi Carti. His response came after a viewer asked about the Big 3 in the chat. This was after the rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake that kicked off after J. Cole cited him and his fellow two rappers as the Big 3 in the industry

In his most recent livestream on December 16, 2024, Akademiks said:

"Big three, I would believe, or let's say Big 4, Imma say Big 4, Drake, Kendrick, Travis, lemme say Big 5, I'll say Big 5, Drake, Kendrick, Travis, and Future and f**king Playboi Carti. This is what it is. I'm sorry to tell you. Right now, I'm taking this slice of time. Not about two years ago, thirty days ago, right now."

Akademiks' opinion was met with mixed reviews on social media. While some agreed with him, others named rappers whom they thought belonged on the list, with one person tweeting:

"Bro forgot Ye."

More replies listed their Big 5 rappers, with some claiming Tyler, the Creator, Doechii and Nicki Minaj should have made the list.

"Gotta disagree the BIG 5 is Kendrick, Tyler and Sexyy Red, Lil Nas X and Doechii," one person tweeted.

"Replace Future or Carti with one of the ladies. Either Nicki, Meg, or Doja," another person added.

"carti? travis? nahhh i can see why future is up there but trav and playboi? hell nawh. big 5 is kendrick drake future cole tyler and thats it," someone else commented.

"Replace kendrick with thug n now u talking," another netizen wrote.

Several netizens also criticized DJ Akademiks for leaving J. Cole from the list.

"Travis, Future and Playboy Carti over Cole? CRAZY WORK, I know he folded but, Damn n***a," one person commented.

"Meanwhile j Cole will always sell above 250 but yeah he ain’t no top 5 lol … get outta here," another user wrote.

"Carti is b list… the j Cole disrespect is out of hand……" someone else added.

"Cole gon’ do more numbers than Carti on any random day, mind you Carti has never sold above 100K first week," another user tweeted.

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"The Big 3" gained popularity in Drake's song First Person Shooter

Hip-hop is a genre that thrives on competition, with rappers taking shots at each other to crown themselves the number one artist. Each generation has its list of best rappers, with Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole often dubbed the "Big 3" of the current generation. A 2022 article on Complex also elaborated on this claim, ranking the three rappers' projects since 2010.

Drake, Lamar, and J. Cole have often collaborated over the years. Drake and Lamar have worked on Buried Alive Interlude and Poetic Justice. Lamar and J. Cole have collaborated on tracks like Temptation and Shock the World, while Drizzy and J. Cole have worked on In The Morning and Jodeci Freestyle.

However, their collaboration on Drake's First Person Shooter in 2023 caught several rap fans' attention after J. Cole rapped about the "Big 3" title in the line:

"Love when they argue the hardest MC/ Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/ We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali."

However, Lamar seemingly refuted this consensus when he appeared on the Metro Boomin and Future song Like That, released in March 2024.

"Motherf**k the big three, n***a, it's just big me," Lamar rapped.

The song triggered the highly publicized rap battle between Lamar and Drake, with both rappers releasing several diss songs targeting each other between April and May 2024. Many dubbed Lamar the winner at the end of the battle after the rapper released Not Like Us, in which he accused the 6 God of being a child predator and culture vulture.

The rap beef also led to the Drake filing petitions against Universal Music Group, Spotify, and iHeartRadio, alleging the three music giants colluded to "artificially inflate" Not Like Us using bots and payola.

In his second petition, he accused UMG of defaming him by allowing Lamar to release Not Like Us, which he claimed was "falsely accusing him of being a s*x offender". The cases are ongoing at the time of this article.