"Nah I gotta be drunk" — DJ Akademiks reacts to Ebro jamming to new Drake album after calling rapper a "sickness in the game" in the past

DJ Akademiks recently reacted to radio personality Ebro Darden listening to Drake's new music after dubbing the Hot Bling rapper a "sickness in the game." Ebro's comments came during a February episode of his Hot 97 podcast show amid his analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show, where the rapper performed his Grammy-winning Drizzy diss track, Not Like Us.

On March 5, 2025, DJ Akademiks, a known supporter of the Canadian rapper, reposted a clip from one of Ebro's recent live streams, which showed the radio host listening to the song Raining In Houston from $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, Drizzy's recent Valentine's Day album with PartyNextDoor.

Akademiks expressed his disbelief at Ebro listening to the Canadian rapper after allegedly launching a smear campaign against him, writing on his X post:

"Nah I gotta be drunk Ebro out here bumping the new drake album after participating in the smear campaign against Drake."

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How did Drake react to Ebro calling him a "sickness in the game"?

During the February 11 episode of his Hot 97 show, Ebro in the Morning Podcast, Ebro Darden and his co-hosts discussed Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance. During this discussion, Ebro claimed that Drizzy seemingly became a focal point of the performance as he was a "sickness in the game."

"It has more than one meaning for sure, but, once again, going back to the whole thing, did it get personal? Yes. Was it specifically between Kendrick and Drake? Yes. Drake is not that important. The reason Drake is in this is because he is a sickness in the game. It could have been any artist. It's what Drake represents," Ebro said.

He added that while people loved Drizzy and his music, he alleged that the Canadian rapper was not the type of artist to "go rip his soul from the bottom and do ayahuasca and look himself in the mirror as Kendrick had prescribed to him."

Ebro's remark is a reference to the fourth verse of Kendrick Lamar's diss track, meet the grahams. The Compton rapper listed several of his rival's alleged flaws, adding that while therapy might help him, he suggested some ayahuasca (a plant-based psychedelic often used for therapeutic and spiritual purposes) to "strip the ego from the bottom."

"You got gamblin' problems, drinkin' problems, pill-poppin' and spendin' problems/ Bad with money, wh*rehouse/ Solicitin' women problems, therapy's a lovely start/ But I suggest some ayahuasca, strip the ego from the bottom," Lamar rapped.

Following Ebro's comments, the 6 God singer took to his alternate Instagram account @plottttwistttttt to troll the radio personality for his ayahuasca remark. On February 13, the Canadian rapper posted a photoshopped image of Ebro's face surrounding a bowl of ayahuasca.

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On the February 14 podcast episode, Ebro Darden responded to Drizzy posting the image on his @plottttwistttttt Instagram account. The radio host claimed the Canadian rapper must be at a low point in his life to mention him or other popular podcasters and commentators like Charlamagne or Joe Budden.

“I’ll say this. If Drake is now mentioning me at this point in his career – which he’s never mentioned me before or even been on our program or anything like that. And he’s at this point where he’s mentioning me, where he’s already mentioned Charlamagne and Joe Budden and so many other points – he’s at a low,” Ebro said.

The Canadian rapper has yet to respond to Ebro's recent comment at the time of this article.