DJ Akademiks Clowns Ab-Soul For Being Legally Blind In Response To Diss Track
On Tuesday (May 27), Ab-Soul reignited the lyrical flames on Instagram, jumping into the ongoing rap war between Joey Bada$$ and a host of West Coast emcees with a scathing new track.
Known for his introspective bars and fierce loyalty to his peers, the Carson, Calif. rapper used the moment to stand tall for his Black Hippy collaborator Kendrick Lamar—and to issue a personal threat to media personality DJ Akademiks.
'Imma slap Akademiks when I see him,' Ab-Soul raps on the fiery record, which targets Joey Bada$$ and serves as a passionate defense of the West Coast's lyrical legacy.
The bar didn't go unnoticed. Akademiks, never one to back down from controversy, swiftly clapped back on social media with a provocative tweet that many perceived as both dismissive and disrespectful.
'Sounds amazing. Just remind that ni**a they won't throw a funeral for him like Nipsey. keep rapping lil ni**a we ain't see u slap nothing yet,' he wrote, comparing Ab-Soul's cultural impact to that of the late Nipsey Hussle.
But he didn't stop there. In a subsequent livestream, Akademiks took his criticism further by mocking Ab-Soul's well-documented visual impairment.
'Usually when ni**as attack me they go fat jokes first. I'm like he don't even go fat jokes. This a new angle,' he said. 'Come to find out this bi**h a** ni**a can't even see. He don't know what I look like. In his f**king brain, I'm a stick figure.'
Ab-Soul, who has openly spoken about being legally blind due to Stevens-Johnson syndrome, has never shied away from weaving his condition into his music, using it as a lens for both vulnerability and strength.
Akademiks' comments, however, sparked a mix of backlash and laughter online, with some fans and artists calling his statements unnecessarily cruel, while others found humor in the live-streamer's remarks.
The track that further fuels the feud between Ab-Soul and Akademiks is part of a larger rap war sparked by Joey Bada$$, who recently launched lyrical attacks on several California-based artists including Ray Vaughn, Daylyt, AzChike, Reason, and others.
The battle has fueled a new wave of regional tension and pride, with West Coast voices like Ab-Soul stepping up to defend their turf—bar for bar.
Listen to Ab-Soul's new song below.
More from VIBE.com
Pusha T Addresses Drake's UMG Lawsuit Over Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us"
Joey Bada$$ And Serayah Can "Bearly Wait" For Newborn In Baby Shower Pics
Ab-Soul Adds To Joey Bada$$ Vs. West Coast Feud On Untitled Track
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
9 minutes ago
- The Hill
DOJ rocked by wave of Trump firings
The Justice Department has been rocked by a wave of recent firings, a sign the administration is not done culling the ranks of career officials as it seeks to shape the department under a second Trump term. Maurene Comey, a New York-based federal prosecutor and the daughter of the former FBI director, was fired Wednesday without explanation. And news broke this week that the Justice Department also fired immigration court Judge Jennifer Peyton, who served as head of the Chicago immigration court system, shortly after the jurist gave a tour to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. Those firings come on the heels of the dismissal of at least 20 staffers who worked under special counsel Jack Smith, a group that includes not only attorneys but also support staff and even U.S. Marshals. Attorney General Pam Bondi last week also fired the top career ethics official at the department, Joseph Tirrell, the latest in a string of ethics officials pushed out under President Trump. 'Every time I think we're at some point when the firings are over, there's another wave. So I would predict we'll see more,' said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'It's more dedicated career professionals being given walking papers when they really deserve to be elevated and empowered. And to fire the ethics attorney, I think, speaks volumes about where she's taking the department,' Blumenthal said. Justice Connection, a network of the department's alumni dedicated to protecting 'colleagues who are under attack,' estimate that more than 200 employees have been terminated at DOJ, a figure that includes firings at the FBI and other agencies, as well as prosecutors that worked on the cases of Jan. 6 rioters at the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. 'The senseless terminations at the Justice Department are growing exponentially. The very institution created to enforce the law is trampling over the civil service laws enacted by Congress. It's shameful, and it's devastating the workforce,' Stacey Young, executive director and founder of the group, said in a statement to The Hill 'DOJ leadership is making clear the ability to keep your job is not tied to your performance, your expertise, or your commitment to uphold and defend the Constitution. Those who remain at the department are now worried about how to uphold their professional ethical standards when it seems that their willingness to do whatever they are ordered matters more than any other aspect of their work.' The Justice Department declined to comment on personnel matters. Many of the attorneys that were fired have received brief letters saying they were terminated under the authority of the second article of the constitution, the one that establishes the presidency. A letter from Comey to her colleagues referenced the guiding ethos of the Justice Department: to pursue cases 'without fear or favor.' 'Our focus was really on acting 'without favor.' That is, making sure people with access, money, and power were not treated differently than anyone else; and making sure this office remained separate from politics and focused only on the facts and the law,' Comey said in the memo, adding, 'but we have entered a new phase where 'without fear' may be the challenge.' In the case of Peyton, Durbin said he sees a direct line between the tour she gave him – something he called a routine oversight visit – and her termination. 'Judge Peyton took time to show me the court and explain its functions. Soon after, she received an email from Department of Justice political appointees. The email claimed that immigration judges should not directly communicate with members of Congress and congressional staff and required all communications from congressional offices to be forwarded to headquarters for review and response,' Durbin said in a Tuesday email. 'Judge Peyton was fired soon after. Her abrupt termination is an abuse of power by the Administration to punish a non-political judge simply for doing her job.' On Smith's team, the recent firings make for at least 37 staffers who have been dismissed, according to Reuters. And on the ethics front, beyond Terrill, Jeffrey Ragsdale, the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, which reviews the conduct of attorneys in the department, was fired in March. Brad Weinsheimer, another top ethics official, resigned after he was reassigned to a new working group focused on cracking down on sanctuary cities. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he sees two primary patterns. 'This is Pam Bondi attempting to go after all the president's perceived political enemies, to go after dedicated prosecutors who brought cases successfully to conviction. It's also part of the broader effort to completely rewrite history about Jan. 6,' he told The Hill, adding that he expects more firing of those 'deemed insufficiently pro-MAGA.' He then listed a string of officials inside and outside of DOJ that have been fired under Trump, including the heads of the Office of the Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics. 'They seem to be doing everything they can to eviscerate any kind of watchdog or ethical oversight – clearly part of a pattern of trying to eliminate all accountability,' said Schiff, who sent a letter to Bondi this week asking for more details on Terrill's firings and plans to comply with ethics guidelines at the department. Beyond the firings, many Justice Department lawyers have left the department of their own accord, with several sharing with The Hill they feared being asked to do something illegal or would be forced to defend unlawful actions. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the result is a culture of fear at the Justice Department. 'The Department of Justice is now a joke. When you look at the history of a once storied and legendary department, Pam Bondi has defined her job as doing whatever Donald Trump wants. She's completely sycophantic and subservient. And there may be some lawyers still left in the building who are trying to do their jobs in an honest way consistent with professional ethics, but everything has been supported, subordinated to the political will of Donald Trump,' he told The Hill. 'It's a tough thing for the real lawyers who are still there, and they express a lot of fear and anxiety about where the DOJ is going.' He added that some Republican colleagues, largely former prosecutors, have privately expressed concern over the firings. 'I have had Republican colleagues who were former federal prosecutors telling me privately that they are absolutely appalled that United States assistant attorneys are being fired because they worked on the January 6 case,' Raskin said. 'Think about the implications of that. People are being fired for doing their jobs well, and their job was bringing cases against people who violently assaulted federal police officers,' he said. But that concern was not publicly shared by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chair of the panel. 'I have confidence in President Trump, confidence in his team at the Justice Department, if that's what they think is in the best interest of fulfilling their mission, that's their call,' he told The Hill. 'I don't know this particulars about each individual, but if that's what the attorney general believes is in the best interest of the Justice Department's mission, that's fine.' Comey and Terrill both addressed morale in letters to their colleagues. Comey said unjustified firings mean 'fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain.' 'Do not let that happen. Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power. Of commitment to seek justice for victims. Of dedication to truth above all else,' she wrote. Terrill, too, hinted at a call to action from colleagues. 'I believe in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,'' he wrote in a post on LinkedIn that included his brief termination notice. 'I also believe that Edmund Burke is right and that 'the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.'
Los Angeles Times
9 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘Stay mad.' Amid immigration raids, Epstein rumors, Trump team ramps up its trolling
Morgan Weistling, an accomplished painter of cowboys and Old West frontier life, was vacationing with his family this month when he got a surprising message from a friend about one of his works of art. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he said the friend told him, had posted a work he had painted five years ago to its official social media channels without his knowledge. The painting, which looks like a scene from the Oregon Trail, depicts a young white couple — she in a long dress, he in a cowboy hat — cradling a baby in a covered wagon, with mountains and another wagon in the background. 'Remember your Homeland's Heritage,' the Department of Homeland Security captioned the July 14 post on X, Instagram and Facebook. Exactly whose homeland and whose heritage? And what was the intended message of the federal department, whose masked and heavily armed agents have arrested thousands of brown-skinned, Spanish-speaking immigrants — most with no criminal convictions — in California this summer? That has been the source of heated online debate at a time when the Trump administration has ramped up its online trolling with memes and jokes about the raids that critics have called racist, childish and unbefitting official government social media accounts. The 'Remember your Homeland's Heritage' post racked up 19 million views on X and thousands of responses. Critics compared the post to Nazi propaganda. Supporters said it was 'OK to be white' and to celebrate 'traditional values.' Among the responses: 'You mean the heritage built on stolen land, Indigenous genocide, and whitewashed history? You don't get to romanticize settlers while caging today's migrants.' And: 'A few minutes later, an ICE wagon pulls up next to them, agents cuff and stuff them into the back and then summarily send them back to Ireland.' Another person, referencing the 'Oregon Trail' video game, joked: 'All three died from dysentery.' Asked about criticism of the post, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an email to The Times: 'If the media needs a history lesson on the brave men and women who blazed the trails, forded the rivers, and forged this Republic from the sweat of their brow, we are happy to send them a history textbook. This administration is unapologetically proud of American history and American heritage. Get used to it.' On July 11, a federal judge temporarily halted indiscriminate immigration sweeps in Southern California at places such as Home Depot, car washes and rows of street vendors. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong said she found sufficient evidence that agents were unlawfully using race, ethnicity, language, accent, location or employment as a pretext for immigration enforcement. The next week, the Department of Homeland Security — which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with Customs and Border Protection — posted the white-people-in-the-covered-wagon painting. It also posted a meme with a fake poster from the 1982 movie 'E.T. The Extra Terrestrial' with the caption: 'Illegal aliens, take a page from E.T. and PHONE HOME.' Ramesh Srinivasan, founder of the University of California Digital Cultures Lab, which studies the connections between technology, politics and culture, said the mean-spirited posts and gleeful deportation jokes are part of a deliberate trolling campaign by the Trump administration. 'The saddest part of all of this is it mirrors how DHS is acting in real life,' he said. 'Someone can be a troll online but may not be as much [of one] in real life,' he said. 'The digital world and physical world may not be completely in lockstep with each other. But in this particular case, there's a level of honesty that's actually disturbing.' Srinivasan, who is Indian American, said that although the covered wagon painting is not offensive in and of itself, the timing of the Homeland Security post raises questions about the government's intended meaning. The painting, he said, 'is being used to show inclusion and exclusion, who's worthy of being an American and who isn't.' Srinivasan said mean memes are effective because they spread quickly in a media environment in which people are flooded with information and quickly scroll through visual content and short video reels with little context. 'There are hidden algorithms that determine visibility and virality,' Srinivasan said. 'Outrage goes more viral because it generates what tech companies call engagement.' Here in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken a page from Trump's troll playbook, with recent social media posts that include name-calling, swear words, and, of course, memes. Earlier this month, Newsom responded to a post on X by the far-right Libs of TikTok account that showed video of someone apparently firing a gun at immigration officers in Camarillo. The account asked if the governor would condemn the shooting. Newsom wrote: 'Of course I condemn any assault on law enforcement, you shit poster. Now do Jan 6.' In a post on X, Newsom's press office called White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of many of Trump's hard-line immigration policies, a 'fascist cuck.' Newsom defended the name-calling in a news conference, saying of the Trump administration: 'I don't think they understand any other kind of language.' The term is used in far right circles to insult liberals as weak. It is also short for 'cuckold,' the husband of an unfaithful wife. Even for Team Trump, which is adept at distraction, the heightened online efforts to own the libs, as supporters say, come at a precarious time for the president. He has been embroiled in controversies over rumors about his friendship with deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the effects of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which will cut Medicaid and food assistance programs while funding the planned hiring of thousands of new immigration agents. Still, his meme teams are working hard to stoke outrage and brag about immigration raids. Earlier this month, Homeland Security posted a slickly edited video on its social media accounts showing border agents at work, with a narrator quoting the Bible verse Isaiah 6:8: 'Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me.'' The video uses a cover of the song, 'God's Gonna Cut You Down' by the San Francisco rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. On Instagram, the band wrote: 'It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security is improperly using our recording of 'God's Gonna Cut You Down' in your latest propaganda video. It's obvious that you don't respect Copyright Law and Artist Rights any more than you respect Habeas Corpus and Due Process rights, not to mention the separation of Church and State per the US Constitution.' On July 10, the band asked the government to cease and desist the use of its recording and pull down the video. It added, 'Oh, and go f— yourselves.' As of Friday evening, the video remained posted on X along with the song. In recent days, White House and Homeland Security social media accounts have shared memes that include: A coffee mug with the words 'Fire up the deportation planes;' a weightlifting skeleton declaring, 'My body is a machine that turns ICE funding into mass deportations;' and alligators wearing ICE caps in reference to the officially named Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention facility in Florida. A meme shared last week depicted a poster outside the White House that read: 'oMg, diD tHe wHiTE hOuSE reALLy PosT tHiS?' The caption: 'Nowhere in the Constitution does it say we can't post banger memes.' The White House also shared the Homeland Security covered wagon post. In response to questions about online criticism that calls the posts racist, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson asked a Times reporter in an email to 'explain how deporting illegal aliens is racist.' She also said in a statement: 'We won't stop celebrating the Trump Administration's many wins via banger memes on social media. Stay mad.' Weistling, the artist unwittingly caught up in the controversy, apparently was surprised not only by the posting of his painting and his name, but also by the Department of Homeland Security using an incorrect title for the artwork. The government labeled the painting: 'New Life in a New Land — Morgan Weistling.' The actual title of the painting is 'A Prayer for a New Life.' Prints are listed for sale on the website for the evangelical nonprofit Focus on the Family. Weistling, a registered Republican who lives in Los Angeles County, could not be reached for comment. Shortly after the government used his painting, he wrote on his website: 'Attention! I did not give the DHS permission to use my painting in their recent postings on their official web platforms. They used a painting I did 5 years ago and re-titled it and posted it without my permission. It is a violation of my copyright on the painting. It was a surprise to me and I am trying to gather how this happen [sic] and what to do next.' He later shortened the statement on his website and deleted posts on his Instagram and Facebook accounts saying he learned about the post while on vacation and was stunned the government 'thought they could randomly post an artist's painting without permission' and re-title it. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions from The Times about copyright issues. But a spokesman said the posting of an incorrect title was 'an honest mistake.'
CNET
9 minutes ago
- CNET
Get Ready for These New Emoji, Which Are Coming Out This Fall
The Unicode Consortium is a nonprofit devoted to developing, maintaining and promoting software standards and data, and it also releases new emoji once a year. And on July 17, also known as World Emoji Day, Unicode announced that the newest emoji will debut this September as part of Unicode 17.0. Here are the new emoji you can expect to see later this year. Trombone Treasure chest Distorted face Hairy creature (Sasquatch) Fight cloud Apple core Orca Ballet dancers Landslide "These new emoji have long-standing symbolic meanings, are visually distinctive and contain multitudes of expression," the Unicode Consortium wrote online. These new emoji were proposed in November 2024. According to Unicode, the data files for these emoji will be made available this fall as part of Unicode 17.0. Then, the emoji will likely appear on your device in spring 2026. Emojipedia, an online encyclopedia of emoji managed by people who research emoji, announced on World Emoji Day that the distorted face emoji won the award for Most Anticipated Emoji 2025. In 2024, the Unicode Consortium debuted new emoji in September 2024, including the face with bags under eyes and the splatter emoji. You can find those emoji now on your Android and iPhone devices, as well as across the internet. Correction, July 18: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the number of emoji that had been approved for the Unicode 17.0 update. Unicode has since confirmed that nine emoji have been approved, including the Landslide emoji. For more on emoji, here are all the emoji award winners for 2025, the favorite emoji among the CNET staff and how to decipher every emoji.
