Akademiks reacts to Eminem Popping Out at Jay-Z’s Concert

Hip-hop media personality DJ Akademiks sparked a massive debate on his Kick livestream while reacting to Eminem’s surprise appearance at Jay-Z’s Yankee Stadium concert. While watching the iconic duo reunite, Akademiks took a detour into rap terminology and history, defending Jay-Z’s legacy against a decades-old narrative.

During the stream, Akademiks challenged the widespread belief that Eminem completely washed Jay-Z on their 2001 classic collaboration, “Renegade.” The media figure argued that the slang term birthed from the track—which implies an artist was entirely outshined on their own song—is harsher than reality.

Instead, Akademiks suggested the modern rap landscape has a new king of stealing tracks, officially passing the torch to Drake. Offering his live commentary to his viewers, he stated:

“Now, if you guys don’t know the song, this song, historically, people used to say ‘get renegaded’, which was this idea that the way Eminem cooked on the track he outshined Jay-Z. I kind of beg to differ. I don’t think JAY-Z was that bad on the track compared to Em. I know it’s Em and obviously Jay is Jay, but people used to use that as a term. Like ‘Ethered” is a term. Same as ‘renegaded’ which means you got you track completely stolen. I think at this point we can say ‘Draked’ because when Drake’s on your track he steals the track too. Shout out to Eminem man, absolutely shout out to Em.”