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DJ Akademiks claims Dave Free asked him if Drake was paying him at Kendrick Lamar's concert in Detroit

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Shortly after DJ Akdemiks attended Kendrick Lamar's concert in Detroit on June 10, 2025, a video of the podcaster citing a conversation with Dave Free and Anthony Saleh from Lamar's team went viral on X.

In the video posted by @Kurrco on June 11, 2025, Akademiks claimed that Lamar's creative partner and business manager, Dave Free, asked him about his association with Drake. Akademiks said:

"[Dave Free] said, "Ak, what are you getting from this? Is [Drake] paying you?" And that was the most insulting thing. And I've had conversations with these men for a while. But the very idea that I was like a purchasable commodity was so disgusting."

Akademiks continued:

"I reminded him, I said 'You know I've been doing this for over ten years. I've been doing this for over 15 years. How did you think I became me?' I said 'You knew about me before this sh*t ... Did you think I was a cheap h*e that just could be bought?'"

Akademiks mentioned that Dave Free's statement hinted at why he defended Drake so much if the rapper was not paying him. Further, Akademiks said he doesn't do "pay for play," adding that the moment someone can buy his opinions, he wouldn't matter.

Another clip of DJ Akademiks reviewing Kendrick Lamar's Grand National Tour show in Detroit went viral on June 11, 2025. In a video posted by a Joe Budden fan page, Akademiks revealed that he had initially planned to attend the rapper's Inglewood show.

Commenting on the legitimacy of the audience at Lamar's concert, Akademiks said:

"There's a lot I could really get into, but first and foremost I say this: That motherf*cker dot is filling up this venue, like this venue is filled. Real people, clearly not no bots."

This is contrary to his opinion on Lamar's Grand National Tour show, which he stated during a May 2025 live stream, alleging that the GNX rapper and SZA were struggling to sell tickets for the tour.

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This resulted in a back-and-forth between The Breakfast Club's producer, Loren LoRosa, and Akademiks, where she called him out for spreading lies. In her X thread, Loren also mentioned that Kendrick Lamar and SZA were seeing record-breaking merch sales in New Jersey.

Kendrick Lamar extends Grand National Tour to Australia: Everything to know

Kendrick Lamar and SZA's Grand National Tour commenced on April 19, 2025, in Minneapolis and was originally scheduled to end on June 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

However, as per Billboard's June 11, 2025, report, Lamar announced that he will be performing in Australia this December. The rapper's shows in Australia are scheduled for December 3, 2025, in Melbourne's AAMI Park and at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney on December 10, 2025.

One of the unique aspects about Lamar's shows in Australia is that he'll be performing solo as opposed to SZA performing alongside him, as is the case in most Grand National Tour shows. Moreover, this will be the rapper's first visit to the region since The Big Steppers Tour in 2022.

Not only has Kendrick Lamar's extension of his shows to Australia garnered positive reactions from his fans, but his Grand National Tour has made headlines since its inception as well.

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As per HipHopDX's May 9, 2025 report, Lamar broke the record of earning the highest-grossing concert by a black male artist with his AT&T Stadium show in Arlington on April 26, 2025.

The show earned $11.822 million in a single night and broke the record previously held by The Weeknd. The Starboy rapper had grossed $9.8 million at his SoFi stadium concert in 2022.

As per HipHopDX, Kendrick Lamar's Grand National Tour broke Eminem's record for the highest-grossing rap concert. Eminem achieved the feat during his 2019 concert in Melbourne, and Lamar broke it on the opening night of the tour in Minneapolis.

As per Touring Data, the Grand National Tour's opening night grossed more than $9.1 million from over 47,000 fans at an average price of $192.70.

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