Ebro Darden has spoken out after a video of his interview with Kodak Black went viral.
Black recently stopped by New York’s Hot 97, and Darden brought up the Florida rapper’s sexual misconduct criminal case.
In 2016 Black was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a South Carolina hotel room while he was in town doing a show. According to the Sun-Sentinel, the rapper is facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison at this time.
“Looking at all your cases and everything you’ve been through, and I know the recent one right now is very sensitive, and with respect to everybody involved in that case, we can’t get into details today,” the radio host said. “We take sexual assault here serious.
“We hope to have you back so we can have a deeper conversation about that,” he added. “Because this is a serious topic, and we’re hearing these stories a lot.”
Ebro then noticed that Kodak was bothered. “You seem upset that I brought it up,” he said.
“I feel like sometimes, when n—– like me are going through sh–, y’all be entertained by bullsh–t,” said the rapper. “Change the subject or I’m finna walk out.”
But Darden clearly wasn’t going to let the young Floridian control the interview, so he allowed the rapper to leave. “We don’t have to talk about nothing else,” he responded. “We can be done right here. You won’t tell me what to talk about on my show.”
Black walked out immediately, and a social media debate ensued afterward. On one side, people criticized Darden for bringing up the sexual misconduct case, and others said people should be more upset at Kodak for the charges.
“That sh– you did during the Kodak [interview] was lame,” someone wrote. “You really did some bitchass sh– Ebro.”
“Kodak Black went on Hot 97 and Ebro brought up his sexual assault case,” wrote another. “And 90 percent of the comments I’m reading are calling Ebro a clown. We really are doomed.”
In the radio host’s response, he said there were no plans to be unfair to Kodak, nor make him look bad.
“I was tryna have a balanced convo with Kodak Black and not ignore the serious allegations against him. But also not ask specifics to make his situation worse,” he tweeted. “And he wanna get an attitude with me?? Nah.”
“People are really dense,” added Ebro. “He gave us an ultimatum. I didn’t ask him a question. I said when you come back hopefully we can address. FOH. Watch the entire @KodakBlack1k interview. I think most of it was honest and balanced. He’s a smart guy. I just won’t be given ultimatums after we tried to be chill.
“I never asked Kodak a question about the case.”
You can check out a clip of the exchange between both men below at the 15:00 mark.