Since the start of this week, there has been an ongoing back-and-forth between “Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta” alum Benzino and his rap star daughter Coi Leray. Their public spat began after Leray discussed her relationship with her father in an interview with Angie Martinez back in June.
A resurfaced clip from the interview has gone viral, and now Benzino is making sure that his side of the story is being told.
In Coi Leray’s June interview with Angie Martinez, the young rapper discussed her troubled upbringing and how the struggle made her who she is today.
“We hit rock bottom, to the point where I remember coming home from school and there’s eviction notice on our door,” said Leray. “I would see my father online or whatever. Even when he would do ‘Love and Hip Hop.’ How you get to live this life, and we over here struggling?”
Leray went on to say that she and her family suffered bouts of homelessness where they had to sleep in cars and one-bedroom hotel rooms, and she’s had to do everything from selling drugs to working at Dunkin Donuts to make money.
The clip was reposted on TikTok, where it eventually caught the eye of Benzino, who had a totally different recollection of events.
“Coi ain’t never slept in no f—king car… that I know about,” said the former The Source Magazine CEO this week. “I was with her mother until she was 9. Then I had her from 9 to 16, five months out the year, she be with me. She lived me with me twice. She lived here in Atlanta with me and she went to Campbell High School.”
In the video response, Benzino also disputed claims that Coi ever sold drugs and claimed that his daughter was “brainwashed.”
In response to her father, Leray, who is celebrating a recent Grammy award nomination for her song “Players,” took to Instagram Live to suggest he has a toxic “pattern” of calling her out whenever she had big things in the works. For example, she accused her father of leaking the news of Nicki Minaj being on her 2022 song, “Blick Blick” on Clubhouse.
“If you notice, it has been a pattern for some time now,” said Leray. “Since he went on Clubhouse and did the whole ‘Blick Blick’ situation and leaked the fact that I had the record with Nicki. Since he went and tried to downplay my album sales on Trendsetter.”
The “No More Parties” lyricist added, “It just seems like every single time instead of you congratulating me and be happy for me, you wanna go online and try to use me to prove yourself to these people and this industry on why you feel like you didn’t get the respect or whatever it is that you deserve. I don’t wanna be your clout kid.”
Another example of this was when Benzino took aim at Busta Rhymes a few days ago. The seemingly concerned father was not pleased with Busta appearing “half-naked” in the “Luxury Life” music video alongside his 26-year-old daughter and took to Instagram Live to voice his displeasure.
In an Instagram Live rant, he said, “The whole Busta Rhymes collaboration, like, he should have reached out to me. You don’t do no video with my daughter half-naked. You a grown a— f—king man […] He should have reached out to me and said something.”
As her IG Live continued, Leray vowed never to speak about her father ever again and shared her desire for him to never mention her name anymore.
The 58-year-old went on an extensive rant on Instagram Live to clear up the claims Leray made, suggesting that she was his “clout kid.”
“I wish that he would just respect that,” the Grammy-nominated artist said. “Again, the interview was done in June. I haven’t said anything since, but, respectfully, I wish that we could just, kind of just keep everything offline moving forward.”
One day after her message, Benzino decided to drop a drawn-out monologue of his own. During his video, he stated that he’s entitled to ask Leray for money whenever he wants being that he’s her father.
“Yeah, I called you for some money. I made you. You didn’t make me,” he said.
“I’m supposed to, who the f–k else am I supposed to call,” Benzino added. “What the f–k is the matter with this generation of you kids, man? Y’all are f—ed up. Y’all are f—ed up.”
The “Bang ta Dis” artist then accused Martinez of purposefully creating drama between him and his daughter. “Angie knew what she was doing. She don’t like me!”
Benzino did credit his daughter’s success in the industry but reminded Leray of his contribution to the entertainment business, stating, “You couldn’t walk in my f—g Adidas for an hour! How can you get on here and say that you’re a clout, that I’m using you for clout? Coi. Coi. Your first record was disrespecting me.”
In 2022, Leray released her hit single, “No More Parties” in which she sang, “My daddy let me down, but I promise you I won’t let up.” The record went on to become the 26-year-old’s first hit single, awarding her with her first gold plaque from the Recording Industry Association of America. It also peaked on Billboard’s Hot 100 at No. 34.
Elsewhere in his Live, Benzino debunked Leray’s claims during her chat with Martinez, which stated that she lived in a car and sold drugs to provide for herself and her family.
He shared, “And then you had to come out and sell drugs, and you had to overcome all these obstacles. No. No. No. You was bad. Your mother sent you down to live with me in Atlanta. You couldn’t cope with that because I wasn’t going for the s–t that she goes for and went for.”
After Benzino’s live hit @livebitez, it was reposted on Hollywood Unlocked Instagram’s page, where many commenters couldn’t seem to reach a consensus on whose side they resided on. One person wrote, “My parents can ask me for anything. If I got it, they got it. Nothing to discuss.”
Another commenter wrote, “Respectfully, she ain’t ask to be here.” However, that comment was met with a social media user who rebutted, “How don’t I owe the parent who raised and did everything for me? Our generation fried.”
Neither Benzino nor Leray have posted anything else regarding their father-daughter relationship.
