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‘You Trying to Turn Us Into Crabs In a Barrel’: Marlon Wayans Exposes DJ Vlad’s ‘Silly Negotiating Tactics’ In Online Spat

Posted byBy Nicole Duncan-Smith | Published on: | Updated on August 18, 2024 CommentsComments (0)

Comedian Marlon Wayans knows his worth and isn’t accepting anything less, regardless of what “culture vultures” might think.

However, as a member of one of Hollywood’s most talented families, he has recently been thrust into a public back-and-forth with the popular street journalist DJ Vlad over his value, demanding $40,000 and 30 percent of all future revenue for appearing on Vlad’s platform.

The negotiation went public a week ago when Vlad released a nearly four-minute clip of an interview with fellow comic Aries Spears, where they questioned Wayans’ asking price, noting that he hasn’t gone viral or gained significant traction in previous interviews.

marlon wayans interview price
Marlon Wayans hits back at blogger DJ Vlad for blasting his asking price for an interview. (Photos by Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic; Johnny Nunez/WireImage)

The two laughed and blasted Wayans, saying the world knows that Wayans doesn’t deserve that much money for a sit-down.

However, the “White Chicks” actor and movie producer stands by his success as an entrepreneur and comedian to justify his price.

“@MarlonWayans you a good one cause @djvlad would have to pay me 500,000 for a[n] interview with 55% of all revenue made from the video on all platforms!” wrote one person who co-signed his decision on X.

“See, I tried to tell him I was giving him a deal… oh well,” Wayans replied, though he was only asking for 30 percent.

After the tweet started to gain traction, Vlad took to the X platform with a rebuttal. He said, “Marlon Wayans found someone with 200 followers to agree with him. LOL. Nobody on earth is going to pay Marlon $40K for an interview when he gets 100k-300k views on any platform he interviews on.”

“This guy is really delusional,” Vlad added after, posting a few of Marlon’s interviews to show the low viewership those major platforms received from his fans, numbers that seemingly bolstered his argument in his conversation with Spears.

But again, Wayans has launched his own production company and four stand-up specials on his own dime over the last four years, selling to major networks like HBO and Amazon Prime, according to his IMDB.

The “In Living Color” cast member hit back asking, “You mad? You unprofessional my guy. If you don’t like the number keep it moving. You look BAD.”

“You should fall back. mad at a Black man stating his number?” he continued.  “And now you go public and use your platform to try to drag me. I never in my life dealt with this silly negotiating tactic.”

The back-and-forth continued with Vlad insisting he wasn’t “mad” but that he found it “amusing” Wayans thinks someone would pay him that much for an interview.

“I said there’s nobody on earth that will pay you that and I have yet to be proven wrong. Throwing out a stupid a— number for an interview is unprofessional my guy because your interviews don’t even make 5% of that on every platform you do. And bringing up race when there was no mention of it throughout all our discussions shows how weak of a man you really are,” he explained.

But Marlon stated clearly, “So yes this has become about race. You trying to turn us into crabs in a barrel. I see your angle now. I watched you play your hand. You want us to talk s—t, beef and tear each other down while you sit back and make money. Meanwhile you don’t even show your face.”

Vlad then chose to share screenshots from both of their interviews on “The Breakfast Club” in the last year. Each interview was a month apart, though Marlon’s interview barely received 300,000 views, whereas Vlad’s was closer to 800,000 views.

He continued blasting Marlon saying, “You reached your peak 20 years ago and have been on a decline ever since. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you seem to think that this is still 2004. I’ve been dropping facts with actual numbers this entire time, and all you can do is play the lame-ass race card in response. So keep looking in the mirror and lying to yourself about who you think you are – the numbers don’t back it up.”

Vlad is viewed as someone who is considered to have an obsession with exploiting Black culture to any extent. Many have deemed him detrimental to the Black community, and even some white people have called him on his behavior. He has also threatened to end people’s careers. But Marlon is not fazed or moved by his words or past actions.

“I’m worth whatever I say. People like you don’t make or break me champ. I’m self made,” Marlon declared. “I go where I choose. I don’t like your tactics. I’ve been a gentleman. I didn’t express my grievances with other people. You trying to turn other black men in my field on me. Asking them about my money?”

He concluded his series of responses, “You been teetering on disrespect and I’ve been a gentleman up until this point. This was tactless, unprofessional and petty. You out here trying to tear down a king. You trying to instigate beef within my community and peers. It won’t happen fella. I’m loved.”

Fans seemed to fall on multiple sides of his conflict.

“I hate DJ Vlad bruh,” one fan said, before adding, “I get if you don’t agree to the terms but sh—ting on Marlon Wayans like this n—ga hasn’t been doing this s—t for damn near 35-40 years at a high level is ridiculous.”

Another was rocking with the “Good Grief” comedian told Vlad, “You make your money off black men period, pay them their worth! But like the culture vulture you are, you have a problem with that. You pray on the young and ignorant who don’t even have a clue to how you get down or don’t care. Pathetic. Blk ppl stop fw this weirdo.”

It’s unclear what DJ Vlad’s next move will be but this makes the second time he’s faced scrutiny in the last few months. The last time the content creator was attacked online was last May after sharing his take on the Kendrick Lamar vs Drake beef.

“Kendrick’s ‘Not Like Us’ needed a better mix. It takes away from the song,” he posted in a since deleted post on X.

Princeton University professor Morgan Jerkins, who worked at the Lewis Center for the Arts creative writing program, replied, “You are WHITE. This is a BLACK FOLK AFFAIR.”

Black Twitter Rushes to Defense of Black Professor After Blogger DJ Vlad Threatens to Get Her Fired from Princeton
Black Professor speaks up as Blogger DJ Vlad threatens to get her fired from Princeton during online spat. (Photos: MorganJerkins/X ; Johnny Nunez/WireImage)

The former Princeton graduate simply explained that his “opinion in a discussion that’s not needed. This conversation is and should center Black people, not you.” Vlad responded by threatening that reach out to the school and have her fired over their exchange.

“Good luck being a professor at @Princeton again. I doubt the university supports their faculty telling non-black students to shut the f—k up about anything Hip-Hop related because of their skin color,” Vlad wrote in one of his many now-deleted posts.

He later apologized for tagging Princeton in his posts but not for what he said.

“DJ Vlad tryna dox & intimidate a black woman professor at Princeton is funny. but what’s hilarious is that she’s Darkchild’s niece lol,” one X user noted, referring to Grammy-winning music producer Rodney “DarkChild” Jenkins.

Fans online supported the professor then the same way they support Marlon now.

“And but a Vlad interview would bring him down several notches. Like there’s Godfrey and then there is Marlon Wayans. You see the difference? His presence would help you and uh you gotta pay for that,” the fan said.

Godfrey, who used to be a regular on VladTV has since come out to say that he will no longer work with the Russian DJ because he is what some people call a culture vulture.

In a 2022 interview with Pierre’s “Panic Room,” he said that how he treated the Black community was one of the reasons why he said he quit.

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