The internet has been buzzing over Saweetie, who has been a hot topic of discussion since the release of her new EP, The Single Life. The six-track project was released with minimal promotion on Nov. 18, and after being projected to earn 2,000 equivalent album units in its first week, several members of the entertainment industry had thoughts on why that may have been.

Producer Hitmaka, formerly known as Yung Berg, placed criticism on Saweetie’s A&Rs.

“Saweetie selling 2k is bad A&R vibes,” he tweeted. “Someone’s supposed to tell u this ain’t it!”

He went on to say that Saweetie should have stuck with the formula that garnered the rap star multiple platinum-selling hits in the past.

Atlanta-based producer Sonny Digital also weighed in, sharing that it did not make sense that Saweetie’s massive online supporters did not also support her music.

Music producers weren’t the only ones who shared thoughts on Saweetie’s projected sales. Those in and out of the music industry provided their unsolicited opinions as well.

Among the slew of chatter was that of DJ Vlad, former DJ-turned-blogger, who said that if Saweetie had done an interview on his YouTube platform, she would have “easily done 10x” more sales in her first week.

“If Saweetie did a VladTV interview she would have easily done 10x her first week sales, ” tweeted the 49-year-old online personality. “We actually reached out through one of our people and were told ‘she won’t do Vlad.’ Her loss.”

The tweet caught Saweetie’s attention, who then responded by saying she is a fan of the platform and didn’t personally turn down the interview request.

 

In response , DJ Vlad shared that, Aishah White, Saweetie’s publicist and the senior vice president of publicity at Warner, was the person who stopped the interview from happening. He accompanied the tweet with a screenshot of a text thread between him and VladTV contributor Shirley Ju, who informed him that not only does her publicist not like Vlad, but “she wouldn’t ever have her artists do it.”

“This is what happens when you have bad people making decisions on your behalf,” Vlad added.

In a follow-up tweet, Vlad added that he would no longer be utilizing Ju as a contributor to his platform.

“Shirley Ju will no longer be doing interviews on VladTV,” he tweeted. “I apologize to all the VladTV viewers for the interviews she’s ruined over the past year.”

Ju, whose bylines include HipHopDX, Complex and Variety, took to Twitter to  clap back.

“You’re a grown ass man threatening me on thanksgiving. Everyone told me not to work with you. They were right,” she tweeted.

Ju then revealed the full context of the text thread between her and DJ Vlad showing the blogger threaten to “choose violence” and leak a voicemail after Saweetie’s publicist declined an interview with his platform.

“It’s a struggle when I’m trying to pitch you,” Ju told Vlad in the text message.

“Cool,” Vlad replied. “I don’t like them either then. I’ll be posting the voicemail also.”

Vlad then went on to say, “I’m honestly tired of these bulls**t publicists hating on us. I’m going on the offensive moving forward.”

DJ Vlad has been under criticism by the Black community due to the role they believe his platform plays in perpetuating stereotypes and increasing violence in the hip-hop community. He’s referred to as a “culture vulture” by some in the hip-hop community, and several rappers have chosen to avoid doing interviews on his VladTV platform.

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