Saweetie has issued a response to DJ Vlad after he claimed he could’ve “easily” boosted the dismal first-week sales of her new EP, The Single Life.
The Icy Girl’s six-track project, which dropped with little warning on November 18, is reportedly projected to earn just 2,000 album-equivalent units in its opening week, a remarkably low figure that has sparked plenty of discussion among fans and industry professionals.
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DJ Vlad — the face and owner of the popular long-running YouTube channel VladTV — was among those who weighed in and claimed her sales forecast would’ve been much higher had she agreed to sit down for an interview with him to promote the project.
“If Saweetie did a VladTV interview she would have easily done 10x her first week sales, which was 2000 copies,” he tweeted on Thursday (November 24). “We actually reached out through one of our people and were told ‘she won’t do Vlad’. Her loss.”
Saweetie, who proved in her recent spat with Joe Budden that she isn’t one to hold her tongue when it comes to addressing critics, responded to Vlad the following day. The Bay Area rapper denied having any knowledge of an interview request while expressing her admiration of his work.
“Actually, I been a big fan & have screen recorded my favorite episodes. Here’s one of them. Dates on the top,” she replied on Twitter while sharing a screenshot of a VladTV interview with Snoop Dogg she has saved on her phone. “So if anyone ‘reached out’ it wasn’t to me or my team, Dj Vlad. Happy Thanksgiving.”
DJ Vlad responded by informing Saweetie he had actually reached out to her team for an interview, but claimed her publicist turned him down.
“Thank you for the kind words, but actually, it is your team,” he wrote back. “Your publicist at Warner Bros is the one who blocked the interview. Same publicist who set up your interview with Shirley Ju. This is what happens when you have bad people in your corner making decisions on your behalf.”
Vlad also shared a screenshot of a text message from journalist Shirley Ju, who recently interviewed Saweetie, that read: “her publicist doesn’t like vlad. she told me she wouldn’t ever have her artists do it. i’m sorry.”
He added in a follow-up tweet: “And for everyone who’s asking, the publicist I’m speaking about who blocked interview requests behind Saweetie’s back is @warnermusic Senior Vice President of Publicity Aishah White.”
UPDATE (11/29): Shirley Ju posted an alleged text exchange with DJ Vlad on Sunday (November 27), in which he said he was choosing “violence” and “going on the offense” in response to Saweetie’s publicist rejecting an interview with VladTV.
“vlad first offered me $10k to book saweetie,” Ju wrote in her tweet. “he got butthurt it was a pass so he decided to escalate things. in this text, you can see he said ‘i’ll choose violence.’ HE SAID VIOLENCE.”
DJ Vlad revisited the topic on Saturday (November 26), firing off a series of tweets condemning label executives for making decisions that “create bad relationships with media outlets without the artist even knowing it” and “hurt[ing] their music streams.”
He also issued an apology to Saweetie for his original tweet about the sales of her Single Life EP, while applauding the way she responded to his comments, which many artists would’ve likely taken offense to.
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“Oh and @Saweetie I apologize for my comment about your mixtape sales,” he wrote. “The way you responded to me showed class & professionalism. I’m honored that you are a fan of VladTV. Being from the Bay Area, I love when Bay artists win and consistently go out of my way to interview them.”
Saweetie has yet to publicly respond to Vlad’s apology, although she continued to embrace the “hate” and battle critics on Twitter.
“hate parade… i must be that bitch!!! [blowing kiss emoji],” she tweeted on Saturday. “i make music for pretty bitches! if you can’t relate i understand.”
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She also clapped back at an aspiring artist who mocked her low sales forecast by replying: “i hope all 2,000 support you babes” along with a screenshot of the guy’s Spotify page, showing just one monthly listener.
