Anderson .Paak criticizes Goldlink over “disrespectful” Mac Miller tribute
Goldlink appeared to suggest Miller copied his style on 2016 album, The Divine Feminine.
Late on Tuesday night GoldLink posted a lengthy message about Mac Miller on his Instagram page. The message, posted alongside an image of Miller, spoke about their friendship and the devastating nature of the rapper's passing, age 26, in 2018. GoldLink kept up the personal nature of the message by admitting he and Miller "weren’t always on the best terms" and spoke about the deterioration of their relationship after he supported Miller on the late rapper's GOOD:AM tour in 2015.
The Instagram caption posted by GoldLink appeared to suggest that he feels Miller copied, or at least took major influence, from his own music. Specifically, GoldLink appears to believe his 2015 mixtape And After That, We Didn't Talk acted as "an actual blueprint" for Miller's 2016 album The Divine Feminine.
"I always thought you drove yourself insane about your own music. So much that, you would adopt styles as homage to those around you that you loved," GoldLink wrote. "That’s where our problem started. Divine Feminine was an actual blueprint of And After That, We Didn't Talk. Your single was called “Dang!” Ft. Anderson Paak...you had Souelction support you on the Divine Feminine tour and when I tried to contact you, about anything at all...you never hit me."
Anderson .Paak responded to the caption in a since-deleted Instagram post of his own. He labeled GoldLink's words "disrespectful, narcissistic, jealous" and "grossly unnecessary." His full message read:
“@goldlink I would imagine yo weird a** posted up somewhere just like this when you decided to make that disrespectful, narcissistic, jealous grossly unnecessary post. Why you would do it I can’t even understand It . maybe your belt was wrapped around your Gotdamn waist too tight or maybe it was the choker cutting the circulation off to the brain but since you felt it necessary to bring me up twice and my boy ain’t here to respond ima say it like this. You ain’t the first to make an album inspired by a relationship, you ain’t the first to make a song featuring Anderson .Paak but you are the first to disrespect my friend who is no longer here for absolutely no reason and I can’t stand for that. I’m not a tough guy I’m not about negativity but this bugged me bad bro. I’ve called you and dm’d and you havnt responded. So since this is what you like to do in order to get attention we can do it like this. You’re not surprised huh? Well I’m in disbelief!!! If Devine feminine was such a blue print of your record then tell me where the plaques are for whatever your s*** was called!! Mac brought your a** on tour and opened up his fan base to you when you had nothing and this the type of appreciation you give? You should of just been grateful for the op! Whatever issues you had with Mac should have been addressed in person and ended there. what’s the point of bringing this up after his passing and disrespecting his name? You really woke up feeling like that was the move? That ain’t how you go about promoting whatever you got coming. Some things simply have nothing to do with you but when you have a God Complex im sure it’s easy to think everything comes from you or was inspired in some way. Whatever it is I ain’t giving it no more energy. I pray you get back to the music and spreading good energy, ima do the same. Mac Miller forever, love to his family and y’all have a blessed one.”
The FADER has reached out to reps for both artists. GoldLink's Instagram post remains live at the time of writing, though comments on it have been limited.