Marlon Wayans got into a tense back-and-forth with DJ Vlad over the price he charged to appear on the internet personality's platform, VladTV.
Earlier this week, Vlad released part of an interview with comedian Aries Spears, revealing that Marlon had an asking price of $40,000 and 30 percent of all future revenue for him to show up for a VladTV interview. The video had made its rounds, and one person said that Wayans wasn't asking for a lot as they would've charged more, and Wayans replied, "See, I tried to tell him I was giving him a deal… oh well."
Vlad caught wind of the interaction and decided to speak more about the alleged negotiation by saying no one would pay Wayans that price based on the views he gets for his interviews, which are in the 100,000 to 300,000 range.
"Marlon Wayans found someone with 200 followers to agree with him. LOL," Vlad tweeted. "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."
Wayans fired back and replied, "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? 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."
Vlad claimed he wasn't "mad" at all and restated his point that Wayans wasn't worth the $40,000-plus price tag he asked for in the first place. According to Vlad, it has nothing to do with Wayans being Black and has everything to do with how much interest there is in the comedian.
"Throwing out a stupid ass number for an interview is unprofessional my guy - because your interviews don't even make five percent of that on every platform you do," said Vlad. "And bringing up race when there was no mention of it throughout all our discussions shows how weak of a man you really are."
Vlad continued to drag Wayans in his interactions with fans who supported his claim that $40,000 was way too high. He went on to say VladTV interviews with over one million views only cost him about $5,000 and even claimed that if Jimmy Kimmel paid Wayans's price, he would be in the hole. However, Wayans returned hours later to let Vlad know he was crossing the line of disrespect and ripped him a new one by bringing up age-old claims that Vlad is a culture vulture trying to profit of Black people.
"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," said Wayans. "I'm worth whatever i say. People like you don't make or break me champ. I'm self made. 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 continued, "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 shit, beef and tear each other down while you sit back and make money. Meanwhile you don't even show your face."