The Truth About LaKeith Stanfield And Charlamagne Tha God's Beef
Celebrity confrontations are an infamous component of some of the most memorable moments in pop culture history. Looking back at the '90s, we've seen some brutal beefs in the forms of diss tracks (think Tupac's infamous opening line on "Hit 'Em Up" or Nas' comment about Jay-Z in "Ether"). While celebrity beefs have toned down the harshness over the years, it doesn't stop them from making headlines — no matter how random they can get. In this case, actor LaKeith Stanfield and radio personality Charlamagne Tha God join the list of random celebrity feuds.
In a February 2021 episode of The Breakfast Club, actor Daniel Kaluuya sat down to discuss his role as Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton in Judas and The Black Messiah. Things seemed to go left after the radio host asked Kaluuya if he looked at Stanfield any differently after Charlamagne said Stanfield played the role of FBI informant William O'Neal "too well." When Kaluuya asked if the question stemmed from Charlamagne's previous beef with his co-star, the latter responded, "I never had an issue with him. I do feel like he was born to play this role, though." Stanfield later responded to Charlamagne's comments, calling Charlamagne a "h**," as per The Neighborhood Talk, for his criticisms. A viral video surfaced of the Atlanta star flipping off his on-screen role as William O'Neal and pointing a gun at a photo of Charlamagne (via No Jumper). Let's take a look into what really started beef between these two.
LaKeith Stanfield and Charlamagne Tha God have exchanged words in the past
Did you know LaKeith Stanfield and Charlamagne Tha God's beef goes back years? The two may seem like an unlikely pair to butt heads, but Charlamagne's comments on Stanfield's role in Judas and the Black Messiah isn't their first tense interaction. In November 2019, The Photograph star took to social media to call out a number of media outlets for what he perceived to be anti-Blackness. One of those outlets included The Breakfast Club, per Teen Vogue.
"It's a fact that a lot of these platforms are usually or tend to be feeding grounds for negative reinforcement toward BLACK 'nonconformists.' They bolster faux vanity and hold a white supremacists scope over black men and women often highlighting negative attributes and downplaying mind-expanding ones," Stanfield wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post (via Black Enterprise). "They serve as bottomless coward consumption pits and digital, audio, or otherwise slave mentality museums."
Charlamagne subsequently crowned Stanfield "Donkey of the Day" on an episode of TBC, responding: "We've made plenty of mistakes on this radio [show], plenty of things I've looked back on and said 'Yeah, we should have played that a certain way,' ... But LaKeith Stanfield, don't you ever fix your ... mouth to call the author of Black Privilege ... anti-Black." Following up, Stanfield dropped a diss track about the radio host titled "Automatic." Yikes. Maybe we can an expect another diss track from Stanfield following their reignited beef...