Tommy Richman keeps getting blasted for saying he isn't a hip-hop artist

If you pay attention to radio, TV commercials, or just keep up with trending music, then you've probably heard Tommy Richman's ubiquitous song "Million Dollar Baby." Just last week, he dissociated himself with hip-hop, despite pulling sounds and imagery from the genre, which got him some backlash. "I am not a hip hop artist," Richman tweeted, then deleted.

Then after being criticized by California radio personality DJ Hed, he walked back that tweet a bit. "I’ll say again, I'm thankful for everything. I’m saying I don’t wanna be boxed in. I grew up on hip-hop. But I’m a singer," wrote Richman.

Some might've thought that explanation would've sufficed and people would've backed off the Virginia artist. But that wasn't the case because Joe Budden laid into Richman and pretty much called him a culture-vulture.

"You in that group of people that can receive your success and never have to talk to Black people,” said Budden on The Joe Budden Podcast. "You saying it when hip-hop has broken you and accepted you. It gives us remnants of all of the white acts who their barrier of entry is hip-hop and then they abandoned it, throw it to the side and start doing country folk music and act like that s--t never happened.”

Budden also brought up DJ Hed's criticism of Richman. At the time, the West Coast DJ said he'd refuse to play "Million Dollar Baby" or any other Richman songs. "Glad I got the PSA before I did my radio mix. I now have 2 open slots. What should I play ? (From an artist proud to be hip-hop). NO ONE is bigger than the culture," Hed tweeted.

Hed and Budden's criticism mirrors the same kind of talk that surrounded Post Malone once he stopped making hip-hop songs and moved to other genres. Post said he was extremely bothered by the talk and it drove him to drink.