Lil Yachty explains how becoming hated after his comments about 2Pac and Biggie made him stronger.

In 2016, when the controversial Atlanta rapper was fairly new to the music industry, he made some critical comments about legendary rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Nearly 5 years later, he revisited his takes and revealed that he received death threats after he called Biggie Smalls “overrated” and couldn’t name five songs from either of the iconic rappers.

I never meant to disrespect. I was just being honest. I didn’t have any media training, right? All I knew was to be an honest person…I’m going to tell the truth.

Yachty added,

I didn’t say they were trash. Rap is opinionated, everything is opinionated…I was so young. I was like 19, 18. I had never in my life, I had never been hated like that. People hated me after that, like death threats. I think that’s what really started that hate for me.

The rapper says the experience taught him a lot and built up his character and despite the hate, he’s successful.

So many people were just automatically trying to dump me like he’s whack, he’s corny, or whatever the case may be. But it taught me a lot. It built my character up and made me so strong and put a shell around me. Like to a point, I got into so much shit I don’t care about anything now. I’m thankful for it because my emotions can’t hear it. Now look, say whatever they want to say. I don’t care. You know what I’m saying? And I made it through that. I made it through that and I’m still successful. And I’m still here to this day, it’s five years later, I did it.