Seasoned journalist Elliott Wilson took a jibe at Tommy Richman during the latest episode of The Bigger Picture. According to Wilson, Richman declined to sit down for an interview with him, only to sit with Apple Music's Zane Lowe instead. Wilson called it an "inconsistent" attitude towards the music culture that thrust him into the limelight in the first place.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the Million Dollar Baby singer once declared that he didn't identify with being a hip-hop artist, before submitting the track for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards anyway. Earlier this October, the singer took to X to declare in a now-deleted tweet:
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"i’m not a hip-hop artist."
Elliott Wilson claims Tommy Richman wants to be "genre-less," jests that there's no such thing
In the episode, Elliott Wilson can be heard saying,
"I went hard for an interview out the gate. When ‘Million Dollar Baby’ blew up, I sent him a nice note congratulating him. So I’m building a rapport with him and then he gets cold feet. I hear he doesn’t like to do interviews, he’s a little nervous about it, blah blah.”
He continued his tirade, recanting an instance when Richman texted him to say he "would love to have a conversation at some point, man.”
"And then it’s the classic thing: now, all of a sudden, you want to pop up and have a conversation. He’s like, ‘I wasn’t doing any sitdown stuff for a while.’ I said, ‘You chose Zane.’ He said, ‘Huh? What I do?’"
His rant went on, as Elliott Wilson acknowledged that Richman was just hustling to get his career going at the time, but insinuated that the rapper was a hypocrite. He said on the episode,
"Yo, you went to Zane Lowe! And that’s fine, I get it. He’s Apple Music. Get your spins. You gotta do that, it’s part of the gig, you want to keep cool with these DSPs. So you playing this game where the only interview went to Zane Lowe and you’re number one on the Hip Hop and R&B charts, but you don’t want to claim Hip Hop. And now he submitted his records for the Grammys Hip Hop categories.”
However, the former editor-in-chief also took shots at Richman's decision to leave out Million Dollar Baby as well as Devil is a Lie from his debut album, Coyote. In the first week, according to HipHopDx, Coyote only sold 3,400 units, and it failed to clock in on the Billboard 200. Elliott Wilson said,
"He took this bold stance of not putting the records on his album and it didn’t work. The sales weren’t great because you didn’t put your slaps on the album. The album should’ve started with [expletive] Million Dollar Baby and Devil is a Lie as [expletive] track two — that’s how I have it on my playlist. There are eight other songs that I like on the album. I made my own version of Coyote but they ain’t slaps like the other first two songs.”
Elliott Wilson says an interview with Tommy Richman is off the table, claims he's only after "recognition"
Notably, the verbal onslaught didn't end there, as the journalist also made the contentious claims that Richman was only in this for the "recognition," noting that it "makes no sense."
He went on to state that everyone "wants to be genre-less. We all want world peace." However, that's not our reality, he said, and these "genre-less" titles sound "good in theory."
In response to a question about a possible sit-down with Richman in the future, Elliott Wilson declared,
"I don’t think he’s ready to for an interview with me. Clearly there’s all this controversy that I don’t think he’s ready to address. His actions are inconsistent. Don’t slow dance me like I don’t know what’s going on. I feel like then I’m being used. Who’s more credible in Hip Hop than me? So now you want to have a sitdown with me and come off looking good because everybody’s kicking your back in because your actions are inconsistent."
He continued, noting that he wasn't "comfortable yet", because he doesn't know "where he’s going with it."
Elliott Wilson also expressed doubts about the genre of the upcoming album, but cheered Richman on-- albeit sarcastically, saying, "that's fine."
Tommy Richman later went on to clarify that he's "thankful for everything," but that he didn't want to be "boxed in."
While he did grow "up on hip hop," he's a "singer." He further clarified: "I meant to say I’m not SOLEY a hip hop artist.”
Only time will tell how the 2025 Grammy Awards on November 8 fare for the singer, given that he's up against Kendrick Lamar for his infamous Drake diss-track, Not Like Us.
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