People hate The Chainsmokers. Clearly not all people based on how successful the electronic/pop duo is, but hundreds of thousands of Google search results indicate there is indeed some hate. The hate is so prominent, in fact, that the duo actually addressed it on their 2018 single “Everybody Hates Me.” They had some palpable hate fly their way recently, when T.I. punched the group’s Drew Taggart in the face.
@thechainsmokers My bad T.I. won’t happen again… unless?
The Chainsmokers shared a TikTok yesterday and it starts with the title “When meeting T.I. goes wrong” over footage of them posing for photos with the rapper at an event. The video then cuts to Taggart in a car, saying as others laugh in the background, “T.I. just literally punched me in the face. We were on a vibe, and I gave him a kiss on the cheek; It was totally my fault. He was like, ‘Don’t do that.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ He pushed me off and I was like, ‘Alright, my bad.’
Fellow Chainsmoker Alex Pall interjected, “Dude, his friend goes, ‘You need to get your boy,’ and I go, ‘What the f…,’ I don’t even know what happened. I had no context.”
Taggart continued, “He punched me in the face, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m sorry.’ And he was like, ‘Alright, cool, we’re good.’ It was the weirdest interaction ever.” He went on to elaborate, “First of all, T.I.’s fully in the right here. I was feeling the vibes way too hard and I kissed T.I. on the cheek [laughs] and he punched me in the face for it. It’s fully fine.”
In a 17-minute video shared on Instagram today, T.I. told his side of the story, and like Taggart, T.I. had a good-natured take on the proceedings. He just laughs for about the first 30 seconds of the video and indicates he’s been made aware of the situation becoming a matter of public interest. He continues, “OK, first of all, I love The Chainsmokers [laughs], OK, so let’s just get that straight. I love The Chainsmokers, first of all. I have nothing negative to say. We just had to work through some stuff and we worked through it. We got to a much better place.”
He didn’t get into specifics of what happened, but he did say, “There’s really not much more to the story than you’ve already heard.” He added, “Afterwards, we had a drink, we took a shot, you know what I’m saying, and we moved on.” He also said, “Love The Chainsmokers… not to get no sugar, though, you know what I’m saying?”
T.I. also invited the duo to guest on his ExpediTIously podcast, so perhaps a more detailed account of what happened is on the way.