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Music executive and podcaster Ray Daniels recently criticized rapper Wale for confronting streamer Kai Cenat at the 2025 BET Awards.
A viral clip from Cenat's livestream showed Wale telling him he looked "crazy" for not recognizing him earlier that day. The incident took place at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025.
On June 10, Ray Daniels unpacked the incident on his show, Ray Daniels Presents. While Daniels expressed his admiration for Wale as an artist, he countered that his recent encounter with Cenat was "lame as s**t" and changed his opinion about being a fan of the rapper.
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"I've always been someone who's always had Wale's back like, 'Yo, we don't give him enough props, he's got hits, he never been in the same sentence.' But when he do s**t like what he did to Kai Cenat, that s**t was so lame. It made me not wanna be a fan of him no more," Daniels said.
The podcaster continued that the situation was caused by "happenstance," adding that Cenat was young enough to be Wale's son.
"It's that he's offended by happenstance. He literally went to Kai Cenat, a kid that's young enough to be his son. Wale is old enough to be Kai Cenat's dad, and he goes to him and says, 'You got me looking crazy.' How do I got you looking crazy? I spoke to you."
"This is the dumb s**t that makes Wale never a star" — Ray Daniels about the encounter between Wale and Kai Cenat
A clip of Kai Cenat running into Wale in a hallway ahead of the 2025 BET Awards and seemingly not recognizing him circulated on X on June 9. The video showed the rapper greeting Cenat, to which the streamer replied, "Broski, you good?"
According to Billboard, the pair had a brief conversation about Wale playing Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo Switch before Cenat got into his car, where he realized that his livestream chat recognized the rapper while he seemed clueless.
Later, Wale walked up to Cenat when the latter was talking to Snoop Dogg during the awards ceremony. In the clip currently going viral on X, Wale can be heard telling Cenat that their earlier exchange in the hallway was making him "look crazy right now," to which Cenat replied with, "My bad, bro." Wale also told Cenat that they would have a conversation about the encounter later.
The interaction was met with divisive responses on social media, with Ray Daniels commenting on it during a recent podcast episode. The music executive criticized Wale for confronting Cenat, adding that it was "dumb s**t" like this that prevented the rapper from reaching stardom.
"This is the dumb s**t that makes Wale never a star. This right here is why Wale has never made it to stardom. Because every time we like, 'Here come Wale that dope special unique artist,' he does some feminine shit. Like, why would you say that?"
Daniels continued that the encounter angered him, adding that if he were Wale's manager, he would have prevented the situation from occurring by reminding him that Kai Cenat was young. For context, Cenat is 23 years old.
"I was so mad. If I was his manager, I'd be like, "Dawg, he's a kid. He don't know you at all.' And you could tell he [Cenat] wasn't playing because when he got into the chat, he was like, 'Wale, oh who was that.'"
Elewhere in the episode, Ray Daniels accused Wale of being "stupid", "egotistical" and making everything "so personal," adding that his encounter with Kai Cenat was "weird as f**k". He continued that Wale would have no problem being recognized if he continued to "stay relevant and stay current" in the music industry.
Wale responded to his viral clip with Kai Cenat
According to Billboard, Wale confessed that he was "really confused" when Kai Cenat did not recognize him when they ran into each other that day, despite having played together at a celebrity football game in 2024.
The rapper commented on the situation in a Shade Room post about the encounter, claiming that he was unaware he was being filmed both times he spoke to Kai Cenat on June 9.
"This is crazy. I didn’t know we was bein filmed both times..we played in a celebrity football game last year …I was reallly confused,” he wrote.
In other news, Kai Cenat also went viral for defending fellow streamer DDG against The Shade Room when a reporter from the outlet interviewed him at the 2025 BET Awards red carpet.
He called out the company for being "messy" with its reporting of the ongoing legal issue between DDG and his former girlfriend, Halle Bailey, who have each filed for temporary restraining orders (TROs) against the other. This came after The Shade Room had initially reported that the court had denied DDG's TRO against Bailey, filed on June 4, before amending the article and reporting that the judge had partially granted DDG's TRO.
