After the restructuring of MTV News earlier this week, an investigation has revealed that artists including Kings Of Leon and Chance The Rapper pressured the site into removing negative reviews of their music.

As SPIN report, Kings Of Leon threatened to pull their set at the MTV Europe Music Awards, after a review on the new defunct MTV News site declared their ‘Waste A Moment’ single “almost aggressively anonymous”. As a result, MTV’s corporate executives instigated a rule that no reviews shorter than 500 words were to be published by the site. According to SPIN reporter Jordan Sargent, “MTV associated those kinds of blog posts with snarkiness and criticism, both of which were deemed detrimental to the network’s broader ability to work with artists who may be the subjects of such posts.”

Chance The Rapper was also embroiled in a similar dispute, after an MTV News writer referred to his “emotional disconnect” with Chance’s latest album ‘Coloring Book’ in a piece. Chance and his management subsequently stated they’d never work with MTV again, SPIN reports, unless the piece was taken down. MTV complied.


Chance’s manager even confirmed as much, telling SPIN: ” Upon the publication of the article, Chance and I got together & both agreed that the article was offensive. When we brought our concerns to MTV, our rep agreed that the article was “a harsh shot” & took ownership of the editorial misstep. From there, MTV chose to, on their own volition, to remove the piece. We have a long history with MTV, which we cherish. You may notice, Chance will be appearing in the season opener of Wild ‘N Out tmw night (6/29) on MTV.”

Read the full report here.

Chance The Rapper was recently listed as one of the 25 most influential people on the internet.

The list, published by Time Magazine, offers an unranked round-up of the internet’s biggest influencers – citing their ‘overall ability to drive news’ and their ‘global impact.’

Chance The Rapper was included after he bypassed traditional paths to musical success – and instead used the internet to distribute his music and connect with fans.

A description on the list stated: “Chance The Rapper didn’t need a record deal to become a hip-hop superstar, that’s thanks largely to his mastery of the internet, both as a distribution method (all three of his mixtapes have been streaming only) and as a tool to build meaningful relationships with his young fans.”