Dr. Marc Lamont Hill publicly fired back after R&B singer Brian McKnight name-checked him during a recent appearance on Anton Daniels’ podcast and called McKnight an “a**hole” in response.

The exchange kicked off when McKnight told Daniels, “I would destroy that dude,” adding, “Not physically. You don’t even know me, but you called me an A**hole?” Daniels jumped in and labeled Hill a “pseudo-intellectual.” 

Hill addressed the remarks on “The Joe Budden Podcast,” and said he didn’t want to turn the moment into a feud, but he doubled down on his assessment. “I don’t remember us saying nothing that crazy about him. I don’t remember calling him an a**hole, but he is an a**hole. Let me be clear: Brian McKnight, you are an a**hole.” 

Hill said his opinion comes from direct experience, as he’s interviewed McKnight multiple times, and he said he witnessed McKnight being “rude and nasty to everybody on my crew and my team.” Hill added that McKnight’s niceness toward hosts didn’t erase how he treated people behind the scenes. 

Hill aimed his response as clarity, rather than a drive-by. “It’s not a beef. We ain’t got no issues,” he said, pointing specifically to conduct toward fans, crews, and teams rather than any one-on-one slight. 

Hill went on to mention McKnight’s very public family drama, which includes McKnight saying his older (Black) children are “poisoned” against him and that they were “not made with love.” His family drama goes deeper and Hill, who claimed to have spoken with McKnight’s kids, said “For the record, I’ve spoken to your children off the record and they told me a laundry list of sh*t about you that’s way worse than anything that’s ever happened in the public.” Hill threatened McKnight claiming if he keeps “doing this,” he’s going to share the private information he knows about his estranged family.

Reportedly, Brian McKnight Jr. publicly criticized his father last month after McKnight announced an $8.8 million default judgment against ex-wife Julie. The R&B singer posted this announcement on Oct. 16, the birthday of his late son, Niko McKnight, who died in May following a two-year cancer battle.

On Instagram, McKnight Jr. accused his father of longstanding emotional absence. “You don’t want me to start talking about the things that I had to deal with in my childhood,” he said. “The things that my brother took to his grave… because our dad wasn’t emotionally intelligent enough nor mature enough to actually be a father.”

This is yet another chapter in the messy, very public conversations surrounding McKnight’s recent interviews and family revelations. McKnight may want to leave Marc Lamont Hill’s name out of his mouth.