Buddens lowkey owes Akademiks his career post-music, duke was finished and forgotten about until that show...didn't he say he was broke? Akademiks was already who he is/was relevancy wise and threw him a lifejacket. Akademiks shows him too much respect, imo...unwarranted respect. But whatever, they're the same type of dudes to me, it's just Buddens is better at making yall goofy asses think he's righteous and actually cares while Akademiks doesn't try to do that, lol, they both just selling fukkery/spicy talk for paper.
And Buddens should never get rid of Mal and Rory. They need him more obviously...but they have undeniable chemistry with him, he knows that. Akademiks knows it too.