Geraldo acknowledged Kendrick Lamar’s greatness, should have just stopped there
Geraldo Rivera, a veteran hand-wringer who’s been bemoaning the state of today’s youth since the days of ‘80s Satanic Panic, has recently been directing his concern trolling at hip-hop—and specifically Kendrick Lamar, alleging that Lamar’s music “has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years” on Fox News back in 2015. (We’re guessing the Black Lives Matter activists who incorporated Lamar’s “Alright” into a demonstration in Cleveland last summer would disagree.) And Lamar is treating Rivera’s comments like the idiocy that they are, sampling Geraldo making the aforementioned comment on ”DNA.,” the second track on his new album DAMN. (Lamar also calls out Rivera on the third track, “YAH.,” saying, “Fox News wanna use my name for percentage” and “Somebody tell Geraldo this nigga got some ambition.”)
Well, Rivera responded yesterday with an 18-minute video posted to his Facebook page. Perhaps sensing that he had been pretty thoroughly put in his place, he opens by conceding that, “aside from Drake, in my opinion, [Kendrick Lamar is] probably the best hip-hop artist out there today.” As one might expect from a man with a demonstrated lack of knowing when to quit, however, he doesn’t stop there. ““I didn’t particularly care for the way he mentioned me … It’s the worst role model. It’s the worst example. It’s the most negative possible message,” he adds, and later states: “I know that the real danger to real black men and real brown men now is that their role model will sing about cops being killers and the system being stacked and there’s no chance of advancement and all the rest of it.”
So, basically, he’s saying that acknowledging the reality of systemic racism in America is dangerous and the solution is to pretend that everything is fine. And they say Republicans are out of touch! Anyway, you can watch the whole thing on Rivera’s Facebook page, or you can spare yourself the rage aneurysm and watch Lamar’s video for “HUMBLE.” below.