Hip-hop rappers Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar earned a whopping 15 Grammy nominations between them on Tuesday. With eight for Jay-Z and seven for Lamar, observers might believe these musicians’ creative talents are surely worthy of the industry’s highest accolades — and in the top categories, no less.
A quick listen to the lyrics, however, might lead to an instant change of mind.
On “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday night on Fox News, host Laura Ingraham took Vibe magazine’s Datwon Thomas to task on the matter.
The issue: Are these hip-hop artists’ lyrics really beneficial to young listeners? Are they uplifting? Inspirational? Worthy enough for the Grammys’ attention and adoration?
Jay-Z, who’s already won 21 Grammy awards in his career, was also nominated for Record of the Year for “The Story of O.J.” The title track of the album is about former NFL running back-turned-convict O.J. Simpson. The lyrics have this anti-Semitic interlude: “You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit. You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it.”
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During her interview with Datwon Thomas, Ingraham noted that she loves all music. But having listened to the work of Jay-Z and Kendrick, she pointed out that their music is “some of the most profane, misogynistic work I have ever heard.”
Yet when asked why he believed that listening to this music is good for young men, Thomas referred to the artists’ determination to overcome challenging childhood circumstances. He said their voices are important for empowering young black men in particular.
“It’s particularly good because it speaks to those who don’t get a chance to be heard in situations like this,” said Thomas. “When you think about young black men being targets for so many years and not having a voice to show some kind of strength and power and empowerment … these are the voices that are there for us … These are actually really good icons to look up to.”
He said he believed raunchy language appears regularly in rock and in country music as well.
Ingraham then presented Thomas and the viewing audience with a sampling of some of the lyrics from each artist. The excerpts were so foul that many of the words were completely unsuitable for family viewing and thus had to be obscured.
Here’s a sampling of Jay-Z’s “The Story of O.J.” lyrics:
“Light n****, dark n****, faux n****, real n****/ Rich n****, poor n****, house n****, field n****/ House n****, don’t f*** with me/ I’m a field n**** with shined cutlery”
And a sampling of Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” lyrics:
“D’USSE with my boo bae, tastes like Kool-Aid for the analysts/ Girl, I can buy yo’ a** the world with my paystub/ Ooh, that p**** good, won’t you sit it on my taste bloods”
“It’s unfortunate you picked those particular lines instead of the more uplifting and supporting [ones],” Thomas responded quickly.
He also said he believed raunchy language appears regularly in rock and in country music as well. Ingraham vehemently disagreed — noting particularly that the P-word does not appear in country music, at least not among the genre’s award winners.
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But Jay-Z and Lamar are creative icons, responded Thomas — and he suggested “The Ingraham Angle” erred in choosing those particular lyrics instead of looking at the artists’ albums or bodies of work as a whole. He pointed out that Jay-Z was an incredible businessman, that both artists probably employ “dozens” of people — and that both men give a great deal back to the community.
That wasn’t the point of the Grammy nods announced Tuesday, though, or the domination of those awards by hip-hop artists.
Datwon Thomas invited Ingraham to attend a hip-hop concert with him — and Ingraham, in turn, invited him to attend a country music concert in Nashville.
(photo credit, homepage image: Jay Z, CC BY 2.0, by Tom Hoppa, CWG Magazine; photo credit, article image: Jay Z, CC BY-ND 2.0, by Rich Thane)
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