American celebrity lawyer, author and talk show host Geraldo Rivera has responded to Kendrick Lamar’s diss aimed at him on his recently released fourth album, DAMN.
After Kendrick’s powerful BET awards performance, which saw the artist break free from chains atop a police car on the stage, Rivera said, “This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years. This is exactly the wrong message.”
Wow. No wonder this guy is ruffling some feathers by making statements like that. Kendrick stayed quiet to the media, but responded to Rivera by referencing him twice on DAMN. The first being a sample of Rivera talking about Kendrick at the end of the album’s opening track “BLOOD.” And again in a verse on “YAH.” in which the Compton rapper says “Fox News wanna use my name for percentage / Somebody tell Geraldo this nigga got ambition”.
Rivera took offense to being used in the songs, taking to his Facebook to post a 17 minute response to the tracks, in which he said he has “no beef” with Kendrick and believes he “is the most talented hip hop artist, rapper, whatever you wanna call it”.
He went on to say that it would be better for black rappers to “work around” racism rather than trying to end it, and that a “15 year old in Chicago” would be more negatively affected by Kendrick’s lyrics than by racism.