Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera has responded after Kendrick Lamar disses him on ‘DAMN.’ track ”YAH.’

Lamar calls out Geraldo Rivera for comments he made in 2015 concerning the rapper’s 2015 performance at the BET Awards. During the performance, Lamar performed on top of a police car. You can see it below.

Shortly after the performance, Rivera commented; “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.”

In response, Lamar raps on new track ‘YAH.’; “Fox News wanna use my name for percentage,” raps Lamar. “Somebody tell Geraldo this nigga got ambition.”

Rivera has hit back at Lamar once again, with a new video posted to Facebook. In the video, he calls the lyric ‘benign’ and says the repeated use of lyrics that establish an “us against them mentality” between minority youth and police offers is “the worst role-model. It’s the worst example.” You can see the full video below. 

He goes on to argue that it would be better for rappers and activists to work around racism, rather than try to abolish it.

Rivera continues to say that “Black Lives Matter avoids the central reality” and states that it’s the issues within black communities that cause problems. “I think there is a real issue of police violence,” he clarifies, “but again, I stress, I think it pales in comparison to the ghetto civil war being raged.”

He argues that through his Puerto Rican, Jewish background, he’s ‘more street’ than his co-workers. “Nobody’s seen more violence — no big time reporter has ever seen more ghetto violence, urban violence than me. I’m Avenue C. I know about it.”

He then uses Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On?’ as the kind of positive message that he wants to see in rap music.

Rivera then argues that a 15-year-old growing up in South Chicago is hurt more by Lamars lyrics than by any sort of systemic racism.

The post Fox News reporter responds to Kendrick Lamar diss, says “hip-hop has done more damage than racism” appeared first on NME.

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