Attempts by Tucker Carlson, Sarah Palin and the conservative right to brand Common as a “controversial rapper” have been quelled after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney defended the Chicago emcee. Sean Hannity of Fox News said the decision to invite Common was a case of President Obama “going back to his radical roots again and again and again.” Hannity, Palin and Carlson used lyrics from Common’s previous appearance on “Def Poetry Jam” as the type of material the emcee could potentially perform at the White House event. However, Carney dismissed any notion of the invite being radical.
“It’s ironic that to take out those particular lyrics about this particular artist [who’s] in fact known as a socially conscious hip-hop artist, rapper who has done a lot of good things,” Carney said during a recent press conference. “You can oppose some of what he has done and appreciate some of the other things he has done.”
Palin was caught in a similar situation after attempting to use an old LL Cool J interview on her “Real American Stories”—also aired on Fox. The segment was preemptively pulled after LL took to Twitter and expressed his dissatisfaction. On-air personalities from the Fox network, including Bill O’Reilly, have also taken verbal jabs at Nas lyrical content to further their agenda. Nas responded with the song “Sly Fox.”
