Posted by New York, NY – N.O.R.E. inadvertently sparked a debate within the Hip Hop community when he questioned why rappers do interviews with David Letterman, Oprah, Zane Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres, people he considers outside of the culture.
Many quickly assumed the Drink Champs co-host was referring to Cardi B who recently sat down with Letterman for an episode of the Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. On Thursday’s (May 26) episode of The Breakfast Club, co-hosts Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee and DJ Envy defended the “Bodak Yellow” rap star, even though they were pretty sure Noreaga wasn’t targeting her.
“I do agree with what Noreaga was saying,” Envy begins. “I will say one thing about Cardi — Cardi does a lot of the things that a lot of artists won’t do. She goes to a lot of those places, so I doubt he was talking to Cardi.
“But Cardi does interviews with everybody, she still touches the club, she still goes out to Black-owned restaurants, she still supports a lot of the DJs that helped her out, that came up on her […] But I do feel that when artists blow up, they don’t go to a lot of the places that helped them get there and they start doing the crossover thing and I think that’s wack.”
While the trio appeared to conclude N.O.R.E. wasn’t talking about Cardi B, Charlamagne did concur with Noreaga when he said, “I see u guys go to Ellen and David letterman’s and Zane lows and treat them wit more respect then the culture but u say u want black excellence.”
N.O.R.E. Questions Why Rappers Go To Letterman, Oprah, Zane Lowe Or Ellen Over ‘The Culture’
“I will say I agree with N.O.R.E. on treating the other outlets with more respect part,” Charlamagne explains. “The publicist and label will come to Black outlets and say, ‘Don’t ask this. Don’t ask that.’ But when they sit with the white outlets, they will say, ‘We are open to discuss anything.’
“So that to me is where the respect is because you giving these white outlets the soundbites that go viral and you make those persons platforms bigger.”
N.O.R.E. ultimately cleared up the confusion and tweeted in response to an AllHipHop article with, “Love it wasn’t even talking or thinking bout cardi but love the article.”
Love it wasn’t even talking or thinking bout cardi but love the article https://t.co/4JilOrPDh2
— N.O.R.E (@noreaga) May 26, 2022