TV Icon Sends Shots: “Hip-Hop’s Done More Damage To Black & Brown People Than Racism”

Written By Cyrus Langhorne

Television icon Geraldo Rivera has sparked an open debate after taking ample shots at the hip-hop genre for its influence on society.

1.7k Views 33 Comments

In Rivera’s opinion, the music genre has been very destructive over the past decade.

“Hip-hop has done more damage to black and brown people than racism in the last 10 years. When you find the youngster, a Puerto Rican from the South Bronx or a black kid from Harlem, who has succeeded in life other than being the one-tenth of one-tenth of one percent that make it in the music business, that’s been a success in life walking around with his pants around his a** or with visible tattoos.” (“Huffington Post Live”)

Check out what Rivera said about music mogul Russell Simmons on the next page…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGfgi-CpVrc

Rivera also took aim at Def Jam Records co-founder Russell Simmons.

“This whole ethos, and I love Russell Simmons – he’s a dear friend of mine, I admire his business acumen – at some point though, those guys need to cop to the fact that by encouraging this distinctive culture that is removed from the mainstream they have encouraged people to be so different from the mainstream that they can’t participate other than the racks in the garment center and those entry level jobs. I lament it; I really do. I think it’s been very destructive culturally.” (“Huffington Post Live”)

According to reports, Geraldo clashed with Russell a few years ago.

Rivera and Simmons briefly beefed in 2012 after Rivera told Fox News that Trayvon Martin made himself a target by wearing a hooded sweatshirt, adding that his clothing made him look “gangsta.” After the talk show host apologized for his distasteful statements, Simmons responded, “Geraldo, your apology is bullshit! Your apology is nothing but a defense of a racist, backward thing you already said.” (Rolling Stone)

33 Comments

Written by Cyrus Langhorne

SOHH.com Writer. You're likely to find me covering hip-hop news and music releases. Netflix is still my go-to before Disney Plus.

33 Comments

  1. Some people not gonna like what I have to say but Hip hop like everything else has a positive and a negative. Some rappers have been selling Cocaine, smoking green leaf, going to clubs and championing bad chicks for 8-10 albums. Some have great messages our youth need to hear but radio stations and higher powers are not interested in broadcasting them. Geraldo needs to do his homework and see where sagging originated and where tattoos originated.

    • He’s still not accurate. Name a genre of music that had brought more cultures together than hip hop? None!

      • He went to the extreme.. BUT at the root of his statement is truth.. the last ten years… Fuck the last five years think of the fuckery going on within the culture..

      • I guess you missed the “past ten years” part. Yes, Hip Hop from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s left an indelible and positive impression on demographics across the racial and cultural spectrum globally. However, what’s considered “Rap” today arguably has frustrated and divided blacks vis-a-vis social stratification ( where society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy).

      • That’s still not a valid argument. It’s what that culture accomplishes when they are “brought together”. ISIS (and I’m in no way comparing us to them) is a culture that was “brought together”.

  2. Baggy pants? Rivera, for the past ten years rappers have been wearing TIGHT pants. Nice try buddy.

    • nice job disregarding a valid point by scrutinizing one irrelevant generalization. doesn’t change the fact.

    • They are still saggin’ their tight ass jeans tho. Shit is so corny, ain’t nobody tryna see your draws or butt cheeks. Hip hop and rap music is very influential, too bad we got the wrong people representing it and making a mockery out of it.

  3. Also, in case he didn’t realize it, but there’s plenty of non-rappers who have visible tattoos. This is the same argument people make about video games and movies causing real-life violence. Stop it with the political agenda.

  4. Geraldo don’t know shit bout hiphop or black people,,hes a jew masquerading as a latin/Spanish cat for years,,instead of making a valid point he just tryna excuse racism,,heres a fact: racism been round longer than hiphop,,baggy pants ,,hoodies and is gonna be here..,,even if dudes was wearing suits and listening to Mozart,,,and we gon see geraldos punk ass for that trayvon comment too punk!

    • i don’t understand why you had to point out the fact that he’s jewish? can latins/spaniards not be jewish? or did you just mean that hes a white devil jew rat? i think he made a very valid point but like most ignorant black folks on these hip hop websites, you’re quick to disregard it simply because hes a white devil jew. face it black people, you’re more racist than white people, oh, but its justified because they did you wrong first. can you not comprehend the fact that anyone who owned a slave has long been dead? the truth is whites aren’t thinking about blacks until they see you on the news terrorizing your city in the name of justice for an idiotic punk who robbed a store and tried to grab a cops gun. life isn’t fair or easy for a majority of people, no matter their skin color.

      • Tried to grab a cops gun. Hmm that part is hearsay. Have you heard kid rocks comments lately. And he used to be so pro black. Even had a black baby. I’m just here to debate and you seem good at it.

  5. GERALDO HAS BEEN A RACIST FOR OVER 30 YEARS, SO THIS IS NOTHING NEW COMING FROM HIM!!!

  6. It’s not true because what these mainstream”white, Asian, and jewish” labels put out isn’t hiphop, it’s hip-pop which makes those executives a whole lot of chipper jones! That shit don’t represent the culture at all and some of the guys they put on don’t even care to know about the origins of the music, I’m sorry that’s not hip-hop. If you muthafuckas are sucking this bitch jewish man’s dick, you are a part of the problem that is raping our great culture yell

  7. The fact that he said the last 10 years makes his point somewhat valid. I actually think us as African-Americans in general have the tools to rise above racism. However, hip hop doesn’t preach that(at least mainstream hip hop). I hate to put it that way, but I think us blacks need to realize we need to carry ourselves the best out of all other races. We need to not give others a chance to judge us. We need to outwork other people. It’s certainly not fair, but that’s sometimes you’re not born with a golden spoon in your mouth. I just don’t like the fact that hip hop tries to make it cool to smoke weed, use molly, curse and be a gangster. However, it’s probably already too late. Rappers know they won’t make money if they talk about education, respecting women, going to church, etc. The reason why is they won’t get supported by the higher ups who are mainly Caucasians.

    • That is a good point you made he said “The Last 10 years” as much as people hated gangsta rap if you go back today and check it out again it really wasn’t gangsta rap. What I mean is Gangsta Rap always had an introspective side. Over the last 10 years we have seen some descent artist i.e. T.I, Jeezy, 50, Game (even though I stopped listening his music after DR.advocate) but what happened was the advent of THE FREE MIXTAPE Instagram, Twitter. That is were things went bad. These things had adverse side effects on the entire community.

  8. The problem is the people started listening to artist that were not really artist and music that isn’t really music. It is like people are shootin bad dope in their veins.

  9. Off the top of my dome, I can’t think of anything Gerardo Rivera ever done for the Hispanic community. I mean I’ve heard of Selma Halek, Jlopes, America Ferrera, Edward Olmos, George Lopez. etc doing things for latin ppl. Gerardo is a ball licker for Fox.

  10. the last ten years?,,i didn’t hear that but so what,,the problems started ten years ago? nahh try 400 plus,,this man Geraldo and plenty of others try to veil racist thinking by attacking hiphop,,and yes there are a bunch of things wrong whether its sagging pants,,welcomed ignorance etc etc,,and when conscious hiphop had a big place in the culture,,you had the same racists saying the same type of racist sh*t Geraldo saying now,,anything to take away from the truth,,which is America has had a plan from the start man to keep things a certain way,,they paint a pretty picture on tv but there are plenty white folks fukd up in this country(even tho they had a 400yr head start) b/c of its policies and practices,,black people jus always have it that much harder and that’s no coincidence

  11. He pretty much nailed it on the parts about the tattoos though which has seem to have gone to the extreme. Unless you are already rich, stay away from the multiple tattoos. You are putting yourself in a box.

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