You know... with the historic victory of President-Elect Barack Obama and the tremendous strides that our country has taken with electing him and healing some of the hurts from the past, stuff like this, especially in a public venue is just completely out of touch.
Monday night in New York City, rapper/producer
T-Pain committed his own gaffe by many folks standards. While toasting the release of his latest CD,
Thr33 Ringz, at Manhattan's Hiro Lounge with a circus-themed concert with all the trappings of a festive carnival, including clowns, midgets, a scantily clad woman on stilts, and surprise guest appearances by
Diddy and
Busta Rhymes, T-Pain (born Faheem Najm) made some offensive anti-Semitic jokes with the chairman of the BMG Label Group,
Barry Weiss when he appeared on stage with the rapper.
Among other crude and inappropriate remarks, the Grammy-winning rapper proclaimed that "Jews run everything" and "they get all the money," and frequently shouted things like "matzo ball!" and "mazel tov!" An unruffled Weiss affably played along, remaining cool with a smile on his face as both gasps and giggles escaped from the stunned audience. I'm sure these comments may be "inside" jokes between Pain and Weiss, but that's just where they need to stay. If whites or any other race aren't afforded the right to make slurs against blacks, why should we get a pass when it comes to us making remarks about other. That is one of the main double standards that I hate. I don't like the fact that we often refer to one another as n*ggas either, but then turn around and get mad at a white person or hispanic person for using it. How hypocrital have we been for so long. We don't like whites saying things like "shuckin and jivin" but we're aloud to use it? STOP! Think before you speak. The tables are damn near balanced now. Of course they will never be totally balanced but we can't expect for others to respect our race when we don't respect it or any other race ourselves!
Anyways, Jive Records, T-Pain, and his co-managers Michael Blumstein and Dave Abram, have issued a joint statement: "During the course of T-Pain's (Faheem Najm) performance at his album release party last night, Najm brought Barry Weiss to the stage to acknowledge and thank him for 'believing in him as an artist' and 'signing him to the label.' Mr. Weiss and Mr. Najm have a long-standing, mutually respectful relationship and no offense was meant or taken by any of Najm's heartfelt on-stage comments. T-Pain sincerely apologizes to anyone who may have been hurt or offended by his remarks."
Still, yesterday wasn't the first time T-Pain spewed anti-Semitic vitriol at Weiss. Back in August, he did the same thing at an intimate listening party for Thr33 Ringz in New York. Though his comments were no less abhorrent and unnecessary, he (barely) got away with it only because it seemed as if he and Weiss were sharing a genuine moment of politically incorrect humor between friends that should've been kept private. But what happened last night was no joke. It was just plain ignorant.
Singer T-Pain assisted country star Taylor Swift at the CMT Music Awards in Nashville on Tuesday (June 16), by helping her create the show's opening clip. T-Pain and T-Swizzle (her rap alter-ego) poke fun at her good-girl image with a video/rhyme where she raps about being gangsta and thuggin'.
