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Fox News' Geraldo Rivera Responds to Kendrick Lamar, Says Hip-Hop is the 'Worst Role Model'

We're gonna file this one under "unpopular opinion."

Yesterday (April 14) Kendrick Lamar dropped his highly anticipated album, DAMN., and it's safe to say no one has been the same ever since.

As fans digested the project for the first time, many couldn't help but point out how Kung Fu Kenny sampled Fox News and journalist Geraldo Rivera several times throughout the project. Back in 2015, the news anchor infamously made comments that hip-hop is worse than racism and criticized K. Dot for his 2015 BET Awards performance of "Alright." As evidenced throughout DAMN., it's now Lamar's time to respond on wax.

On the single, "YAH.", Lamar fires back at Rivera, spitting, "Fox News wanna use my name for percentage," and later on in the track, "Somebody tell Geraldo this n***a got ambition."

Naturally, Rivera chose to comment once again on the situation at hand, further reiterating his disdain for rap music.

During a Facebook Live broadcast, the Fox News affiliate shared that he has "no beef with" Lamar, but used his recent shout-out on the album to continue bashing the culture as a whole.

"I think too much of hip-hop, too much of rap in the last couple of decades has really portrayed the cops as the enemy, as the occupying army in the ghetto, in the inner city, in the urban centers," he says during the recorded session. "It’s an us against them where this very popular, powerful art form, this poetry, is being used to really set young people, young minorities—black and Latinos, principally—against the officers who are sworn to protect them."

He then goes on to back up his argument that anti-police anthems like LL Cool J's "Illegal Search" and N.W.A.'s "F**k the Police" do nothing but foster an "us-against-them mentality that doesn’t do any good in terms of encouraging respect for government, or the cops or neighborhood really. It makes kids—as they grow up—in my opinion, feel that the world is against them."

"[Hip-hop is the worst role model," he adds. "It's the worst example. It’s the most negative possible message. And what’s the point of it? I mean you sell records, I get that. I get that this stuff is popular, but it avoids the central reality, just as Black Lives Matter avoids the central reality […] The message that needs to get out there is that if you work hard, you can succeed despite the handicaps that you have."

In addition to offering his two cents against the abomination that is rap music for the umpteenth time, Rivera also concludes that, "Aside from Drake, in my opinion, [Lamar] is probably the best hip-hop artist out there today."

At least we can all agree he got one thing right...

Take a look at Geraldo Rivera's 18-minute reaction to Kendrick Lamar's new album in the video below.

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