Outspoken radio host Rush Limbaugh is blaming hip-hop for his recent inappropriate statements and rappers are firing back.

After more than 30 national advertisers, including AOL, JC Penny and Capital One, dropped him for calling Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute,” Limbaugh apologized on his syndicated radio show and issued a statement saying he was sorry. But when more advertisers continued to part ways with him, Limbaugh resorted to blaming hip-hop for his tactless actions live on his show Monday (March 5).

“Talk about a double standard,” Limbaugh said. “Rappers can say anything they want about women. It’s called art. And they win awards.”

That statement isn’t sitting well with the hip-hop community. XXLMag.com reached out to a number of rappers, who blasted Limbaugh for attempting to use rap music as a scapegoat.

“Either you’re going to be a fact-based influencer of society or you’re going to be an objective art-based influencer. Choose,” Atlanta rapper Killer Mike told XXLMag.com. “You’re not an artist. I doubt you’d be good if you were one, but you present yourself as a fact-base presenter of Republican issues. Our art is subjective—you can choose to listen or not. But he presents himself as a fact person and since he chooses to do that, he should be dealt with by the full extent of the public outcry.”

Mike adds that blaming hip-hop for their personal problems isn’t anything new for certain public figures.

“Every time a White man gets in trouble, he pulls this shit,” Mike added. “Bill O’Reilly does this shit, Don Imus does this shit. We don’t want to be your scapegoats. Don’t blame the Black guys when you fuck up! We don’t want any parts of Mr. Limbaugh.”

Bun B agrees.

“As a member of the hip-hop community, let me just say that Rush Limbaugh has no validity or any credibility to speak on behalf of the hip-hop nation, on what we say or on what we do,” Bun said. “Secondly, I think it’s very weak of him and cowardly as a man to not just simply own what it is that he said himself instead of trying to deflect it. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the main person that always wants to talk about people deflecting from the real issue.

“We’ve had people [in the hip-hop community] lose sponsorship because of language before,” the legendary Houston MC continued. “We had Bill O’Reilly playing this whole thing to get Ludacris dropped from Pepsi based on his comments, and Rush Limbaugh had no problem with that. So, you popped the pill, now swallow it. Again, we give no validity to people like him when they try to make an argument about what we should be doing in our community.”

Limbaugh called Fluke a “prostitute” after she attempted to testify at a House committee on contraception, arguing that women who ask the public to help pay for their birth control should post sex tapes online "so we can all watch." After advertisers began to flee, Limbaugh issued an apology on his radio show and via a written statement.

"My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices,” he said on his show.

When the mass exodus of advertisers continued, Limbaugh went fromdefense to offense, suggesting he shouldn’t be damned for what he said if rappers who use derogatory language toward women aren’t. JC Penney and Capital One were among the latest advertisers to drop Limbaugh. —Mark Lelinwalla with additional reporting by Mariel Concepcion

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