Geraldo Rivera Blasts Kendrick Lamar’s BET Awards Performance

Right Wing media's public crusade against hip-hop continues. Following Kendrick Lamar's powerful performance at the 2015 BET Awards, Geraldo Rivera hopped on Fox News to blast Lamar's stage time, which featured the rapper rhyming on top of a vandalized cop car. "This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years," said Rivera. "This is exactly the wrong message." 

This is the second time this year that Geraldo has made this statement. While doing an interview with Huff Post Live Back in Feb., Geraldo said, "Hip-hop has done more damage to black and brown people that racism in the last 10 years. When you find the youngster - a Puerto Rican from the South Bronx of 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 his ass and with visible tattoos...it is this whole ethos."

Lamar has been on the forefront of rappers discussing social change and race and his music has been directly influenced by recent events--including the death of Trayvon Martin. During an interview with The Guardian, Lamar revealed that he wrote his song "The Blacker the Berry" right after the tragic death of Martin. "These are issues that if you come from that environment it’s inevitable to speak on,” said Lamar on why the Martin case impacted him so deeply. “It’s already in your blood because I am Trayvon Martin, you know. I’m all of these kids. It’s already implanted in your brain to come out your mouth as soon as you’ve seen it on the TV. I had that track way before that, from the beginning to the end, and the incident just snapped it for me."