Uh oh yall. “It’s a war going on outside. No man is safe,” as rapper Prodigy stated. I’m joking. I just felt like quoting a rapper. But seriously though.
Apparently, DJ Vlad got into it with a Princeton College Professor Morgan Jenkins over a debate over the Hip-Hop battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
DJ Vlad opined that Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” dis track to Drake wasn’t as good because it needed a better engineer.
Professor Morgan Jenkins then criticized Vlad by saying his opinion is invalid because the Kendrick/Drake beef is “a Black Folk Affair.”
Vlad then questioned whether she says the same thing to her pupils.
“Wait, so a professor at @Princeton is telling me that a white person shouldn’t be allowed to voice their opinion about Hip-Hop? Is that how you interact with your students?” Vlad asked.
Jenkins then tried to contextualize her statement but by this time Vlad was not having it.
By not having it, I mean, he rejected her clarification and threatened to contact Princeton University and tell them about their exchange.
In fairness, to Vlad, I think he has a right to his opinion on the Kendrick Lamar/Drake battle. He’s a DJ himself and was merely giving a technical opinion based on sound engineering jargon.
Hip-hop is Black culture that was started in the Bronx. But it’s mainstream and accessible to all people. If Vlad and professor Morgan Jenkins were talking about Black-specific issues like reparations, police brutality, relationships between Black men and women, then she would have a point.
But the flip side to DJ Vlad being allowed to comment on a Black music genre and culture and be apart of it, is you have to act in accordance with broader Black thought and the more specific sub-Black culture of Hip-Hop thought. That means you can’t act like a “Karen.” If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what a “Karen” is, I highly recommend you Google it and click the Urban Dictionary website. No need for me to explain it to you here.
Ok fine, I’ll give you a brief explanation. But for multiple definitions, just Google it. Most of us knows a Karen is an unnecessarily and overly self-righteous person- usually a White woman who asks to speak to the manager to get an employee fired over a minor mishap. Or complains about trivial company processes to the boss to get a whole department or section in trouble. A snitch or tattletale basically.
When you watch DJ Vlad interview overly cool rappers, Hip-Hop dudes, street dudes, and even actors and comedians that are knee deep in Black popular culture, he comes off as the corny guy who tries to be down and relatable to them.
He often interjects his perspective when the viewers are more interested in the guests. I remember when he interviewed rapper and TV personality, Taxstone. Most of the interview was him giving his perspective and waiting for Taxstone to weigh-in and build on what he just said. Vlad talked most of the interview. I used that example because I remember a commenter under the YouTube video saying “Vlad just did a whole interview, interviewing his got-damn self.”
My point is, if Vlad wants to be cool, or- to use the technical term- hip or trendy, or be “down with the Brothers” and be apart of the culture, you can’t do corny stuff like trying to get someone fired. Hopefully one of his cool, Black guests can tell him that trying to get someone fired by threatening to tell their boss is not cool.
He could’ve and should’ve just argued his point of being allowed to comment on a Hip-Hop battle, that though is apart of a Black culture, is not tied directly to a Black-specific issue.
But anyway, this is relatively old now and Vlad has since apologized for threatening to get her fired. The blunder of Vlad’s “I’m telling!”-Karen inclinations far outweighed a slightly off opinion by professor Morgan Jenkins. But Vlad apologized and that’s water under the bridge.
I love the polarity of disagreements that arouse discussions. So thank you Vlad and Professor Morgan for giving me another topic. Stay tuned family. I have plenty more content coming.
