Talib Kweli recently sat down with VladTV and detailed the aftermath of his and CNN reporter Don Lemon‘s argument on live television in August 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
During the heated exchange live on CNN, Talib criticized the network for “doing a horrible job” on reporting what was going on in Ferguson, MO.
He also stated that a headline on CNN.com that read,“Ferguson Protest Calm Until Bottles Fly,” was unfair.
“Don Lemon works for CNN,” the Brooklyn, NY emcee says during the VladTV interview published yesterday (September 9). “When I went on his program, I was critical of the way that CNN was covering an event that I was at. Instead of interviewing me about why I was critical he took the position that he was going to defend CNN even though he hadn’t read the article I was talking about nor was he at the event I was at. So we got into a back and forth about that. That was pretty intense.”
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After the CNN interview was over it appeared that the two had reconciled.
“I don’t fuck with Don Lemon,” Kweli says when asked how he and the CNN reporter were doing.
“What’s interesting about that is that when I did that thing with Don Lemon, I’d heard that people don’t like him,” the Black Star member continues. “I had read some things he said that I didn’t agree with, but I went into it really happy and excited to do the interview with him. Here’s a Black man. Here’s a Black, gay man who is on the news and it was somebody I was looking forward to having a conversation and a relationship with. I didn’t expect for him to be as disrespectful as he was to me. That totally through me for a loop. I had no opinion of Don Lemon until I met him and now I feel the same way as everybody else.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Talib addresses Minister Louis Farrakhan’s assertion that rappers are the new leaders.
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“I think rappers can be the new leaders and in a lot of ways are,” says the “Get By” rapper. “I don’t think rappers are. I think that’s too blanket of a statement. I think a clearer statement is ‘can be and have the potential to be.’ I think it’s the artists responsibility to be honest.”
The full Talib Kweli interview with VladTV is as follows:
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