Hip-hop has always been a lightning rod for journalism controversy, although the most recent gaffe from Forbes is more laughable to those familiar with the genre. The largely finance-oriented magazine published a story online Monday titled "Hip Hop Is Run By A White, Blonde Australian Woman," referring of course to Iggy Azalea. Hip-hop fans weren't taken with the title, and the magazine has since revised it.
Among the more pointed criticisms aimed at writer Hugh McIntyre were that he was "click baiting" and giving unfair precedence to white figures within the genre. More accurate however is the accusation that he simply doesn't have the background knowledge to comment on the genre. The mistake could have been made by anyone who simply looks at the Top 10 of the Hot 100 without prior knowledge. After all, Azalea is featured on both of last week's no. 3 and 4 songs (her own "Fancy" and Ariana Grande's "Problem," respectively). Although McIntyre's bio suggests that he's a music expert for the site, he also forgot the hyphen in "hip-hop," a hint suggesting otherwise.
That problem was also fixed on the site's new headline: "Hip-Hop's Unlikely New Star: A White, Blonde, Australian Woman." The site ran an explanation for the change of headline along with the story.
McIntyre could have done worse however. GQ took flack from TDE's Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith when he criticized the publication's profile of Kendrick Lamar. Although the story was meant to compliment Lamar and the rest of TDE's members, it did so by contrasting them to the negative stereotypes of such labels as Death Row.
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