Oprah Strikes Back

Oprah Winfrey, whose been lambasted over the past few weeks for her apparent distaste towards hip-hop musicians and hip-hop lyrics by artists like Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, got her time to respond to the criticism. While some of the artists focused their arguments on her attempts to editrappers comments on her show and her neglect towards having artists on her shows, Killer Mike of the Dungeon Family had much more to say.

Now under the guise of Masarati Mike, he supported Cube's views on not allowing the artists themselves to appear. "Why is it the producers of "Black & White" were invited to go on Oprah, but not Ice Cube? Name me someone more progressive than O'Shea Jackson, who came up in a black neighborhood, had the courage to leave a highly successful group only to start his own major multi-media company?"

Adding insult to injury, Masarati added, "That's a feat. And then he's snubbed by a black broad because she doesn't like rappers. Ludacris... [was] forced to defend his lyrics. Where were you when [Bill] O' Reilly was criticizing him? Bill O'Reilly is just gangsta rap for Middle America. Oprah is full of shit. Nobody has the courage to say that Oprah is full of shit . . . She's capable of doing incredible good, exposing people to Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison , or she can just be a dumb bitch shitting on rap, shitting on poor black people, it's possible to be doing both things at once." His comments may be out of context, but also may be leading up to an announcement about an upcoming album.

Only to have the last word, Oprah Winfrey told reporters at LA Reid's birthday party on Saturday, "I'm not opposed to rap. I don't have an opinion, because I am my own person. I respect other people's rights to do whatever they want to do in music and art and whatever. So I am my own person, they are their own people. I respect their rights. I am a woman who has worked very hard for my status in the world and as a human being. I don't want to be marginalized by music or any form of art. I feel rap is a form of _expression, as is jazz. I'm not opposed to rap. I'm opposed to being marginalized as a woman."

Whether this back-and-forth through the media will continue or find a much larger audience on Oprah's stage is yet to be seen. One thing is for sure, Oprah will most likely have the last laugh and the last word.