Yesterday, TDE CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith expressed disdain for what he perceived to be negative racial implications in GQ‘s cover story on Kendrick Lamar. Less than 24 hours later, the magazine’s EIC, Jim Nelson, has delivered a statement on gq.com defending his writer.
Nelson’s statement reads:
Kendrick Lamar is one of the most talented new musicians to arrive on the scene in years. That’s the reason we chose to celebrate him, wrote an incredibly positive article declaring him the next King of Rap, and gave him our highest honor: putting him on the cover of our Men of the Year issue. I’m not sure how you can spin that into a bad thing, and I encourage anyone interested to read the story and see for themselves. We were mystified and sorely disappointed by Top Dawg’s decision to pull him at the last minute from the performance he had promised to give. The real shame is that people were deprived of the joy of seeing Kendrick perform live. I’m still a huge fan.”
Top Dawg pulled K. Dot from his scheduled performance at GQ‘s 2013 “Men Of The Year” party Tuesday, November 12, as a result of the story.
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Photo: GQ
