Raven, Raven, Raven. Months after she sent Black Twitter in a frenzy for her “African-American” comments (Remember that? She said that she didn’t consider herself African-American; she was simply American), she tried to do some damage control, but she just dug herself into a deeper hole.
In a recent interview with E! News, she said that Ancestry.com sent her a DNA test, and she was able to see that she was “from every continent in Africa except for one” (she’s also from every “continent” except for one in Europe, too). Girl, maybe you should just stop while you’re ahead.
Award winning actor, comedian and musician Jamie Foxx ventured into the world of production in 2010 with No Brainer Films.
We honestly don’t know where to start with Kanye. Between his unforgettable Taylor Swift interruption at the 2009 VMAs and his countless idiotic comments, it’s hard to choose just one foot-in-mouth moment for Yeezy.
But if we had to choose, we would throw it back to the O.K. (Original Kanye), where it all began: When speaking alongside Mike Myers at a Hurricane Katrina telethon, he went off-script and declared that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” Cringeworthy, yes, but also kind of hilarious.
Cee Lo Green angered both women and men everywhere after tweeting some statements that sounded like he was defending the right to rape. After appearing in court on charges of rape and drugging a woman with ecstasy, he tweeted a slew of nonsensical defenses, such as “People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!” and “If someone is passed out they’re not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent.” It was only a matter of time before venues started dropping him from their line-ups, he was forced to issue an apology and he ultimately deleted his Twitter account. Cee Lo, we hoped you learned your lesson.
Tyrese found himself in some hot water in 2013 after he made some cruel, fat-shaming comments. In an interview with AllHipHop, the singer/actor/director had some choice words for people who he felt were fat by choice.
“If you are fat and nasty and you don’t like the way you look, do something about it,” he said. “When you take a shower and you put your fat, nasty body in the shower and by the time you get out, the mirrors are all steamed up so you don’t look at what you did to yourself… Ultimately, you are big as hell because you have earned that s–t. You worked your a– off to eat everything in sight to get big as hell.” We’re willing to bet he lost a few (thousand) fans after that one.
Azealia, Queen of Twitter, crossed a line when she called famed gossip columnist Perez Hilton a “f—-t,” in what turned into one of the messiest Twitter feuds of this century. During a separate Twitter war with Angel Haze, Perez came to Angel’s defense, which resulted in Azealia calling him a “messy f—-t.”
And while she angered millions in the LGBT community as well as allies, she refused to apologize for saying it. She told the Guardian that she didn’t using the derogatory term, which, in her mind, means “anybody that hates women.” She added that she “didn’t say all gay men are f—-ts; I said Perez Hilson is a f—-t, so don’t try and bring the rest of the gays down with your f—-try.” Azealia, sit down.
50 Cent is known to throw a snarky jab or two but when he called a man autistic over Twitter many called foul on the play.
When an overzealous fan sent a tweet about his new album he responded, “Yeah just saw your picture fool you look autistic. I don’t want no special ed kids on my time line follow somebody else.”
The comments offended many including actress and autism activist Holly Robinson Peete, who wrote an open letter to the rapper. 50 later apologized saying, “I realize my autism comments were insensitive, however it was not my intention to offend anyone and for this I apologize.”
During an interview with Arsenio Hall, Gabourey Sidibe thought it was all fun and games when she used the word “Tranny” no less than five times in just one minute.
While discussing living in New Orleans, Sidibe offered up a story saying, “There was a bar that we would frequent, and every time we’d go, when we were leaving—every single time—there was always, like, a gang of cops arresting trannies,” she said. “And I don’t know what goes on with trannies, but that tranny-on-tranny crime needs to stop!” Yikes.
Sidibe released an apology after backlash from the LGBT community saying, “I’ve apologized several times for using the word “Tranny”. I don’t realize that it was a slur. I’m very sorry for my poor choice of words.”
When rapper A$AP Rocky suggested that darker-skinned women don’t look good in red lipstick, ladies everywhere stopped for a collective eye roll. During an interview with The Coveteur, the rapper said, “I feel like with the red lipstick thing, it all depends on the pair of complexion. I’m just being for real. You have to be fair-skinned to get away with that.”
The comment sparked major backlash and was even the catalyst for late blogger Karyn White’s #DarkSkinRedLip campaign, which saw women everywhere rocking the shade proudly. A$AP later responded saying, “I’m sorry if it hurt any dark-skinned girls’ feelings…Black girls—you know how sensitive they are—but they our sisters, man.” Sorry not sorry?
Date rape is not something to be made light of so when Rick Ross casually mentioned it in his 2013 single “U.O.E.N.O.” red flags went off everywhere. In the lyrics Ross says, “put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.”
The song provoked change.org petitions and the loss of a sneaker deal with Reebok. After briefly adressing the situation Ross finally made an official public apology.
“For me to suggest in any way that harm and violation be brought to a woman is one of my biggest mistakes and regrets,” he said in a statement. “And most recently, my choice of words was not only offensive, it does not reflect my true heart. And for this, I apologize.”
