O’Reilly Factors In Hip-Hop
By Joel Meyer -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/3/2004 11:19:00 AM
In one of the more eclectic interviews conducted at last week’s Democratic National Convention, hip-hop mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs interviewed Fox News Channel talk-show host Bill O’Reilly.
Combs, reporting for MTV News, asked O’Reilly about the importance of voting.
“This presidential race is going to be [very close]. It's going to be like a basketball game that's tied in overtime,” O’Reilly replied. “Who's going to make the last shot? Your vote could be the one. So vote.”
When asked about the role of hip-hop culture in this year’s election, O’Reilly responded that it could have a positive impact, though he was concerned about the “glorification of bad behavior.”
“But I like hip-hop,” O’Reilly maintained. “I'm hopping all the time, man.”
Earlier in the interview, Combs artfully dodged a touchy issue when O’Reilly referred to MTV as “the Ludacris channel.” (In 2002, O’Reilly criticized rapper and Pepsi spokesman Ludacris, whom he called “a dumb idiot who got lucky and exploits the system.”)
“I'm definitely down with Ludacris. But we’re going to keep you and Ludacris' beef out of this,” Combs said.
O’Reilly joked: “You gonna keep us apart?”
(The full text of the interview is available at MTV.com.)
