Moore, Scott to appear on Fat Joe podcast amid controversy over slur

Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s scheduled appearance this week on two rappers’ live podcast is happening amid a national controversy over one of the hosts using a racial slur.

Moore and Scott are scheduled to appear Friday at a live podcast hosted by Fat Joe and Jadakiss, which is billed as a “conversation about how art, culture, and entertainment fuel tourism, economic growth, and the future of cities.” The two artists will perform at Baltimore’s Pier Six Pavilion afterward.

But Fat Joe, the Puerto Rican and Cuban rapper known for hits with Ashanti, Jennifer Lopez and Remy Ma, has drawn criticism after using the N-word on “The Joe Budden Podcast” this month and describing himself as “the blackest.” He has faced similar criticism throughout his career for using the word.

Spokespeople for Moore and Scott did not respond to questions about the event.

Marc Lamont Hill, a co-host on “The Joe Budden Podcast” who was absent the day of Fat Joe’s appearance, responded that only Black people should use the word and Fat Joe is not Black.

Fat Joe, who grew up in public housing in New York’s Morrisania neighborhood, has doubled down on his use of the word, saying he’s from the “block that invented hip-hop.” He responded to Hill in the comments section of an Instagram post.

“My dad is Afro Cuban i love this guy,” Fat Joe wrote.

The debate continued on affinity podcasts, Roland Martin’s YouTube show, social media and elsewhere. Charlamagne tha God explained in a monologue why no one should use the word on his popular “The Breakfast Club” radio show.

Scott has repeatedly addressed racist commenters online who have labeled him with the slur, often sharing their messages and identities for his followers to see.

And Moore and Scott have used podcasts and other media appearances to reach new audiences and raise their national profiles.

Dayvon Love, director of public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a Baltimore think tank focused on Black communities and leadership, said the question of who is Black, and therefore who can say the N-word, is complex. There are reasonable perspectives on all sides of the conversation, he said, but often it is “extremely ill-informed.”

”People are entitled to their opinion and emotional reactions, but I just don’t find much of it serious," he said.

He said he doesn’t believe this podcast dialogue will accomplish anything.

Catalina Byrd, a third-generation Republican from West Baltimore who has run for mayor twice, has been following the controversy.

She said, as someone with family from New York and a mother who went to grad school there, it is common for groups there to be “mixed and mingled and share each other’s vernacular.”

She added: “I’m not offended by it in any way.

“He does indeed have a great deal of respect for the community that he comes from in the genre that he has made his way in,” she said.

Byrd thinks Moore and Scott shouldn’t avoid the topic if they participate in the podcast.

“I’m not going to be disappointed if it doesn’t [get discussed], because they were booked before this happened,” she said. “And so there’s things that I would assume they want to talk about more than this.”