Rapper Talib Kweli flipped out at CNN’s Don Lemon over the news channel’s coverage of the protests in Ferguson Missouri on Thursday.
The segment started out pretty harmlessly with Kweli explaining why he thought it was important to be in Ferguson, taking issue specifically with a CNN.com story that was titled “Ferguson streets were calm until bottles fly.”
“That’s inaccurate,” Kweli said, “because I was there that night.”
Things escalated though when Kweli said media coverage of events there had been covered badly by the media.
“I felt it was important to control the narrative because the media has been doing a horrible job of making sure that the stories get out in the right way,” Kweli said.
That’s when Lemon disagreed.
“I disagree with that especially with our coverage. I think that we’ve done really great coverage here,” Lemon said. “And people in the community are actually coming up commending us on our coverage, saying that it’s balanced. We’ve been telling the stories of young black men and their interactions with police officers. I don’t think the entire media has been bad.”
It escalated quickly from there as Kweli and Lemon began trying to talk over each other.
“Let me explain something. I would listen to you if you had the decency — let me finish. If you had the decency to greet me,” Kweli said.
“I invited you,” Lemon said.
“You didn’t invite me. Nicole invited me, first of all,” Kweli said. “You came up. You didn’t say nothing to me. You were on your phone the whole time. You asked how to pronounce my name. Let me finish what I have to say or else I’m going to leave.”
Later on during the no-so-subtle bickering Lemon defended being on the phone before he went on air with Kweli.
“As far as you saying me coming up, I have a job to do. What I’m doing on television is in this phone. I am Reading — hang on — I am Reading –,” Lemon said.
“I didn’t have the respect to greet you if I’ve never met you before,” Kweli responded.
“I did,” Lemon said.
“No, you didn’t. That’s a lie. No, you didn’t. We have it on tape,” Kweli said. “You skated by here. And I said hello to you. And you said hey, what’s up? You didn’t do none of that.”
Watch the video below:
