Ya Heard: Bill O'Reilly makes good point about hip-hop

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."

Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly took a jab at another hip-hop artist last week, and this time I, for one, can't say that I disagree.

On his nightly news commentary show, the "O'Reilly Factor," O'Reilly and guest Dennis Miller criticized a Young Jeezy and Jay-Z performance in Washington, D.C., the night before Barack Obama's inauguration.

A clip of the performance that was played for viewers features Young Jeezy stating:

"I wanna thank two people," Young Jeezy says to the audience. "I wanna thank the [expletive] overseas that threw two shoes at George Bush. And I want to thank the [expletive] who helped them move their [stuff] up out of the White House. Keep it moving [female dogs] be-cause my president is [expletive] black."

This was said leading up to Jeezy's hit track titled "My President is Black." Now I'm sure I'll catch flack from some people for what I'm about to write, but the truth can't be denied.

O'Reilly's not shy about attacking hip-hop artists. O'Reilly's played a part in Ludacris losing his Pepsi endorsement deal and called Nas a thug because of the content of his music.

"I don't know much about Young Jeezy, it is possible he will appear on 'The Factor' soon," O'Reilly says to viewers. "I guess they didn't get the memo about bringing the country together. I don't think Barack Obama would approve.... I think it was low class."

I touched on this topic last summer following Ludacris' release of "Paint the White House Black" in support of Obama. I pointed out that while many hip-hop artists were at-tempting to show support and allegiance to Obama, their way of going about it may have been contradictory to Obama's message of unity.

Jeezy's Jan. 19 performance was another example of a black hip-hop artist not fully under-standing the importance of the moment. While the election of the first black man was a distinc-tively celebratory moment for American blacks, it is not limited to us, for it took Americans as a whole to make that fantasy a reality. To be in D.C. on the eve of the inauguration, with a chance to build on Obama's message of "change," and not do so is counter-productive.

For hip-hop, the significance of Obama being elected is that we as a culture need to step our game up. Of all people, Bill O'Reilly's guest, Dennis Miller, put it best:

"I thought it was a beautiful day yesterday. If they couldn't ratchet down the hate for a day, then that's their problem not mine. And by the way, you're looking at an obso-lete model there because if the dinosaurs were done in by the asteroids, role models in the black community like that are about to be done in by a shooting star named Barack Obama."

Ouch, hip-hop stand up!!!

YA HEARD TRIVIA

In 1998, two years after the death of 25-year-old hip-hop great Tupac Shakur, a greatest hits double CD of his music was released. On a track from that album, Pac raps, "…And though it seems heaven sent/We ain't ready to see a black president…"

What is the name of the song featuring these lyrics?

Be the third person to send me an e-mail with the correct answer and receive two free AMC movie tickets courtesy of the News & Messenger…'Til next week, Peace!!!

Dennis Winn can be reached at 703-200-4928 or YaHeard40@gmail.com.