From Phil Mushnick in today’s NY Post.
In the tidal wave of Anucha Browne Sanders’ claims that the Garden, Thomas and MSG President Steve Mills allowed and sustained a climate of sexual harassment, the Garden and the Knicks yesterday invited, as an honored guest, a performer who reflexively demeans women as “ho’s” and “bitches” who exist only to satisfy his immediate sexual wants, before being quickly discarded.
Yesterday, as the Garden and Knicks eagerly promoted, Ja Rule and Marbury were the star judges in the Knicks’ Poetry Slam, held for local high school students at 4 p.m. in The Theater Lobby at The Garden.
Let’s be clear: Only those given to the most far-flung rationalizations would call Ja Rule – real name Jeffrey Atkins – a “hip hop artist.”
He’s a gangsta rapper, with a criminal record – from outstanding warrants to assault pleas – to match. He’s an inveterate braggart who records for Murder Inc. and has a blood feud on the boil with Fifty Cent, another mainstreamed advocate of misanthropy, and, like Ja Rule, a promoter of the most debased black racial stereotypes and an advocate of black self-enslavement.
This isn’t a matter of opinion; it’s a matter of fact. Check it out for yourself. Spend two minutes on the Internet; punch in, “Ja Rule lyrics,” see for yourself who the Garden and the Knicks yesterday presented in the name of community service.
In defense of Isiah and Steve Mills, I would like to add that they tried to book the Mentors’ El Duce, but he was unavailable.
In all seriousness, when Clyde Frazier is already on the payroll, who needs celebrity judges for a Poetry Slam?