Does Michael Jordan really hate rap as N.O.R.E. suggested during a Rap Radar podcast in March? MJ—or at least, a publicist speaking on behalf of MJ—said no shortly after N.O.R.E. made his claim. N.O.R.E. responded by reiterating his original point about MJ hating rap, though, and by pointing out that MJ did, in fact, attend a Def Jam Christmas party once despite his publicist saying that he hadn't been there—the same party where, N.O.R.E. says, MJ said, “F*ck rap," after Redman and Method Man asked for a few seconds of his time. Chamillionaire would also probably have something to say about MJ's true feelings towards rappers.
So where does that leave us? Well, we don’t really know. Unless someone hides in MJ’s trunk one day (uh, don’t do this) and finds out what MJ listens to in his car when he’s all alone (our money is on Anita Baker's “Giving You the Best That I Got”—on repeat), we’re probably never going to get to the bottom of the “Does MJ really hate rap?” debate.
What we do know, though, is that, contrary to what N.O.R.E. said about MJ and rap, MJ has been spotted taking photos with rappers in the past. Lots of rappers actually. A quick Google search reveals this photo with Jay Z, this photo with Common, this photo with Macklemore, this photo with Nelly, and not one, not two, but three photos (!) with Fat Joe. And during a dinner on Wednesday night, MJ added one more photo with a rapper to the mix by taking this picture with Fabolous, which comes to us courtesy of Roc Nation executive Lenny Santiago’s Instagram page:
And it's not the first time MJ and Fab have snapped a photo together, either! *gasp* Fab posted this photo of the two on IG back in 2013:
So maybe MJ doesn’t really hate rap as much as N.O.R.E. said he did? Yeah, we still don’t know. But the comments left on the IG photo of MJ and Fab were, as you would guess, classic with fans pointing out that MJ (or "that dude" as one fan called him) supposedly hates rap and wondering how Fab was able to land the photo:
Fab himself didn't repost the photo of him and MJ on his own IG. He also didn’t mention meeting MJ on any of his various social media accounts. But for now, this is probably as good a time as any to shut down the “MJ doesn’t like rap” rumor once and for all. We think. Call us from MJ’s trunk if you hear otherwise.
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