New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang recently fumbled an opportunity to endear himself with the hip-hop community after apparently capping about his Jay-Z fandom.
Yang recently sat down for an interview with comedian Ziwe Fumudoh for an upcoming episode of her Showtime series, Ziwe. Previews of the sit-down have been posted to the internet and appear to show a clear example of when keeping it real goes wrong. During the interview, Ziwe asked Yang if he is a fan of hip-hop. “I listened a lot to hip-hop during like the 1990s and 2000s,” Yang said, naming Nas and Jay-Z as two artists whom he coveted.
Ziwe followed up by asking, “What’s your favorite Jay-Z song?” That's when things got awkward. Following a long pause, Yang questioned himself. "What is my favorite Jay-Z song?" he asked aloud. Unable to come up with the name, he started to rap a few lines from Hov's 2003 track, "Encore," specifically the remix version featuring Linkin Park.
"It was the first one that came to mind," Yang added. "Then there's like his collaboration with Kanye, like, N-word in Paris," he said referencing "Niggas in Paris," the hit Hov and Yeezy collab off their 2011 joint album, Watch the Throne.
"Those are the two songs that came to mind for me," Yang added. "But he has such a canon, you really can't go wrong."
Yang has had some surprising hip-hop moments in the past but this was not one of them. The entire interview is set to air on Sunday night (May 23) at 11 p.m. EST.
Check out video of Yang struggling to come up with a Jay-Z song title below.
See 10 Times Rappers Went at Fox News