T.I. is suggesting Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Queen Latifah and Jamie Foxx collectively fund an award ceremony for the minorities who aren’t recognized in the Oscars year after year.
With the Oscars failing to recognize Black talent in Hollywood for the second consecutive year, Spike Lee, Reverend Al Sharpton, and many others were upset by the lack of racial diversity. There was an overwhelming demand from fans as well as other entertainers, like Tyrese, for the host, Chris Rock, to boycott the ceremony. However, Rock used the award ceremony as a platform to address the issue on behalf of Black Hollywood. But according to T.I., that isn’t enough to solve the problem.
During an interview with Shade45 on DJ Drama‘s #StreetzIzWatchin radio segment, the rapper/actor agrees that there’s an issue with racial diversity and comes up with a solution:
I feel that they are absolutely correct in all their claims that the Oscars are so White that they disregard the contributions of African-Americans or minority talent. I also feel that the Oscars cater to a very middle America, upper-echelon, sophisticated, who’s-who of old muthaf*ckas in Hollywood
He then added:
Why in the f*ck are we still looking to them to validate us? F*ck them. If they don’t see what we see, if they don’t recognize our then we can go ahead and start our own sh*t man. Will, Jada, muthafuck*n Queen Latifah, Jamie Foxx, y’all put back $10 million a piece and start a muthafuck*n award show that caters to us.
