If you call Jay Z a "former crack dealer" when you introduce a political story about him, there's a good chance you'll get the Jon Stewart treatment.
On Wednesday's episode of The Daily Show, the host slammed Fox News' Sean Hannity over the way he teased a video segment about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Dec. 10 meeting with the hip-hop star, producer, founder of entertainment company Roc Nation and husband of Beyoncé. Jay Z has been pushing for criminal justice system reform amid recent controversial killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, including the death of Eric Garner in his native New York City.
Stewart, naturally, showcased his trademark look of cartoonish befuddlement after screening Hannity's tease. As pictures of Cuomo and Jay Z were shown, the host said that the governor "thought it was appropriate to take some advice from a guy that admits that he sold crack and was a drug dealer and actually shot somebody," adding, "We'll tell you who it is as we continue."
"Ooh, this is gonna drive me crazy!" Stewart joked. "I don't know who it is! I'm gonna go with Jay Z. You know, 'cause of the photo of Jay Z you have up on the screen there for a really long time. So that's the tease. Jay Z. Crack dealer."
Fox News had no immediate comment and Jay Z has not responded.
In his segment, Hannity quotes from the hip-hop star's 2010 memoir Decoded, in which he states that in the past, he "sold crack to addicts who were killing themselves, collecting the wrinkled bills they got from God knows where, and making sure they got their rocks to smoke."
"Why would the governor pick him?" Hannity asks. "You can't do much better than the former crack dealer?
Stewart's response: He utters an expletive and says, "I don't even know what to do here. It's so over the line."
"How can you say that about Jay Z?" Stewart later asks. "All that he's done for himself."
Hannity also tweeted about it, drawing mixed responses.
There are more qualified individuals to advise @NYGovCuomo on how to improve race relations. Jay Z isn't one of them. #Hannity
? Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) December 13, 2014Jay Z, now one of the most successful music stars in the world, has talked openly about his troubled past and has made drug references in his songs. He used to be part of a street gang and sold crack for years, starting when he was 12, and never used it himself, according to the U.K. newspaper The Guardian. He was never convicted for drug-related crimes.
Also at age 12, he shot and wounded his older brother, an addict, for stealing his ring, the newspaper said. Jay Z pays tribute to his brother, who never pressed charges, in his 1997 song "You Must Love Me."
The Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams later weighed in on Hannity's Jay Z story, talking to Stewart about Jay Z's positive attributes, such as his "good job" and "stable marriage," during which she poked fun at a now-famous elevator incident involving Jay, Bey and sister Solange.
"Is he a good father? Check. And he's not just pulling his pants up. The guy actually sells belts! That's how devoted he is to the cause of raised pants!" she told Stewart. "Jon, Jay Z is the guy they keep saying they want all other black guys to be, but to them he's still just a crack dealer," she says.