Yesterday, Stephen A. Smith set social media on fire when he posted he was preparing to unleash on “that no good fat bastard,” aka Jason Whitlock.
So that evening on his “Stephen A. Smith” YouTube show, Smith channeled his inner Nas and went off on Whitlock for over 40 minutes.
For those old enough to remember, this is similar to the beef between Nas and Jay-Z that finally exploded in 2001.
That June, Jay-Z headlined at HOT97’s annual “Summer Jam” event. While performing the Nas/Mobb Deep diss track “Takeover”, Hov showed a video of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy participating in a dance class as a child as he rapped “Don’t be the next contestant on that Summer Jam screen.”
The bitterness escalated when Nas accused the station of not allowing him to perform that night and went on rival 105.1 and blasted the station, Funk Flex and Angie Martinez.
Hot 97 and its DJs denied the accusations, after which Nas dropped the classic “Ether.” Jay responded with a quick freestyle in which he mentioned Nas’ ex but that didn’t fly with Hov’s mom. She berated him and he went on Angie’s show and apologized in an interview that stopped work in the city for almost an hour.
That beef eventually died down and they later appeared together in the “Roc Boys” video with Diddy.
Fast forward to the start of 2024 and beefs have swiftly erupted.
First, Katt Williams took a flame thrower to Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, Kevin Hart and many others in the “Club Shay Shay” episode that has now registered an astounding 43 million views in just one week. Then Jets QB Aaron Rodgers went at Jimmy Kimmel in a rant where ESPN and Disney execs got caught in the crossfire.
On Tuesday, Whitlock jumped into the mix by doing what he does, which is to launch a ridiculously thirsty attack on someone for clicks. How do we know he’s thirsty?
He offered to pay for a kid from Hollis, Queens (Smith’s hometown) to attend Winston-Salem State University for four years if Stephen A. came on his show to discuss the book.
That ain’t happening.
This isn’t the first time Whitlock targeted Smith, but after Whitlock accused him of writing lies and exaggerations in his book “Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes,” Smith admittingly took the bait because it was time to let him know.
Whitlock got what he asked for; his chance to be on the Summer Jam screen.
Smith set the table by first letting his audience know that he had informed his pastor, bosses, family and friends that he was going to eviscerate “the fat bastard” that day.
Then he cued the music and flambéd Whitlock for over 40 minutes.
“I mean it from my soul when I say this is the worst human being I’ve ever known. I don’t know of another human being worse than Jason Whitlock,” said Smith.
The hate for Whitlock is well spread in media, especially amongst Black media.
He almost single-handedly destroyed ESPN’s “The Undefeated” until an employee uprising forced John Skipper to fire him. Journalist Greg Howard’s blistering 2015 story on Whitlock in Deadspin exposed him for what he was and continues to be. He is detested by way more than he is liked, and outside of the few circles that tolerate him because they can exploit him, he has no real support or friends.
Smith threw haymaker after haymaker, mentioning names such as Jemele Hill, Howard Bryant, Chris Broussard, Rob Parker and Skip Bayless and media executives at both ESPN and Fox to prove how disliked Whitlock is.
“Stephen A Smith told the truth,” posted Hill. “Ole Boy tried to recruit a bunch of us to do some work for what was then the Undefeated and we did not want to work with him.”
Normally, it wouldn’t be this personal, especially in journalism.
But Smith had had enough.
“I have sat back for years, at least nine to ten years, saying absolutely nothing about this man,” said Smith. “But now it’s necessary.”
And he went off.
“I don’t know of another human being worse than Jason Whitlock,” said Smith. “He is a piece of s**t. He’s the dude that’s going to have a funeral and ain’t going to be no pallbearers.”
Smith continued without hesitation.
“While you were on Blaze TV spewing that bulls**t to people, did you tell them that [about Howard’s story]? Did you tell them how you stood outside of ‘First Take’ begging me to talk to you?” Smith said. “Did you tell them that once this same article in Deadspin came out, weeks later you wrote a lengthy apology to me in an e-mail begging me to forgive you? Pointing out how you were betrayed by this particular writer so you know how I must feel that you betrayed me? Did you tell the folks that? You bitch. Did you tell them? You fat piece of s–t.”
Afterward, the reactions were swift and predictable.
Numerous Black journalists expressed their distaste for Whitlock and posted about their personal interactions with him.
“Stephen A. Smith lit into Jason Whitlock publicly the way countless other Black journalists have I know have fricasseed him in private,” posted Exavier Pope. “He’s universally loathed. The nobody will come to his funeral line is probably the worst insult you could give another person. Damn.”
As expected, those of Whitlock’s ilk, like Sage Steele, came to his defense and retaliated against Smith. Whitlock also lamely responded.
“I knew Stephen A. was limited. I didn’t know he was this limited. I’m starting to feel sorry for him. I beat up a baby seal,” Whitlock posted in a weak response.
In the end, Whitlock got the attention he thirsted for, but was ethered in the process.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as a Black man I often told y’all. I cannot imagine…as a Black man…knowing our history, anything worse than a white supremacist,” said Smith. “That is until Jason Whitlock came around.”
