Fox Blasts Obama's 'Hip-Hop BBQ' for Failing to Create Jobs

Updated Monday, Aug. 8

Fox didn't like President Obama's birthday party, because it didn't create any jobs. Oh, and it was also a "hip-hop BBQ," because hip hop was played along with some other music from some other genres, and, you know, black people were there.

There doesn't seem to have been a whole lot of hip hop at this BBQ, based on Politico's account, except that a DJ played some of it, along with Motown and '70s and '80s R&B -- which sounds, and correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't go to a lot of these, kind of like the musical sampling at a contemporary bar mitzvah party.

Only one of the live acts, Ledisi, can be described as hip hop -- and then just barely. Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock are not hip-hop performers. Which makes the overall "hip hop" quotient pretty low.

As for the guest list and hip hop by association ... Charles Barkley is neither hip hop nor a role model. Chris Rock was a hip-hop figure in the early- and mid-90s, but the most direct evidence of hip hoppery seems to be Jay-Z's presence. Which leads me to believe that Jay-Z also walks down "hip-hop sidewalks," shops at "hip-hop supermarkets," and texts Beyonce on his "hip-hop phone" to ask whether she wants "hip-hop spinach" or "hip-hop arugula" in the "hip-hop salad" they plan to "hip-hop prepare" as part of a "hip-hop light summer meal." Maybe it wasn't Jay-Z, but the heavy hip-hop influences displayed constantly by the U.S. Marine Band or U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, that lent the BBQ its hip-hop flair.

That said, the notion of Obama's BBQ failing to create jobs actually is funny.

UPDATE: Fox News VP of Programming Bill Shine responded to hubbub over the "Hip-Hop BBQ" story on Friday, citing Politico's account of hip-hop dance routines in the East Room -- which, admittedly, is a more substantive hip-hop incident than Jay-Z's attendance. From Yahoo!'s The Cutline:

Bill Shine, Fox executive vice president of programming in charge of the Fox Nation site, defended the decision in a statement to The Cutline: "We used the hip-hop reference per Politico's Playbook story this morning which stated 'Also present: Chicago pals, law-school friends, donors--and lots of kids of friends, who stole the show by doing dance routines to the hip-hop songs, in the center of the East Room.'"

Image via @chrigz