Justin Timberlake: Can A Brother Get a Ghetto Pass?
In today's New York Times, Lola Ogunnaike profiles Jeff "Chairman" Mao, Elliott Wilson, Gabriel Alvarez and Sacha Jenkins, the mad geniuses behind the late, lamented hip-hop and humor magazine Ego Trip and VH1's 'Ego Trip'-branded programming.
One of the shows discussed is Dude, Where's My Ghetto Pass?, all about white folks who are embraced by the African American community. As Ogunnaike explains:
For his work in "Scarface" and "The Godfather," arguably two of hip-hop culture's most beloved films, Al Pacino earns a ghetto pass. Bill Clinton, with his offices in Harlem, gets one, too, as does that bottle-blond rapper from Detroit, Eminem. It turns out that the singer Justin Timberlake, who a scant two years ago held honorary soul-brother status, has since had his ghetto pass revoked for abandoning Janet Jackson during their Super Bowl brouhaha.
Poor ofay JT! Well, he'll earn back that ghetto pass by starring in Edison with Morgan Freeman: he's got street cred to spare.
Then again, maybe not, according to the same article:
"That's what happens to black male actors when they get older," [Sacha] Jenkins theorized. "They can't be sexual and they can't be scary, but they can be your father."
