Let's all make fun of Terry Gross' Jay-Z interview!

Because it begins like this:

"This is FRESH AIR, I’m Terry Gross. My guest Jay-Z has been incredibly successful as a rapper and an entrepreneur, which is pretty amazing since he could easily have been in prison or dead."

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Stupid bbcode. Sorry:

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=131334322

she really cant get over the crack thing can she

GROSS: I have to say some of those baggy jeans are so loose around the waist like they fall down to the middle of your behind and I think if you had a weapon in there they'd definitely drop to the floor because the weapon would like drag them right down.

JAY-Z: Oh, you know if you had a big enough weapon and...

GROSS: Whatever...

yeah this was super awkward

GROSS: Did you actually stab him?

GROSS: Now, I just have to ask you, I sure you've been asked this a lot, but this - this is the bitch and ho question.

GROSS: So what really like, you've done the crotch thing too, right?

GROSS: That was "99 Problems" by my guest Jay-Z. Do we have time for the other 98 problems?

(Soundbite of laughter)

i have a soft spot for the groszzz but she is really bad when it comes to music people.

oh god plz tell me those snippets you're posting are fake

haha they are very real i heard it live on air

jaysus

Not a big fan of hers, but regardless, when she's out of her element she's really out of her element. I've always noted that her skills as an interviewer are massively magnified (that is, overinflated) by the magnitude of talent she attracts. Most of the time all she has to do is get them started and she can sit back. This is a case where she's such a bad fit it all falls apart. Then again, maybe if I listened instead of read it would flow better. It's not like Jay-Z lyric transcripts rock my world either.

no, that all sounds otm, imo. ive heard a few clunky interviews from her, and was sorta shocked at how graceless she was---like, aren't you a professional interviewer lady??

GROSS: Now, I just have to ask you, I sure you've been asked this a lot, but this - this is the bitch and ho question.

― max, Monday, November 22, 2010 1:52 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

like this is just shameful. you couldn't think of another way to do this? really?

I have pretty much always loathed Terry Gross and her neurasthenic, hesitant interrogatory style. She wd've been torpedoed by an SNL sketch long ago 1) if the show was funny and 2) more than 1% of the audience knew who she was.

Good interview on Stern:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/82734496170e219f/

More hate please. I hate her. I mean, um, I, like, hate Terry Gross.

I don't really pay attention to her - this is basically the most I've heard from her since her lolriffic interview with Gene Simmons

I think this may be another one of those very rare instances in which I'm in 100% agreement with Dr. Morbius. My loathing for Terry Gross is endless and I always enjoy interviews like this that really reveal how extremely limited she is as an interviewer.

this is one of those very rare instances where I feel sorry for Jay-Z

she was a horrible monster in her interview with tracy morgan

i have a soft spot for the groszzz but she is really bad when it comes to music black people.

have you heard her chris rock interview? also embarrassing.

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l71ywuL21F1qd9dz2o1_500.jpg

otm

"GROSS: That was "99 Problems" by my guest Jay-Z. Do we have time for the other 98 problems?"

that's pretty good though.

dude, tho, it's not! "a bitch" is specifically not one of jay's 99 problems, so what's this other 98 business

maybe one of the problems is being interviewed by terry gross

i do like how everything she says is preceded by the word "gross," like it's a warning

<gross>That was "99 Problems" by my guest Jay-Z. Do we have time for the other 98 problems?</ gross>

GROSS: And what about now, do you write down rhymes when they come to you or?

JAY-Z: On a notepad tbh. iirc.

She is married to Francis Davis, jazz and blues critic for the Village Voice and others (his writing I like alot)

it occurs to me that gross is kinda guilelessly reflecting jayz own bullshit back on him

I have pretty much always loathed Terry Gross and her neurasthenic, hesitant interrogatory style. She wd've been torpedoed by an SNL sketch long ago 1) if the show was funny and 2) more than 1% of the audience knew who she was.

Agreed. There hasn't been an episode of Fresh Air where I haven't cringed at at least one of her questions. I have always baffled as to how she ended up with the job she has.

she has connections in the totebag manufacturing industry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXSyzeVWueI

http://o.onionstatic.com/images/articles/article/10403/onionmagazine_archive_143a_jpg_445x1000_upscale_q85.jpg

shoulda gone mumblestherevelator there tbh

Has anyone read Decoded? Is it any good?

shoulda gone mumblestherevelator there tbh

Ummm...in what sense exactly? I figured I was such an infrequent contributor that the chances of my screen name becoming an adjective were nil. And to think, it had to happen during a discussion of Terry Gross. Then it would, wouldn't it?

if it makes you feel better, i have no idea what that means

Terry Gross Rocks Hawd! During an interview with James Murphy (o god) she whined about an unnamed band playing so loud they were "intentionally trying to cause physical damage". Yeah, it's called rock music, dummy.

I didn't here this interview, did she, "uh", bring up Jack White? She seems to have a pretty big boner for Jack White.

http://www.splicetoday.com/pop-culture/re-coded

I love how she rolls out her no-holds-barred questions about misogyny in rap and about dick-grabbing and she's so sure he'll become indignant or evasive that when he gives these incredible smart honest funny direct answers she has no idea what to do

it made me think that the gene simmmons interview he might have been partly winding her up because of some halfbaked "challenging" questions early on in the interview that they didn't air

I love how she rolls out her no-holds-barred questions about misogyny in rap and about dick-grabbing and she's so sure he'll become indignant or evasive that when he gives these incredible smart honest funny direct answers she has no idea what to do

i can't cite any specific instances, but i feel like this happens a lot when ppl interview hip hop dudes. they just assume that they're troglodytes or w/e and are flat-footed when they're forced to realize that they're usually really smart guys

well I dunno about "usually" but that is a good point

of course anyone with any media savvy is going to have answers for those questions, but jay's answer to the dick-grabbing one just knocked me out. It's such a dumb question in the first place-- it says a lot about him i think that he'd clearly given it real thought

well you know what i mean

also kinda o_0 when she asks him TWICE whether he used to smoke crack. Half the time she seems like she's been so prepped for an interview she barely knows where she is and the other half you can't believe anyone else went over her questions at all. Like when she asked Bruce Springsteen whether he felt like he had been strongly influenced by the theme songs of westerns on tv.

"I love how she rolls out her no-holds-barred questions about misogyny in rap and about dick-grabbing and she's so sure he'll become indignant or evasive that when he gives these incredible smart honest funny direct answers she has no idea what to do"

i thought she was collaborating with jay-z? like she read a section in the book where he gives an interesting answer to that same question and prompts him accordingly. she does go for the lurid, though.

Wait, why the hell would she ask Jay-Z if he was a crack smoker? Is there any reason to believe he was?

okay i have defended terry gross on ilx before but those questions upthread are insane. i do think asking things awkwardly is kind of her thing? it works in some contexts.

maybe there's a section in Jay-Z's book titled "Ask me about Crack"?

Of course there's no reason to think Jay-Z smoked crack. He says so explicitly many times in his music, and everything about his personality, not to mention his seeming success in his previous career, makes the idea absurd. unless you don't know nothing and nothing and have no respect for your guest

Terry should know, at the very least, that you don't get high on your own supply.

How would you handle quality control, though? I'd feel funny buying donuts from a very thin guy.

it's the colour-coded caps on the little bottles! that's your assurance of quality! don't you watch the wire and assume it's completely accurate like i do?

when they dilute the product, do they literally step on it?

GROSS: Yeah, like how did that (crotch grabbing) start?

JAY-Z: ...So when you get up there, you feel naked, right? So when you feel naked, what's the first thing you do? You cover yourself. So that bravado is an act of, I am so nervous right now, and Im scared to death. Im going to act so tough that I'm going to hide it. And I have to grab, you know, my crotch. That's just what happens...

GROSS: I thought it was kind of the opposite, like this stuff is so good...

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: But... uh, YOU grab...
JAY-Z: What? I just SAID... Yeah! At first! But I didn't do it last night, when I played Yankee Stadium!

http://www.whyy.org/support/images/grocery_bag1.jpg

also classic is his casual, unflapped and genuine reply when she asks if his conscience was troubled in his crack-dealer days by the fact he was participating in so much suffering:

JAY-Z: At the time? At fourteen? No. To be honest with you, you're thinking about sneakers.

those exclamation points make it sound like he's mad and gross is confrontational, when it's really just a jovial, chuckles-filled conversation throughout.
i want to see gross and jay-z travel around spain eating things instead of fucking paltrow and batali.

wow really didn't need the image of a Terry Gross/Jay-Z/Gwynneth Paltrow/Mario Batali orgy

Goat, camel, horse and water buffalo

lol

holy christ i haet u

Goat, camel, horse and water buffalo

― antexit, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 6:25 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark

dying

Did he do any other good longish interviews where he's his chatty, breezy, dry, charming, likeable and weirdly self-effacing self for the book? He did some fancy interview at the NYC library i think with somebody with intellectual cred but i can't remember what it was or how to listen to it. Others?

For someone who has been doing interviews professionally for decades, Terry Gross is surprisingly unskilled and often asks quite irrelevant questions. The worst part is that her politics and personal views seem to always come through in the most transparent ways. I would think that a professional interviewer like her would let subjects reveal themselves, without the need for her nakedly pushing her preoccupations.

The worst part is that her politics and personal views seem to always come through in the most transparent ways. I would think that a professional interviewer like her would let subjects reveal themselves, without the need for her nakedly pushing her preoccupations.

^^^this

I could live with that if it was consistent, like Terry Gross is always going to ask hardball questions that come from closely-held political beliefs that she'd be remiss if she didn't bring them up when they're relevant, but what I find consistently revolting about her is that when she admires someone, she's unfailingly cloying and needy and asks ingratiating questions that make the interview awkward half the time, and when she dislikes the person she's smarmy and dismissive and hostile in the same gross emotional way. She's always determined not to be won over by somebody she disliked before sitting down with them. And she asks the highest volume of facepalm dumb questions of any long-format talk show host in history.

I did get nothing but pleasure from her interview with Sondheim recently, but that's nothing to do with her that I can remember. He did embarrass her inadvertently at one point, when she quoted him a couplet of his and he asked her to keep going and she obviously couldn't because that's all they'd prepped her with

what I find consistently revolting about her is that when she admires someone, she's unfailingly cloying and needy and asks ingratiating questions that make the interview awkward half the time, and when she dislikes the person she's smarmy and dismissive and hostile in the same gross emotional way

The only time I can recall feeling any kinship with Bill O'Reilly is when he pointed this out to her during his segment on "Fresh Air." IIRC, he asked her explicitly why she asked softball questions of Al Franken (who was either running for or was already occupying political office), but seemed to be hammering O'Reilly. She sputtered something about how Franken was a comedian and so it was appropriate. He went on to call her line of questioning a "hatchet job," and I think he might have stormed off. I don't remember how it ended.

in an orgy with mario batali and gwynneth paltrow

listener supported buttsex

thanks for making my morning, guys

that's what terry gross said while towelling off

GROSS: You a fan, a phony, a fake, a pussy, a Stan

lol

GROSS: Is he, like, Dame Diddy, Dame Daddy or Dame Dummy?

JAY-Z: He...?

GROSS: Oh, I get it, like you Biggie and he's Puffy

tbh he had it coming ever since he called her and the whole whyy crew out at Summer Jam

iirc terry gross burned a jay-z effigy in the studio

Did he do any other good longish interviews where he's his chatty, breezy, dry, charming, likeable and weirdly self-effacing

idk but he's pretty much like this all the time

No, she burned one with jay-z and a Fugee in the studio

That's how rumors get started man

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/1232451687_11cebyr.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgC6uS_AA0A

MrMohamedsaccoh
2 months ago

what language is the woman speaking,it surely doesnt sound like english to me

lol

the latest new yorker has something about how you can't get into this bistro without waiting hours in line unless you're jay-z, because he owns it, and you can't get mayo on your sandwiches even if you're jay-z, because the chef is very particular about how her sandwiches are produced, but she has a deputy who keeps contraband mayo for favored guests like lou reed.

what kind of fucked up world are we living in

think that was the food issue? the latest nyer has jay-z content out the ying yang w/ a kalefa article abt decoded; the nyer in between had a shorter piece abt j reading at the ny public library

December must be code-named JayZember at the New Yorker offices.

the thing on his NYPL appearance was weird. about some old lady who sketches "impressions" of NYPL events?

lol yes & how she works bar mitzvahs & really likes the rap lyric its gettin hot in here/so take off all your clothes

wkiw 45 king

the latest new yorker also has a plodding 1500 word humour piece whose central joke, the only funny thing about it, is stolen from an episode of "friends"

central perk

x-post To be fair, that secret jar of mayo seems to be kept on hand just to cover for a mistake made by a server, who snagged some mayo special for Lou Reed against the wishes of the chef. So now they must perpetuate this horrible half-truth of having mayo on hand lest they risk pissing off Lou Reed. Which, come on, even Jay-Z wouldn't dare do.

I once interviewed Jay-Z, years back, and the dude couldn't have been more chill. Houses full of money probably does that to a guy.

I liked the odd angle of the NYPL piece but was surprised the factcheckers passed the line: "Jay-Z said that, as a boy, he listened to “everything from Miles to Thom Yorke to Ol’ Dirty Bastard.” Among other things, Jay-Z is apparently a time traveller.

xpost I interviewed Jay-Z in 96 and 99. The second time, he spent the whole interview watching TV over my shoulder. Maybe a bit too chill.

how old is he? I read somewhere he grew up with Tracy Morgan, which would make him around 50(!?)

they grew up in the same projects, dunno if that means they grew up "together"

wiki says Dec 4, 1969 so 41 in a couple days

that sounds right, he's clearly really young in the hawaiian sophie video

When 30 Rock gets cancelled I'm looking forward to a spin-off where young Jay-Z and Tracy solve mysteries with their nerdy gal pal Terry Gross.

where Jay-Z is Fred, Tracy Morgan is Shaggy, and Terry Gross is Velma.

fred shaggy velma water buffalo

he asked her explicitly why she asked softball questions of Al Franken (who was either running for or was already occupying political office),

That Bill O'Reilly interview was in like 2003 when Franken didn't even have his Air America show yet, much less hold office. He was still IDed as a comedian which is what Gross treated him as.

That Bill O'Reilly interview was in like 2003 when Franken didn't even have his Air America show yet, much less hold office

Wow-- was it really that long ago? Well, I remember that he was at least much more known in current events for political reasons than for comedic ones.

man though he'd already published the rush limbaugh book, the lying liers book...he was doing DFL (democratic farm/labor - the local MN branch of dems) fundraisers in Minnesota, we went to one back then....

it's pretty disingenuous to say "He was still IDed as a comedian which is what Gross treated him as."

he was a political figure....it's like saying "Micheal Moore is just a filmmaker, we treated him just like McG"

I don't think it's disingenuous--those were mostly political joke books, not policy books for a future Senate run. Gross would probably have given PJ O'Rourke the same treatment.

uggg pj o rourke i'd like to give him some serious treatments

but i mean o reilly wasn't running for office either, if you step back they were both just media dudes with clear political affiliations IMO...

and i'm not dissing franken, i'm super proud to have him as my senator

jay-z/ jon stewart interview was pretty great imo

GROSS: Have you ever met Charles Strouse, who wrote the music for the song?

JAY-Z: No. But someone just reached out like the other day, and said that he wants to speak with me, so Im going to reach out to him. I mean, just the other day, so - which is really cool. I was in the house trying to - I went looking at a house on the Upper East Side, and I saw this plaque on the wall. And Im like, wait a minute, that's my plaque. And I guess it was his house. This is a couple years back; I have to share that with him.

GROSS: Oh. Oh, you mean your Grammy. Is that what you're talking about?

JAY-Z: No. No. The plaque for the record, you know, our...

GROSS: Oh, the gold record plaque. The gold record plaque.

JAY-Z: Yeah.

GROSS: Yeah-yeah. Oh, okay.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: Okay. Okay.

JAY-Z: It was like, a lot of times platinum, though. But, yeah, that.

no doubt Gross is no stranger to making her political leanings felt, but she is equally "gross" with practically every guest.
If Franken sold crack as a youth and had a nude scene with Elijah Wood in some upcoming romcom, you can bet she'd be in there with the awkward questioning.

if someone made a montage of all the awkward questions she pulls on each guest, punctuated with a "YOU GOT GROSS'ED!"
i bet the impartiality complaints would disappear.

there are some amazing moments in the charlie rose interview too damn

GROSS: Is he, like, Dame Diddy, Dame Daddy or Dame Dummy?

JAY-Z: He...?

GROSS: Oh, I get it, like you Biggie and he's Puffy

― (ㅅ) (am0n), Thursday, December 2, 2010 12:21 PM (1 week ago)

lollll XD

GROSS: Rockefeller died of AIDS, that was the end of his chapter. And that's the guy yall chose to name your company after?

JAY-Z: Well...I--

GROSS: Put it together.

making myself laugh way too much at all the other great options

GROSS: I thought it was kind of the opposite, like this stuff is so good...

As annoying as Terry Gross is, I think she's underrated as an interviewer. The bottom line is that when you listen to people on Terry Gross, they get to talk a lot, and they tend to say more interesting things than they do elsewhere. And she doesn't waste time on softball/standard questions -- you can tell that the show does its homework and the interview is set up or edited in a way that it rarely covers well-worn ground. I don't know how much of this is attributable to Gross, but I do think something about her style gets people to relax and open up, especially since she's so self-effacing and mild.

would have been extremely annoyed if she hadn't sounded nerdy in this.

GROSS: Oh, the gold record plaque. The gold record plaque.
JAY-Z: Yeah.
GROSS: Okay. Okay.
JAY-Z: It was like, a lot of times platinum, though. But, yeah, that.

^this was hilarious tho

also nothing wrong with bitch/ho question and his response was A+

like w/r/t "is there a better way to ask this?!", perhaps, but shes acknowledging that its well worn ground. he has been asked this a lot and she wants him to talk about it.

did anyone hear the interview with the "biology of crime" dude? Weird as fuck.

i do like how everything she says is preceded by the word "gross," like it's a warning

― congratulations (n/a), Monday, November 22, 2010 11:11 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink