Elliot Wilson vs Cam'ron And The Battle For What Media Is Supposed To Be

Just because you have an opinion doesn't mean you're media

It was a major moment in hiphop media history, an epic collision of two eras and two ideologies—an old school hiphop journalism legend, Elliot Wilson, went on the New Rory and Mal Show, and savagely dissed Camron the rapper-turned-broadcaster who hosts It Is What It Is. But the diss wasn’t just “you’re bad,” it was “why do you exist?” Wilson said, “Is he a journalist just because he has an opinion?” That’s an attack on his right to be in the space like what gives you the right to do this?

This is the embodiment of old media battling new. We have Wilson, one of the bastions of old school hiphop media, beefing with Cam one of the stars of the modern school of hiphop media. Wilson got pilloried for saying that and had to go on Cam’ron’s show to address it but one thing that lots of people are missing is that Wilson absolutely has a point. He expressed it in a crude way, but this whole moment encapsulates so much of what modern media folks are frustrated about. This is the zenith of the interview that started it all:

First, I want to call attention to Mal, the portly Drake stan on the right, who concludes the clip equating being in media with sitting around the neighborhood and talking with your friends. Wow. That’s a fun way of minimizing what media is. If only the preparation for a career in media was sitting around and talking with your friends. That’s a frightening perspective coming from anyone but especially from someone who’s in media. Sort of. I mean, I guess that’s part of Wilson’s point—is everyone who talks in front of a camera a broadcaster? Is every show on YouTube in the media??? This show is of course in hiphop media, it’s one of the bigger shows, but it’s crazy to know that someone on a big YouTube show would say doing media is akin to talking with friends. But media made by non-journalists is sometimes great and sometimes problematic.