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‘I want to sincerely apologise to Ari Lennox’ – MacG
MacG was on the American podcast 'Higher Learning' and said he had learnt that his crass question to Ari Lennox was wrong.
MacG was on American podcast ‘Higher Learning’ to explain his position on the Ari Lennox controversy. Picture: Screengrab
In a surprising turn of events and tone, Macgyver “MacG” Mukwevho has apologised to RnB star Ari Lennox for his controversial interview on his podcast.
MacG was on the American podcast Higher Learning hosted by media personalities and journalists Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay.
Right out of the gate, it was clear the hosts were not going to go easy on MacG as Rachel asked him the first question.
“Is someone f****ing you good right now,” she asked. MacG was surprised and said it was “too soon” and then jokingly answered someone was.
MacG controversially asked this question to Lennox which received widespread backlash, resulting in the singer opening up about how she felt uncomfortable and violated by the question.
ALSO READ: ‘Asking people who they’re f***ing is my thing’ – MacG
MacG stood by his actions during the online storm by reminding his audience that he loves asking that question, and phrases it in different ways depending on who he’s speaking to at the time.
MacG’s apology to Ari Lennox
On Higher Learning, Van Lathan gave MacG the opportunity to apologise to Lennox, after she has expressed that the question bothered her so much.
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MacG answered: “Definitely, in the beginning I didn’t see anything wrong with what I said.”
He added his opinions and views changed because of the reactions from the likes of Van Lathan and Rachel, including another popular media figure in America, Charlamagne Tha God. Charlamagne said he wanted to “counsel” MacG not “cancel” him.
“For me, I was looking in terms of, if it is in the lyric then I can ask whatever it is. Nothing is off-limits. But what I learnt from this is that it is not about what you ask, it’s how you ask it.
“As someone who prides themselves on their podcast, I do a lot of extensive research before I do any interviews,” the Podcast and Chill with MacG host said.
MacG revealed it was Lennox’s record label that approached him and that he didn’t know of her, having only been aware of her music through the collaboration she did with Nasty C.
He explains he only had one hour to prepare before the interview and that Lennox’s Tiny Desk performance is what popped up.
In one song, Lennox talks about how well she will perform sex to a man.
“Here is a female artist who sounds sexually liberated. If you watch my podcast, we always delve into sex questions, obviously not that raw.”
MacG thought he could go “cold turkey” with the question because Lennox had sung about it.
“After the interview she asked for some stuff to be removed, which I did remove. When she was tweeting that I didn’t remove some of the stuff she asked for, I found that disingenuous. If we were to upload some of the stuff we did remove there would have been more chaos… We sent her team the episode, they approved it and we uploaded it.”
He says her team told them what exactly they should remove and they did.
“If the stuff wasn’t removed, it would have caused more chaos,” he reiterated.
Van called out MacG’s apology to Lennox, saying he “depowered” after he pointed out some discrepancies from her team.
MacG then rephrased his apology: “I want to sincerely apologise for that question and how it made her feel, and the aftermath. I like to genuinely apologise to Ari or any women I may have offended.”
MacG says everyone he interviews is given the opportunity to watch the interview before it is uploaded and their intention is to never blindside their guests.
Rachel asked why the podcaster kept going with his crass questions.
“The reason I kept going was because I thought she forgot about the song… and also we normally do sit-downs with celebrities face to face, it’s never like virtual.
“With virtual, it’s very hard to pick up the vibes of what the person might be feeling and I think if we were doing the episode live, I would have picked up on that and probably would have moved along.”
He said no one wanted the first part of the interview to be removed, but he would have gladly done so if they asked him to.
Van said the real issue is that in the podcast realm there are a lot of black men that need to understand how to appreciate black women, how to make space for them and create a safe space for them.
MacG agreed, saying he is creating this on his own network and this is rarely talked about, because people want a certain narrative against him.
