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Cousins! Stephen A. Smith has made headlines this week following statements he made in regard to the highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show starring Rihanna and his lack of excitement in seeing her take center stage!
During a recent appearance on the “The Sherri Show” , the ESPN correspondent stated, “Rihanna’s music is fantastic. She’s great. She’s a sister. I love her dearly, I listen to her music, I’m gonna support her ’til the cows come home.”
Things got a little shady as Stephen shared his personal views in revealing that he is not too excited about seeing Rih perform. “I’m just telling you, for me, there’s Beyoncé and there’s everybody else. Just like there’s Michael Jackson and there’s everybody else.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, [Rihanna is] a lot of things. She’s spectacular actually and congratulations on new mamahood. There’s one thing she’s not Beyoncé.”
Stephen was soon bombarded with comments in social media in regard to the comparison of Beyoncé and Rihanna.
“Why compare Beyoncé and Rihanna? These two artists really couldn’t be more different and they’re both insanely talented/successful women in their own right. More than one can exist.. but what makes it worse is most of the time these petty comparisons between women come from MEN,” tweeted one user.
“Stephen a smith went on that woman sherri show in espn mode ready to debate about rihanna and Beyoncé 😩🤦🏾♂️ this is not first take my guy” tweeted another.
Stephen in response to the backlash he received issued an apology to Rihanna in saying, “I meant it as no disrespect to Rihanna. I know she’s phenomenal and she’s my sister. Nothing but love for her, but Beyoncé is my sister, too.”
He also shares that he is excited for performance.