The ultimate narcissist — TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey, appears on every cover of her eponymous publication titled simply O: The Oprah Magazine. It is a magazine that, as the title suggests, is by, for, and about Oprah.
If you’re a regular reader, you know how I feel about self-indulgent narcissists like Oprah. But the October issue of O is something special. It’s a case study of what happens when one big narcissist meets head-on with another big narcissist. As you know, Oprah interviews Jay Z in that issue.
I must admit I did expect Oprah to put Jay Z on the cover of her magazine. I figured his oversized ego would demand it. But in fact, it took me some time to even find a reference to the Jay Z piece on the cover.
There it is, way down at the bottom right corner of the magazine, tucked under the subheading, “BEHOLD THE $30 BAG.”
Jay Z’s subheading is set in smaller typeface than the subheading above it — almost as an afterthought.
Oprah, who makes no bones about her contempt for rappers, queries the rap mogul on his drug dealing past, his marriage to wife Beyonce, on being shot at, and his continued use of the N word:
O: Do you believe that using the N word is necessary?
J: Nothing is necessary. It’s just become part of the way we communicate. My generation hasn’t had the same experience with that word that generations of people before us had. We weren’t so close to the pain. So in our way, we disarmed the word. We took the fire pin out of the grenade.
