Family Values: A Side by Side Comparison of Roger Ailes and Kevin Gates
Recently ousted chairman and CEO of Fox Roger Ailes is making headlines after former employees of his news conglomerate brought sexual assault allegations against him. Kevin Gates is coming off his biggest project to date, Islah, featuring “2 Phones”, which peaked at #17 on the Billboard charts, his most popular single to date.
Roger Ailes is credited for spending the past two decades bringing conservative media and journalism into the mainstream. Gates is credited for bringing ass eating into the mainstream. Fox News has a record of disdain for the hip hop community, making claims like “rap music hurts young black men more than racism”. Ailes has spent his tenure constructing the republican party as the champion of honest, hard working American families. Gates has spent his career detailing his struggle with crime and heartbreak in standard rap form, but with a distinct charisma and lyrical transparency (“suck a titty in the mirror with a finger in the booty”, “Every time the leaves are changing; It’s the loneliest time of year”).
Ailes projected conservative values his whole career while Gates’ communicated a seemingly exhaustive list of ways to commit crime and have sex. Gates is posting boring instagram videos of family vacations and Ailes is tied up in the courtroom. You get it, these guys are quite different.
So, which of these two as individuals better embodies traditional family values? Whose character better reflects individual liberty and the pursuit of economic freedom through free market capitalism? Which of these two better displays the habits of a lifelong criminal? View 100 Bars and Counting’s detailed analysis and decide for yourself.
Kevin Gates:
Age: 30
Face Tattoos: 5
Spouse: Dreka Haynes (2015 — present)
Children: 2
Phone: 2 of them
Education: Master’s of Psychology from Louisiana Prison program
Roger Ailes:
Age:76
Face Tattoos: 0
Spouse: Elizabeth Tilson (1998 — present)
Children: 1
Phone: Probably wears on a belt clip
Education: Bachelor’s in Radio and Television from Ohio University
Personal Demeanor:
Ailes: Described as having “volcanic temper, paranoia, and ruthlessness” by biographer Gabriel Sherman.
Gates: “I just need affection, emotionally; I’m an introvert but it come off as aggression; No one understand me and everybody can’t be slow”
Dick gets hard for:
Gates: His wife.
Ailes: Every woman but his wife.
Criminal Record:
Gates: Publicly detailed through his own music. Served time on two separate occasions: 31 months and 3 ½ months. Won a case that would have put him behind bars for 30 years to prevent him from continuing “as a lifelong criminal”. Gates called prison the “best thing that ever happened to him” in 2014.
Ailes: Privately covered up for decades; million dollar settlements for sexual assault.
Creative Outputs dedicated to Family Members:
Gates: 1
Ailes: 0
2nd Amendment:
Ailes: Heavily in favor of defending.
Gates: Entire hand covered with tattoo of a revolver.
Economics:
Ailes: Free market capitalism with minimal taxes and government regulation.
Gates: Get it, get fly, I got six jobs I don’t get tired.
Family:
Ailes: Promotes a pro-family agenda on TV; would love to lay a hand on your daughter.
Gates: Threatens to kill the entire family of anyone who lays a hand on his daughter.
Military Force/War:
Gates: “Imma go to war for what’s right.”
Ailes: A valiant warrior in the battle against PC culture.
Education Reform:
Gates: Proposed that the hip-hop community build schools by pleading with rappers to donate $100k a person.
Ailes: Fox News.
Preferred Sexual Experience:
Gates: Honestly, anything imaginable.
Kevin Gates is no angel. He has compared himself to drug lords and hitmen. He has spent time behind bars, and he has bragged about his criminal activities and lewd sexual escapades. His music exists for those living similar lifestyles or those of us who have a voyeuristic curiosity who can stomach his questionable moral choices. But one thing we cannot accuse Gates of is deception. His honesty is brutal and jarring. And this is the essential difference between him and Ailes. The Fox News king hid his character in the shadows of his empire. One interaction perfectly sums up Ailes character. He made advances on a woman and she said to him: “‘I don’t feel comfortable doing this,’ she said. ‘I respect your family; what about your son?’ She remembers Ailes’ reply: ‘I’m a multifaceted man. That’s one side of me.’” This is exactly what Ailes spent his career doing, re-branding and selling his version of the “truth”. And for himself a ‘coward’ and ‘hypocrite’ are re-branded as ‘multifaceted’.
Gates is branded ‘vulgar’, ‘thug’ or whatever word old white people spit out when they hear his music. But he is truly and unashamedly multifaceted. Or as he would put it, a perfect imperfection.