Why LL COOL J Says Miranda Lambert Should "Get Over" the Concert Selfie Issue

Mama said don't knock yourself out over a selfie.

At least, that's LL COOL J's take on the current discourse surrounding Miranda Lambert, who recently halted her show to call out several fans in the crowd for taking group photos while she was performing. 

"Miranda, get over it, baby," the rapper said with a laugh during his July 19 appearance on Audacy's Mercedes in the Morning. "They're fans."

Sharing that he wouldn't have stopped his performance over a picture, LL COOL J explained, "Your job as an artist is to create art. The way people choose to interact with that art—or engage it or appreciate it—is up to them."

"You gotta let the fans do what they wanna do," he continued. "What, we got rules?"

However, the 55-year-old noted he's "not going to judge" Miranda for how she wants her fans to behave.

"I have nothing unkind to say about her," LL COOL J added. "I wish her the best. She has the right to her feelings but for me, I let the fans be fans and do what they want to do."

LL COOL J hasn't been the first star to weigh in on selfie-gate. During the July 18 broadcast of The View, a discussion about the matter turned heated when co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg took opposing sides.

 

"I'm going to take as many selfies as I want if I pay $757," Sunny said. "I'm sorry, that's just me."

However, Whoopi disagreed and thought Miranda made the right choice by speaking out. "You know what? Stay home," the comedian argued. "If you're going to spend $750 to come to my concert, then give me the respect of watching me while I do my thing, or don't come."

And to make a point about disruption, Whoopi walked off the set—but not before stopping to take a picture with an audience member. "I'm leaving y'all!" she said. "I want to take a picture with this marvelous woman, who is 91. So, we're going to do a selfie."

Miranda has not publicly spoken out about the incident. However, while confronting the fans during the July 15 show of her Miranda Lambert: Velvet Rodeo The Las Vegas Residency, the country music star accused the concertgoers of being "worried about their selfie and not listening to the song," adding, "It's pissing me off a little bit."

"We're here to hear some country music tonight," the 39-year-old told the crowd, as seen in video circulating on social media. "I'm singing some country damn music."

As for the fans who got called out? Adela Calin—who identified herself as one of the people Miranda addressed—said she was "appalled" by the singer's comments.

"It felt like I was back at school with the teacher scolding me for doing something wrong and telling me to sit down back in my place," the 43-year-old told NBC News. "I feel like she was determined to make us look like we were young, immature and vain. But we were just grown women in our 30s to 60s trying to take a picture."

(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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