Jack Harlow Roasted for Lackluster College GameDay Outing

By Ashley Turner

Jack Harlow has a big fan base in the hip-hop world, but his impact doesn't extend to football fans as his now-viral appearance on ESPN would suggest. The rapper was the special guest on Aug. 3 for College GameDay, a program where pundits and analysts discuss the day's games, who they think will win, etc. 

Harlow was at Ohio State, who was playing Notre Dame, and after being introduced on a tiny stage in front of students, things quickly went south. While singing his "First Class" song, his performance failed to captivate the audience. Except for a few at the front, most of the crowd stared like deer staring into headlights. At one point, Harlow also appeared frustrated at the lack of energy. Nevertheless, he powered through, and reportedly he did the entire song. The performance has been roundly mocked, and ESPN particularly, for not ending it sooner.

Harlow's performance also prompted an online troll to criticize the rapper for omitting a particular lyric for family audiences. Despite taming the lyrics on network television, Twitter user @S_CharlesNFL captured Harlow's attention with a fake tweet about the performance.

"Jack Harlow has been fined $1 Million following his performance of 'First Class' on College GameDay," the tweet read. "ESPN states that his lyric of 'I give her sweet, sweet, semen' was extremely unprofessional for live TV, and he had signed off on blurring that lyric out of his performance." Even though the song's lyric was clearly censored, Harlow retweeted the message.

After his performance, the Generation Now rapper was a guest on College GameDay's panel with hosts Lee Corso, Desmond Howard, and Kirk Herbstreit. They discussed the Sept. 4 season-opening game between Louisiana State University's Tigers and the Florida State Seminoles. Corso and Howard picked FSU, but Harlow joined Kirk Herbstreit in choosing the Tigers.

Harlow's justification has less to do with what's happening on the field than with whom he surrounds himself. "I was with [Cincinnati Bengals quarterback] Joe Burrow last night, so I'm rocking with LSU," Harlow told the GameDay team. In addition, he was asked who he preferred between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Arkansas Razorbacks, who also play on Sept. 3. His response was based on an anecdote about how he dated a woman from Cincinnati. In the end, Harlow went 6-2 in his picks for Saturday's games. The Kentucky rapper recently hosted the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards alongside Nicki Minaj and LL COOL J and took home four awards, including the fan-voted Song of the Summer award. 

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