I’m sure the author, Ben Davis, must have had an inclination as to what he was going up against with Rodriguez but even if he didn’t, kudos for sticking it out

I’m sure the author, Ben Davis, must have had an inclination as to what he was going up against with Rodriguez but even if he didn’t, kudos for sticking it out with the fascinating followup. When your subject is as famous for their tough street narrative as they are for their work then you can’t be too surprised if they feel obliged to react all hood in public. It’s a missed opportunity for Rodriguez though when he could have played his “stay humble my dude” card while… being actually humble. Is he a thug or not? Pick a lane. The problem with existence as performance art is that we will never know if Rodriguez’ lashing out was genuine, or just another part of his rags-to-riches outsider story. At this level, his posts could just as well be coming from his PR team as from him at which point the furore and performance is definitely taking over from anything this guy does with a pencil. Is Rodriguez’ level of naivety and lack of self reflection evidence of this being his genuine self, or of his PR team’s perfectly formed ideal of how the Rodriguez phenomenon ought to be projecting itself?