While Oprah Winfrey's longstanding feud with hip-hop is well-documented, in recent years the media mogul has made amends. Oprah has built a surprising friendship with Jay-Z, whom she featured on the debut episode of 'Master Class,' a series on her recently launched cable station OWN. In his column for the Miami New Times, controversial Miami hip-hop figure Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell complimented Oprah for featuring a hip-hop artist on her new network.

"By debuting with Jay-Z, she is acknowledging she needs rappers to generate interest and revenue for her new media venture," the former 2 Live Crew rapper-turned football coach said of Oprah's newfound love for the boom bap. "I'm happy to see that after spending so many years bashing rap music, Oprah has come to her senses."

After inciting the ire of the hip-hop community (namely Ice Cube and 50 Cent) in 2006 by snubbing Ludacris, Oprah appears to have finally come around.

According to Uncle Luke, however, she has no choice; hip-hop is too big to be ignored. "She's realized she can't have a network that appeals to just vanilla audiences," Luke continued. "For her to debut a show called Master Class with Jay-Z, whose lyrics are controversial and explicit, says a whole lot about the direction in which OWN is going."

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