Roy Wood Jr. Defends Nepo Babies While Realizing That He Might Be One Himself | Video

Roy Wood Jr. has joined the ongoing nepo baby conversation, defending nepotism as just a method one uses to pass down acquired tools, skills and resources to a new generation.

“I’ll say this, Black nepotism is different in that if your kid is not doing exactly what you do, is it nepotism or is it just the hookup?” Wood said while guest appearing on Ziwe’s talk show “Ziwe.” “Why is it nepotism if the person is rich, but like, if it’s a plumber and it’s like Jimmy & Sons Plumbing, no one gives a f—k that Jimmy and his sons are– in fact, you would rather it. You’d rather nepotism. Same s–t with food: this restaurant has been owned by four generations of motherf–ckers, why is that cool?”

At the time, the “Lonely Flowers” comedian shared that he “doesn’t know yet” if his son will be a nepo baby.

“It makes sense that you as also a nepo baby would come out in defense of nepo babies,” Ziwe responded, referring to Wood’s late father Roy Wood Sr. who was a civil rights journalist, host of the nationally syndicated TV show “Black’s View on the News” and the co-founder of the National Black Network.

“Am I nepo baby?” Wood questioned.

“I mean, your father paved the way in American journalism,” Ziwe replied.

“OK, you’re right, fine. But my dad didn’t give me no hookup on it though… well… s–t. I started at the same radio station my father started working at,” Wood realized, reluctantly accepting the label. “My pops was the first Black man to work at most radio stations he started at in the ’50s and in the ’60s. He covered every global Black struggle story you can name, from Zimbabwe to Vietnam to South Africa. He was at every riot, from Detroit to Rodney King you can name, he was there. He covered— he hired Don Cornelius. Like, ‘Soul Train’ doesn’t happen to a degree without my father.”

However, when asked a second time…

“So you reject that label?” Ziwe inquired once more, to which Wood answered, “Wholeheartedly.”

Over the past couple of years, the nepo baby phenomenon has triggered several conversations among stars, some of whom fit the mold or push back against it.

Back in July 2024, Jack Quaid, son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, said he was “inclined to agree” that he is a nepo baby after his mother defended his work as an actor.

“People are going to call attention to it,” Quaid said at the time on “The Daily Beast’s” podcast “The Last Laugh.” “People have called me a nepo baby. I’m inclined to agree.”

Also in 2024, Tony Goldwyn, a self-proclaimed “third-generation nepo baby,” launched his “Far From the Tree” podcast with his daughter, screenwriter Anna Musky-Goldwyn, completely centered on the topic.

“We’re planning to do a podcast to talk to other parents and children who are in the same game, whether they’re … film, politics, sports, auto companies,” Goldwyn, son of film producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr., said. “We’re interviewing a friend of mine who’s a really amazing civil rights attorney and his daughter’s a public defender, just to talk to people because I’ve been fascinated with it.”

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