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Comment count is 9
baleen - 2014-03-11

What a sellout! He should have kept to his hardcore DIY street roots.


infinite zest - 2014-03-11

"The only reason these things are even an issue is because nobody knows what white people eat" -Dave Chappelle

I remember a couple of years ago seeing a Popeyes commercial and it was mostly white people, as if to say "Come on down to Popeyes! It's ok to be white and like chicken too!" It's chicken. It doesn't matter!!!! There's various theories on how the stereotypes began, but most of it if I recall was, well, chickens were cheaper than cows so they fed the slaves chicken. The stereotype was embedded in many peoples' minds with Birth of a Nation, which depicted blacks as mainly eating food one eats with their hands, like chicken and watermelon, which therefore became a thing.. like black people don't use forks and knives or something like that and are therefore inferior to whites, and here's proof in film form.

Don't get me wrong, that is absolutely HORRIBLE, but it's an antiquated stereotype, and was by the time MC Hammer got popular. If the commercial was like "sir sir my truck it broke down and we're soooooo hungry" "oh here have some chicken, you people like that don't you" I'd see a problem, but the commercial even goes the extra mile by inserting a couple of local yokel small town white guys who are obviously not hip enough to know who the then-on-top-of-the-charts MC Hammer is.

You might as well be angry at a P.F. Chang's commercial with Jackie Chan and be like "you think this is all we eat!?!"


Old_Zircon - 2014-03-11

I kind of agree but somehow that makes me like this routine even more.


infinite zest - 2014-03-11

Yeah I'm not saying he's wrong, just perpetuating a stereotype. Someone at KFC must have said:

"We got Hammer to do our commercials!" and someone else must have said "umm.. wait a second.. would that make us look like we're going back to our semi-racist roots as an organization, with the Colonel and all? Everything we've tried to forget about with this whole 'Lake Edna' Campaign?" "uhhhh.. well, if you're worried about racial stereotypes, let's throw in some white kids as well.. does that help?" "um.. not really.. why are we racist again? I was just stoked because we got Hammer instead of McDonalds."

MC Hammer is not dancing for his chicken any more than Paul Mooney's telling jokes for whatever he's eating after the show. The Taco Bell Chihuahua was more racist than this, but nobody seems to care.


Gmork - 2014-03-11

Right now there's an incredibly racist Taco Bell commercial that's got to be a parody of what Americans think Mexican culture is like.


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2014-03-11

At the time, I noticed this, thought it was kind of racist, and I mentioned it to an African-American dude I worked with, who poo-pooed the suggestion by pointing out that Hammer was making millions of dollars.

And looking back, I see his point. That's what's real. Hammer isn't dancing for chicken, he's dancing for a shitload of money. Ain't nothing degrading about gettin paid.

And there's nothing wrong wtih eating fried chicken. It's arguably selling out for African Americans portray blacks as pimps or criminals or whatnot, but fried chicken is just food. And dancing while eating is just silly.

Of course, this may have been the death blow to Hammer's street cred, but that's a separate issue.


snothouse - 2014-03-12

I think the cartoon wherein he owned a magical, talking pair of shoes may have hurt him more.


infinite zest - 2014-03-12

Also it's not like the kids show up with chicken, waiting for him to do a dance before he gets any. He just joins in with the kids who are already dancing anyway, and eats chicken


La Loco - 2014-03-12

That the Hammer did a Street Fighter movie song with Dion Sanders should redeem him somewhat? http://youtu.be/cM7vqqS8jSI


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