Chet Hanks is at it again with his wild shenanigans and aspersions. This time the social media personality is taking credit for popularizing the Jamaican dialect.
A guest on ZIWE, a Showtime variety series from Nigerian writer, comedian and internet sensation, Ziwerekoru “Ziwe” Fumudoh.
Fumudoh stars in and executive produces the no holds barred Showtime variety series Ziwe, which premiered in May 2021.
In season 2 episode 2 of Ziwe, she introduces Hanks as her “celebrity guest who is known around the world for his quality, his mind, his voice and his parents”. She says “Welcome the iconic Chet Hanks.”
She asked him, “In your own words, why are you a famous person?”
To which he answered, “Probably because I am the son of a famous person.”
Ziwe also asked him about his patois appropriation. “You introduced the world to your Jamaican accent at the 2019 Golden Globes, do you feel like you inspired a generation of boys, white boys in particular to speak in patois?”
The Jamaican wannabe erroneously said with a straight face, “I don’t know, I think I did kinda make the patois accent more like trendy I guess.”
He continued, “I mean like aside from Jamaican culture itself and Caribbean culture itself which is kinda like vibrant I was the first person to kinda like get it in the conversation, like for just recent times.”
After a pregnant pause from his ridiculous response, he was then asked by the host to translate some Jamaican phrases like “small up yuhself” to which he stuttered and said “smile?”.
Chet said “Social justice warriors can kick rocks” and he agrees that what he does with Jamaican patois is not offensive but more along the lines of cultural appreciation. He said he wont apologize for his philandering patois punches, even if he lacks knowledge about the culture.
Later in the interview the Los Angeles native said, in a Jamaican accent, “Just be original, thats my message, be original.”
i asked chet hanks if he inspired a generation to speak patois pic.twitter.com/c5ncvIVi2c
— ziwe (@ziwe) May 10, 2022
Chet has been cheered on by Jamaican artist Spice, Kranium and Popcaan after he got a lot of people talking with his antics, but he also received criticisms and accusations of hijacking Dancehall and expropriating rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer slang and using it to cut his own track titled White Boy Summer.
Kranium said, “he is really funny.”
His White Boy Summer video was released the same day that Prime Minister Andrew Holness asserted in the Jamaican Parliament, that Dancehall music is being hijacked, and that “other people are tekking our music and making more money off it because the people who are carrying the music not seeing the economic value in the music!” per dancehall mag
“Don Dadda” is a term used by inner-city community dons, who exert power and fear.
Jamaican Patois, known locally as Patois (Patwa or Patwah) and called Jamaican Creole by linguists, is an English-based creole language with West African influences. A majority of non-English loan words are of Akan Ashanti origin.
Patois was developed in the 17th century when slaves from West and Central Africa were exposed to and learned the vernacular and dialectal forms during the Middle Passage. Early writers from Jamaica like Miss Lou and Claude McKay published books of poems in the language that brought it into mainstream literature.
Cultural Appropriation
Cultural Appropriation has been a longstanding issue in Jamaican culture.
Fat Joe has used his voice to speak up about the misuse of Jamaican music and culture by non-nationals, who neglect to credit the country and people for making the language cool.
The Lean Back rapper was speaking during an interview with Judith Bodley at the recent Circle Fest staged by legendary Jamaican Reggae band Inner Circle at their Circle House estate in Florida.
“You know I meet people trying to be Jamaican who aren’t Jamaican? No disrespect – you know, white people, I see them with dreadlocks all across the world trying to be Jamaican, because Jamaica, the power and the energy is a source, it is undeniable,” he began, before placing the microscope on those who were guilty of “taking and not giving back”.
“What is happening in Jamaica, unfortunately, is people stole the style. You might hear these artists and think they are Jamaican, but they are not Jamaican. My thing is, we accept you; music is a religion for everybody. It’s one whole religion, but give back or collaborate with Shaggy‘s, the Buju Banton, the Bounty Killer‘s…,” he said.
“Collaborate or show respect, because you are pulling from what Jamaica has created… Grab one of those artists and collaborate. I’ve always wanted to collaborate with other artists, especially Jamaican artists,” he added.
Fat Joe, has collaborated with Jamaican artists such as Bounty Killer and Buju Banton and said of his experience with Jamaicans those looking for love will “get love”, while those who visit “looking for trouble” will get trouble.
Dancehall superstar Sean Paul, made headlines after he called out Canadian rapper Drake and his compatriot Justin Bieber for cultural appropriation of Dancehall sounds without acknowledging the origins.
“It is a sore point when people like Drake or Bieber or other artists come and do Dancehall-orientated music but don’t credit where dancehall came from and they don’t necessarily understand it,” the Temperature artist had told The Guardian.
“A lot of people get upset and sour. I know artists back in Jamaica who don’t like Major Lazer, as they think they do the same thing Drake and Kanye did – they take and take and don’t credit,” he had also added.
