Rap Radar

Lil Wayne’s having the worst week ever. Two days after suffering from another seizure, Mountain Dew severed ties with the rapper.

The termination stems from the controversy surrounding Weezy’s Emmett Till reference on the “Karate Chop (Remix)”. In a statement, Mountain Dew’s parent company PepsiCo said:

“Offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon does not reflect the values of our brand.”

After Mountain Dew pulled Tyler, The Creator’s ad for promoting racial stereotypes, Tyler spoke on the matter with Billboard. Honestly, I want to hear what Felicia the Goat has to fuckin’ say.

I guess people are claiming that it’s racist, which… you know, that wasn’t even portrayed in that commercial, there’s no type of hate being portrayed in that work of art at all — which I’m confused by. But this older black dude, Dr. Boyce Watkins, I guess he found it racist because I was portraying stereotypes, which is ridiculous because, one, all of those dudes [in the line-up] are my friends. Two, they’re all basically in their own clothes. It was originally supposed to be just two dudes, but Garrett from Trash Talk came with his friend and other people had showed up, so I just put all of them in that line-up, if you really wanna know the truth. Three, no [commenters] saw that commercial and said, this is racist. Everyone either said, “Wow, this is ridiculous, it’s a goat talking,” or they said, “Wow, this is the dumbest, why would they even make this?” So for [Watkins] to nitpick and notice that, clearly shows his state of mind is on some other sh– that I can’t comprehend, for him to actually sit there and for him to notice that it’s all blacks [in the lineup]. That wasn’t my intention.

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Tyler, The Racist? Mountain Dew recently pulled Tyler’s commercial following Dr. Boyce Watkins blog, ”Mountain Dew Releases Arguably the Most Racist Commercial in History”.

In the ad, Felicia The Goat (voiced by Tyler) intimidates an elderly White woman while choosing her assailant from an all Black line up. Tyler has yet to comment, but in a statement, Mountain Dew said:

“We apologize for this video and take full responsibility. We have removed it from all Mountain Dew channels and Tyler is removing it from his channels as well,” the soda company said.

@fucktyler - let's make it happen. My daughters love your music, so I respect your brilliance and creativity. DM me. We'll talk

—
Boyce Watkins (@drboycewatkins1) May 01, 2013

The Odd Future head honcho is not featured in the clip, but he directs and does the voice-over for Felicia The Goat in this Mountain Dew ad. Kids.

UPDATE: Ad number two.

UPDATE 2: Ad number three.

Grab a snack and a bottle of Mountain Dew. In this short-film, we get a behind the scenes look at Mountain Dew’s “DEWeezy” project and the 10 NYC kids who helped bring it together. This is how they dew.

With his DEWnation right behind him, Lil Wayne asks too many damn questions in his second commercial for Mountain Dew.

In collaboration with Grammy Award winning recording artist, Lil Wayne and the action sports youth development agency STOKED, the DEWeezy program enlisted 10 teens from the NYC area to work with brand and industry executives, including director Chris Robinson of Robot Films and Motive, a creative studio with offices in New York and Denver, to co-create a :30 second television commercial.

Sidebar: DEWeezy Trukfit Skate Park Opening

It’s Go Skating Day 2012. Narrated by Angie Martinez, we get a look at Weezy and Mountain Dew’s announcement of opening their skate park in N.O.’s 9th Ward.

Previously: Pt. 4

Tunechi is always on the go. In fact, when he’s not on stage or in the studio, he’s skating. Here’s a look at him and his board in between his recent shows from Australia and South Africa.

Previously: Ep. 3

For the first part of Mountain Dew’s series with Lil Wayne, we go back to SXSW week for his DEWeezy show.

While at SXSW in Austin TX., Paul Rodriguez introduces us to the members of the Mtn Dew Skate Team. We get to see them skate the streets and hang with them before the Lil Wayne/DEWeezy launch concert.

DEWeezy is in full effect and coming soon, Mountain Dew will be starting a new 10 part series covering Dwayne, his evolution as a skateboarder and his love of the lifestyle. Check out the trailer above.