Chet Hanks — sorry, excuse my language — Chet Hanx has released his long-promised song ‘White Boy Summer’, and it’s already stirring up some controversy online for what fans believe is the straight-up use of the n-word. Someone call Tom, please.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson‘s son Chet is a bit of a strange one. Where does one even begin to describe him?
He’s eccentric, wild, brazen and unpredictable, where the rest of his family is basically the polar opposite. He also often talks in a strange faux Patois and has a random affinity with Jamaican culture, despite being as white and American as they come.
So when someone like this promises to release a music video for a new song titled ‘White Boy Summer’, there’s almost an immediate expectation of fuckery. There was the possibility that the video could have been all boppy and fun, but it had the words ‘white boy’ at the front, and nothing with a white boy at the front has ever gone well.
Some folks believe Chet uses the n-word in his new video, while others believe he says something else.
Before we crack open the investigation, you can watch the disarmingly twerk-filled vid right here.
At around the 1:40 mark is when Chet either says “let me see an n-word twerk” or “let me see you make it twerk.”
I’ve played it about one million times and I truly cannot crack what he’s saying, but it definitely sounds like the former.
Unfortunately, we don’t even have an official lyrics sheet or anything, which would make this entire investigation closed. Anyway, let’s see what the people think. Cue the gif.
I fr thought the same I think he said “let me see you make it twerk” had to rewind like 4 times
— ryan (@psychrm) April 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/Klane2018Kevin/status/1382321865071464451?s=20
https://twitter.com/LL_CoolBeans/status/1382192002029162496?s=20
well, chet hanks said the n-word again. guess thats it for white boy summer
— ben (@funko_wop) April 14, 2021
Well, just like me the people are torn. But what does the all-powerful YouTube captions generator believe? Surely it won’t fail us.
Well, that was pointless. I should have known that YouTube would completely bork up the lyrics, especially when it automatically assumes the song is in Korean, and you have to specifically change it to English.
Chet Hanks does have a history with the word, which makes things a little more unclear. He’s defended his use of it in the past, and he’s also apologised for it, so one has to wonder whether he’d go back to using it for a dumb song.
This is what he told VIBE in 2015:
“If I say the word n*** I say it amongst people I love and who love me. If I say ‘fuck yall hatin ass n***’ it’s because that’s really how I felt at the time. And I don’t accept society getting to decide what ANYBODY can or can’t say. That’s something we call FREE SPEECH.”
Spoken like a true American.
On the other hand, this is what he told The Red Pill Podcast in 2018:
“Low-key, like subconsciously, looking back on it now I realize I was trolling. I thought, like, crazy antics and just wilding the fuck out and doing some crazy shit was going to like spark my career.”
And now we’re here, debating over the fact that Chet could be channelling his 2015 self or his 2018 self. Truly, until we have the lyrics from Genius, only Chet himself will have the real answers.
