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American rapper Flavor Flav has the internet in splits with his rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States, that he performed at a basketball ball game on Sunday, October 29. Flav was invited to perform at the Milwaukee Bucks home game with the Atlanta Hawks in Wisconsin and sang the anthem right before the face-off.
His performance quickly went viral on social media because of its somewhat off-key delivery. As the founding member of the hip-hop group Public Enemy began singing, while standing in the middle of the court, the camera panned across the court to capture the players, members, and the audience focusing on Flavor Flav’s performance.
The audience was captured cheering for the rapper as he sang with vibrato and worked his vocal pitch to better suit the song. However, the overall presentation of his performance appeared comical to the majority of viewers.
The clip was shared by The Shade Room on Instagram, where one user sarcastically wrote that unfortunately, Flavor Flav's mic was on, implying that the rapper probably only meant to sing the song for his own ears. However, since the mic was on, everyone ended up listening to it.
Netizens goes wild as Flavor Flav performs the United States' national anthem
While Flavor Flav did not receive any rude or offensive reviews on his performance of The Star-Spangled Banner, people took to harmless sarcasm as some of them joked about who authorized the rapper to perform at the game. Some people, however, did praise him for his performance and wrote that it was not that bad and that he actually did a decent job.
A few others joked that because Flavor Flav performed before the game, the Bucks lost to the Hawks. Many wondered how everyone present on the court managed to keep a straight face while he performed and not burst out laughing.
Flavor Flav himself took to X to share that performing the national anthem had long been a bucket list item for him and that the experience of finally getting to do it was fun. The rapper added that he cannot spend his life worrying about what other people might say about him.
He shared that he also does not let the fear of judgment stop him from trying out new things that he wants to do, adding:
"Some people might not like that. But a sure failure is if you stop trying."
Previously in 2018, Fergie was heavily criticized and trolled for her jazz-coded rendition of the national anthem at the NBA All-Star game. Clips from the performance showed the players trying and failing to keep a straight face as they watched the former Black Eyed Peas singer belch out her riffs.
