Flavor Flav, a rapper and ‘hype-man’ for the music group Public Enemy, debuted his rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner on October 29 just prior to a Milwaukee Bucks basketball game. In a metropolitan area like Milwaukee, the Bucks could find at least a hundred local singers who could nail the pregame anthem in perfect pitch and exactly as written, but that’s not why we invite rock stars to sing it—we want them to insert a bit of themselves into the song.
I was disappointed that Flav stuck to the script, delivering a version that, while slower than most, to my tin-ear made almost no stylistic detours from the original tune. Flav’s big editorial adjustment was to sing the line “of the brave” three times at the end of the song.
In the comments section of the Washington Post article where I read about Flav’s performance, readers wrote: “excruciating,” “disgusting,” “hip-hop trash,” “people who can’t sing the anthem in the way it was intended should not sing it at all,” leaving me to wonder if some sort of nonmusical bias may fuel these commenters’ desire for perfection.
Personally, I thought he did a good job, but I wish Flav’s version included at least one “Yeah, Boyyyy” and a couple of “Yos.”
Written in response to GirlieOnTheEdge’s Six Sentence Story Link Up! Visit her site and give it a try.
Click –> Here <– To see Flavor Flav sing the national anthem.
If you want to hear Flavor Flav in action, listen to Party for Your Right to Fight (below), the title track* of their massively influential, critically acclaimed, and altogether awesome sophomore album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Flav is the secondary voice in the song providing the hype.
*Title track, meaning the album title is taken from a line in the song.
The Other Stuff 
Good point about a place like Milwaukee that one “could find at least a hundred local singers who could nail the pregame anthem in perfect pitch and exactly as written”. Perhaps they should have picked one of them.
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Well, then I wouldn’t have anything to write about.
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I wonder when artists first did improvs on The Star Spangled Banner? I had a quick listen (in a noisy cafe with a toastie in one hand and phone in the other) to Duke Ellington at Newport in 1956. It sounds pretty straight ahead to me; maybe a couple of added flourishes, that’s all.
By 1970 or possibly earlier, we have Hendrix’ vn, which I like. It seems to capture the intent of the tune and its implied lyrics. But it’s not my country’s national anthem.
It sounds like Flav was respectful of unadventurous. I might just have a listen as I drive to my next job.
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I’d be interested in your opinion of the Public Enemy song I posted. When that album came out it really blew me away, and I’m not really a fan of rap.
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I am not keen on Rap. But I’ll steel myself.
The SSB video was ridiculously short and I’ll try to find a better one later.
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grrr: that’s ‘if’ unadventurous
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got it. happens to all of us.
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I wasn’t particularly impressed with the way Flav sang the anthem. The slow pace of delivery accentuated what seemed to me like nervousness in his voice. Nevermind.
The other link isn’t available in this region.
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I’m in general agreement. As a talented rapper, Flav could have done something unique and interesting with the song. Instead he created a below average rendition. Still, I’m really disturbed by the vitriol of the commenters in the Washington Post. I’m certain many of them didn’t even bother to listen and just assumed Flav was disrespecting the song (which, anyway, is about a flag and not a country).
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i did not detect disrespect. In fact I reckon the nerves probably come from the intention to sing respectfully.
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The first time I ever heard of Flav was on a show called Celebrity Wife Swap. I had no idea what he did for a living to be on that show (I only watched about 5 minutes of it) but now I am curious to hear him sing. I’ll be checking out your link in just a bit 😁
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And now that I’ve heard of celebrity wife swap, I’m probably just as curious. Not sure I even want to know what happens there.
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There is actually the regular show called “Wife Swap” and there’s Celebrity Wife Swap. Some of the shows are pretty good but I do wonder if is mostly staged. Let me know what you think if you watch it. 😁
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Also the one with Flav is about his wife switching places with another famous wife (can’t remember who) both families live completely different from eachother.
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I will, but it seems unlikely.
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(finally something of value in being hypo-youthful!)
I recall, way back in the day, there were similar responses to Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the same piece.
guess there’s no accounting for the lack of a capacity to appreciate music
interesting Six
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LOL. I love Hendrix’s national anthem. In the mountain bike league where I used to coach, that version of the anthem was what we used to kick off race day. Of course the entire day unfolded to a soundtrack of heavy metal, punk and the most raucous of classic rock.
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i listened to it twice. kudos to him. i liked it just the way he sang it– slow and purposeful. Nice six!
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Certainly not worthy of the insulting comments thrown his way by the Washington Post readers. Really, I just gotta stop reading comments on news sites. They always set me off.
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or, be like me, and just quit reading or listening to the news. i’m so much calmer.
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Some people just don’t seem to be happy unless they are being mean, nasty, or dragging someone down. It says more about them than about the people they malign.
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Amen
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Any new rendition of a familiar song will receive comparisons, which is a pity because many of them (imo) surpass the original. An interesting read, Jeff.
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Thank you. There’s gotta be room for different voices and different approaches.
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