(AllHipHop News) Tyler, The Creator’s latest commercial for Mountain Dew has some people up in arms. The 58-second ad features Tyler as “Felicia The Goat” appearing in a police line-up next to only black men.
An injured white women on crutches is shown as the victim. She is told by a police detective drinking a Mountain Dew to, “nail this little sucker.”
Before the women picks out her attacker, the viewer hears Felicia say, “Yeah it’s me. You should have given me some more. I’m nasty.”
The “Line-Up” commercial is an extension of a previous ad where Felicia attacks the same women in a restaurant. In that spot the women, as a waitress, calls Felicia “a nasty goat” before getting beat by the animal for not having more Mountain Dew. The “restaurant” commercial ends with Tyler saying, “You never gonna catch me.”
The phrase is also at that the close of the “line-up” ad after the injured women refuses to identify Felicia because she is constantly intimidated by the goat from behind a one-way glass. At one point Felicia says, “snitches get stitches, fool.”
The latest commercial has been criticized as racially insensitive and misogynistic. Social commentator Dr. Boyce Watkins called the ad “arguably the most racist commercial in history.”
Dr. Watkins posted an article on yourblackworld.net decrying the commercial. Writing in part:
Of course, in the world of Mountain Dew, every single suspect is black. Not just regular black people, but the kinds of ratchety negroes you might find in the middle of any hip-hop minstrel show: Gold teeth, “mean mugging,” sun glasses wearing, white-t sportin, hard core n*ggaz ready to “get into some ol gangsta sh*t.” Apparently, this is the kind of ad you put out if you want to appeal to the black male demographic.
Watkins goes on to chastise Mountain Dew for partnering with a rapper who he says “celebrates the sexual assaults of pregnant women” referring to Tyler’s song “Tron Cat” from the 2011 LP Goblin.
This situation is the most recent controversy over the last several months that have highlighted public scrutiny over what some see as offensive and degrading lyrics and images in Hip-Hop.
Mountain Dew is also facing calls from the family of Emmitt Till to drop rapper Lil Wayne as an endorsement partner because Wayne has yet to apologize for a line about the murdered teenager in Future’s “Karate Chop (Remix).”
[ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Emmett Till’s Family Plans To Relentlessly Pursue Lil Wayne’s Sponsors]
Last month Maybach Music Group leader Rick Ross was dropped by Reebok after protests over a line the Miami rapper delivered on “U.O.E.N.O.” that was seen as promoting date rape.
[ALSO READ: Reebok Dumps Rick Ross]
These incidents have sparked a debate within the Hip-Hop community about an artist’s right to free speech as it relates to a corporation’s choice to yield to pressure from outside groups upset with a rapper’s content. The ongoing discussion about rappers depictions of reality versus fiction expressed in their art is sure continue to rev up as well.
Representatives from Mountain Dew nor Odd Future have commented publicly on the new ad with Tyler, The Creator, but the “line-up” video has been pulled from Odd Future’s YouTube channel.
You can watch the ad below courtesy of nbclosangeles.com