“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the hardest song to sing. Even the most skilled singers have a difficult time with it. It’s kind of a thankless job. If you’re great, no one is surprised, and everyone moves on. If you’re terrible, people talk about it forever and you land on worst lists every year. That being said, a lot of performers still consider it a bucket list item to sing the national anthem in front of a crowd.
On Sunday, an unexpected name got to live out that dream before the Atlanta Hawks played the Milwaukee Bucks. Public Enemy’s famed hype man, Flavor Flav, took center court to sing the national anthem, leading us all to think the same thing: “What?”
To the surprise of everyone, it wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t spectacular, but it also wasn’t the trainwreck you’d expect when you hear “Flavor Flav is singing the national anthem.” He put his whole heart into it and sang to the best of his abilities, which is all you can really ask of someone. While the internet’s reaction was expectedly mixed, many people applauded Flav’s effort and courage for stepping outside his comfort zone.
One user replied to the Bucks video, writing on X, “You can tell he truly rehearsed this and sang to the best of his ability. Love it. So happy for him, go Flav!”
Another viewer took a more measured approach, praising Flav, but questioning the Bucks, replying, “Glad he made it through [without] any serious embarrassment. Now fire whoever came up with this idea, asap.”
One person was shocked by their own reaction to the performance, writing on X, “flavor flav of all people…but I think I’m losing it bc I think this was better than Fergie.”
Another user had thoughts on the rapper’s passionate closing run, posting on X, “Now Flavor Flav lul run at the end of the Star Spangled Banner living in my head rent free.”
One of the less forgiving reviews was a simple twist on the rap icon’s signature catchphrase, quoting the Bucks post with, “NO BOY,” followed by several facepalm emojis.
There were some people who thought inviting the “Fight the Power” artist to sing the national anthem was disrespectful or mocking. I would ask them to explain exactly how he disrespected the country with his performance? He didn’t come out shouting “Yeeeeah boy!” doing his boisterous, over the top personality. Flav was just a performer, who was clearly nervous, and gave the song his all. Are you mad that they invited Flavor Flav, or are you mad that he took it seriously and didn’t do anything embarrassing?
Is the idea of Flavor Flav singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before an NBA game just more chaos to put on the wild pile of life we’re currently living in? Yes, absolutely. Does that mean we need to live in a world where our first impulse is to shit on this man just because he lived out a dream? No, who wants to live in a state of perpetual misery? And just in case you are interested in a more traditional version, check out H.E.R.’s beautiful rendition from Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.