I just watched T-Pain�s Freaknik: the Musical. At first glance, the crude animation, stereotypes, and just the concept of a revived Freaknik celebration made me cringe. However, while not hilarious, this cartoon was smart. As hell.



What is most disturbing about some of the brilliant undertones of this show was the fact that T-Pain had to shroud his smart social observations in the midst of booty-shaking and ignance (yes folks, ignance is the HIGHEST form of ignorant). While cartoonists/satirists like Aaron McGruder are expected to present smart and humorous social analysis, T-Pain would be considered by some to be King Coon and unable to see past his own circus hat. What is problematic and just as intriguing about this show is the idea that while probing some of our most troubled areas as black people, Freaknic also reaffirms some of those same problematic images that it calls out.


Two tropes caught my attention that I�d like to investigate a bit further: the ideologies of (deteriorating?) black leadership and (il)literacy.


I May Not Get You, but the Permanator Will,Bitch!: The End of Black Leadership?
The earliest scene that caught my attention was the meeting of the �Boule� � a conglomerate of black male leaders that included Bill Cosby, Russell Simmons, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson. Ironically, they were spearheaded by Oprah Winfrey and her arsenal of snacks and fatty foods. Shrouded in red robes and medallions with 10% on them, these men seethed with anger at the rejuvenation of Freaknic and Freaknic�s ghost. With the exception of Simmons, these men represent the old guard of the Civil Rights Movement where uplift and progress in the black community were spearheaded by men of color and men of the church. Simmons is an intriguing member of this �niggerati� (shout to Wallace Thurmond) because he represents the shift in leadership from Civil Rights to Hip-Hop. Different era, same expectations; the black messiah to save a fragmented black community. How this image is inverted, however, is that this small elitist group of power is led by a black woman.


Winfrey�s character stood out because she wore a sphinx medallion and carried a sphinx decorated rod. While the obvious reference on the men�s medallions allude to the DuBoisian theory that 10% of the black community must be educated in order to lead and help the majority of African Americans to progress, Winfrey�s sphinx suggests mystery, cunning, and a sinister nature. This representation of the Boule and what they represent is further problematized by the stigma attached to Winfrey as being symbolic of the black woman matriarch. The black matriarch was considered a threat by many black leaders of the 1960s and the ultimate downfall of black men; that is, the matriarchs� power and authority emasculated the black man in his own home and community. And, on top of that, Winfrey is leading the Boule, which is the most powerful group of men in the African American community. It is a highly selective and privatized organization where a black man has to be invited, over the age of 35, and a leader in his respective field. While Winfrey holds all of these qualities sans the requirement of being a man, her womanhood refrains her from joining the Boule in reality. What Freaknik does here is suggest that Winfrey has transcended these formal constraints not only because of her money, but because of her power in both the black and white communities. She can navigate both spaces.


The dichotomy of religion and faith often intersect with the trope of black leadership throughout this episode. While the reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are self-explanatory, one of Freaknic�s most intriguing characters is Trap Jesus, played by Lil� Wayne. I can�t lie. I laughed hard when I heard Weezy�s voice. While I can think of some other rappers who might have played the role for Trap Jesus (T.I. or even Young Jeezy) Lil� Wayne fit because miracle after miracle is keeping him out of jail. But seriously, Trap Jesus resides in the wards of New Orleans, a city of death and resurrection, where he makes his living as a drug dealer. One particular segment shows Trap Jesus throwing a bag of crack to the door and a drug addict, with only hands and eyes visible, grabs the bag and disappears back into the darkness. This quick scene, though disheartening, ironically reaffirms Weezy�s notions in his tirade on �Misunderstood� from The Carter III where he discusses the helplessness of crack addicts and how society makes them nonrehabilitative bodies. While talking to the protagonists the Sweet Tea Mob (which stars a voice cameo by Rick Ross) Trap Jesus presents the ghetto commandments and then returns to conversing with his street disciples in an eerily similar fashion to the Last Supper.






The blurring of sacred and secular boundaries is embodied within Trap Jesus� character and his hood discourse. Instead of presenting himself as the embodiment of Christian perfection (the son of God), Trap Jesus presents himself in the perfect form of a hood savior. Image wise, Trap Jesus dons dreads, a goatee, and a grill, which further removes any associations with a white Jesus (literally and figuratively) or Christianity. It is possible to see his physical attribute suggest a nod towards Rastafarianism. Instead of spiritual beliefs, Freaknic�s Jesus uses trap discourse to construct a framework of visibility. Because his character and actions challenge the work of black leaders like the Boule, Trap Jesus is restricted to a hood setting. Trap Jesus suggests that religion is a belief system constructed as a framework for survival in an abrasive environment.






Read a M$^&@* Book while Shakin� Your Booty: Themes of Illiteracy and Representations of Women
The first scene that struck me was when the character Light Skin (voiced by Cee-Lo) tries to enlighten his friends on white privilege. His catchphrase �It�s in the Book� while his friends laugh at him pays homage to the age old idiom �what whites don�t want niggers to know is put in books.� It was disturbing that Light Skin, though physically representative of a �trill nigga� (gold fronts, baggy clothes, shades at night lol), was ostracized from his friends and his blackness questioned because of his pursuit for knowledge. Light Skin�s character also lightly touches on the sensitive conversation of colorism and color privilege, the belief that light skinned blacks have access to and are more privileged than those who are darker complected. This notion of elitism teeters with the idea of literacy being available to small percentage of blacks � Light Skin is the only character that openly expresses his pursuit of knowledge and flaunts critical reading skills. He constantly reads and quotes from the book Behold the Pale White Horse vol II: The Black Donkey. This fictitious book in itself is emblematic because of its allusion to the actual book Behold the Pale Horse which infers that society lives on and is complacent with perceptionism and intentionally blocks out truth. In other words, black folks are happy with where they are and are completely oblivious to the circumstances that frame their world.


The subtitle �The Black Donkey� particularly stuck out and made me think about Alice Walker�s reference to black women as �the working mule of the world.� Walker�s observations can be used to tease out the meaning of black women in Freaknic, where we were objectified and typecasted into the same tired, overdone representations of hypersexuality that have plagued women of color for centuries. One particularly problematic scene was in the ghost of Freaknik�s office where his secretary puts on knee pads and prepares to give him fellatio. Tie that with the ghost of Freaknik�s rehabilitative site for �Scrippers� and you have a traumatic relationship between illiteracy, power, and black women.


Freaknic: the Musical would not be considered Oscar worthy. I�ll be the first to tell you that there are some extremely crude scenes and that you have to shift through the bullshit to see the cartoon�s true intentions. Freaknic can hold its own against sketches like those seen on Chappelle�s Show and The Boondocks. It�s fascinating how crude humor or (I�ll go there) coonery forces us to not only watch with a mix of horror and fascination but also confronts those issues that makes us cringe. Whether commenting on the actual issues being discussed or simply discussing its bad taste in presentation, Freaknic is a tool of discussion.


T-Pain did his job.