Shock seems to have given way to acceptance as many celebrities react to the row between Chris Rock and Will Smith at this year’s Oscars ceremony, where after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, being bald, Smith walked up to the stage and slapped Rock.
According to NME, A$AP Rocky (aka Rakim Mayers) has weighed in on the matter.
The joke in question saw Rock – midway through a monologue he gave in presenting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature – point to Jada (who has long been vocal about her struggles with alopecia) and quip: “G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!” Smith later said in a statement, in which he also formally apologised to Rock, that the joke “was too much for me to bear”.
In a forthcoming episode of the Drink Champs podcast, Mayers chimed in to offer the theory that Smith’s assault on Rock was the result of “some built-up shit that probably wasn’t really targeted at Chris Rock”, adding that “it just seemed like more than a G.I. Jane joke”.
Mayers – who made sure to clarify that he’s “a fan of Will, Jada, Chris, all of them” – shared the opinion that by assaulting Rock during the ceremony, Smith added insult to injury. “I think it’s unfortunate that he emasculated another Black man in front of all them people like that,” Mayers said.
