Comedian Chris Rock has been talking to MTV about his new single - 'Crackers' - which deals with the very serious topic of racism against America's black population through the ages, but in a very unserious way. Taking the music from OutKast's 'Hey Ya' and parodying that track's popular video, Rock says: "It's like a Public Enemy record - but funny".
On lines like "You raped my grandma/ Ooh, you raped my grandma/ My grandma and great-grandma/ You kept raping them/ Aah, AH, ah, AH-aaaal!", Rock continues: "There's nothing funny about rape, but there's something funny about it in the context of the song. The song 'Hey Ya!' just seems so happy, so any depressing lyric with that same melody seemed funny to me."
On how he came up with the concept for the song he continued: "I don't know, the same way I come up with everything. 'You know what would sound funny? If they were saying 'Crackers' instead of 'Hey Ya!' I didn't expect for this to ever get played, but the record company was like, 'That's a single.' So here we are".
The track will feature on an upcoming Chris Rock album called 'Never Scared' which will also include a number of sketches and parts of Rock's stand up act. Both will be released in the US in Aug - no word on if and when there will be a UK release.