For those of you who haven't heard the new Drake single, a familiar voice is sampled in the beginning few seconds. Five seconds, to be exact. It seems like an inconsequential add-on, an inside joke made public at no cost. What it really is, is validation.
Aziz Ansari is already far and way the most successful South Asian-American figure in pop culture. He became so primarily by not leaning on his brownness as a crutch or prop during his performance. This separates him from the likes of Russell Peters, whose reliance on accents and imitations made him a cringeworthy sideshow from the beginning. Kumail Nanjiani is better, but spends enough time on explanations of his foreign homeland that it takes away from his comedic talent.
Ansari shies away from this aspect on stage - not race, but the cheap laughs that too often go with it. In fact, in his second hour-long special, he even plays up a southern twang to underscore the fact that he grew up in South Carolina. On his Reddit AMA, Ansari briefly writes about South Asian actors who take stereotypical roles:
Aziz Ansari is already far and way the most successful South Asian-American figure in pop culture. He became so primarily by not leaning on his brownness as a crutch or prop during his performance. This separates him from the likes of Russell Peters, whose reliance on accents and imitations made him a cringeworthy sideshow from the beginning. Kumail Nanjiani is better, but spends enough time on explanations of his foreign homeland that it takes away from his comedic talent.
Ansari shies away from this aspect on stage - not race, but the cheap laughs that too often go with it. In fact, in his second hour-long special, he even plays up a southern twang to underscore the fact that he grew up in South Carolina. On his Reddit AMA, Ansari briefly writes about South Asian actors who take stereotypical roles:
"That’s on the actors themselves. I got offered those parts when I first started out and always turned them down and made it clear I wasn’t interested in playing ethnic stereotypes or characters who’s comedy comes purely from having a 'funny accent.' Over the past few years, that stuff has been aggressively countered by actors like myself, Mindy Kaling, Danny Pudi, etc. We are all playing characters who are funny for reasons that have nothing do with ethnic humor."His constant presence on primetime TV and forays onto the big screen have already made him a mainstay in entertainment. The Drake sample is a sign of something bigger, however - it marks the beginning of his cultural ubiquity, a level of status few comedians of color have attained. The last noteworthy contribution by a comedian to a hip-hop album was, of course, Chris Rock's absurd rant on Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. While Aziz is no Chris Rock - and Wheelchair Jimmy is no Yeezus - it's a start.
