Benzino is stepping into the argument over Fat Joe's racial identity by arguing that Afro-Latinos do not exist — and that Joe’s claim on Blackness isn’t authentic without solidarity with other Black people.
In a video posted to his Instagram on Tuesday (Sept. 8), Benzino responded to the debate around Fat Joe’s claim that he can say the N-word because he’s Afro-Cuban.
Benzino said the comments were made from a specific New York hip-hop perspective shaped by Black and Latino communities growing up together in the Bronx since the 1960s.
The multihypenate and father of Coi Lery continued with a bold claim, saying, “There is no fucking such thing as ‘Afro-Latino.’”
“I don’t give a fuck who agrees, who disagrees,” Benzino continued near the four-minute mark in the video linked above. “Afro is a fucking hairstyle. I used to have an afro. Afro back then did represent Black power, right? But afro is their style. There is no Afro Latino. And I don't know why people are so scared to say ‘African.’ You're African, man. Just say African. Don't say Afro.”
As defined by Merriam-Webster, Afro-Latino is a widely-used identity term to refer to a Black person of Latin American origin with African ancestry.
Elsewhere in the video, Benzino argued that many fair-skinned Latinos do not associate with dark-skinned Latinos, the latter of whom he contends are Black people.
“Don't worry about what somebody identifies themselves as. Worry about what you identify yourself as,” he continued. “But [my] advice to Joe and people like Joe that say that or if you're going to say that: You got to rep it across the board. Are you saying anything about the lynchings? Did you say anything about George Floyd or Breonna Taylor? Or are you saying anything … about Black issues and DEI? Are you speaking out against these things that have to do with being Black? You can't have it both ways.”
Fat Joe, who is Puerto Rican and Cuban and was raised in New York City, has been part of an ongoing debate after he defended his use of the N-word on a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, referring to himself as “the Blackest n***a you ever seen in your life.”
Marc Lamont Hill, a co-host on Budden’s podcast who was absent for the episode, pushed back on Fat Joe’s claim and insisted he is “not Black.”
The “Lean Back” rapper responded to Hill in an Instagram comment by referring to his late father Ernesto, writing, “My dad is Afro Cuban.”
