(January 19, 2025). No sitcom, no problem.
Roseanne Barr, who was unceremoniously fired from her namesake television comedy almost seven years ago for making disparaging remarks about a Black woman — Valerie Jarrett, former president Barack Obama’s senior advisor — wants to make amends.
Barr, whose 2018 cancellation by Hollywood will have her go down in history as the only lead actor to be fired from her own show and then watch that show — under its main characters’ surname — successfully go on for another seven seasons without her, wants us to know there are no hard feelings. In fact, the very mature 72-year-old is showing her newfound love of Black culture by sporting a new do — blonde corn rows that flow into long braided extensions — and a new rap song that would give even Missy Elliott pause.
The song is “Daddy’s Home,” Barr’s duet with fellow culture king Tom MacDonald — the Canadian rapper who can’t vote in this country but wants you to feel his patriotic spirit nonetheless. MacDonald and Barr spit bars in celebration of America’s new-old president whose second inauguration is just a day away.
Of course, “Daddy” refers to theirs — Donald Trump — but they want you to know that they’re willing to share him with you, with lines like “now your daddy’s home,” referring to 45’s impending return to the White House as No. 47.
It’s almost as if Barr wants to show her thanks to the Black community — and Black rappers in particular — for showing up for Trump in higher numbers than they did in either 2020 or 2016.
She even addresses the accusations of her being a racist head-on with her opening bar and convincing denial: “They tried (and succeeded mightily, she conveniently omits) to cancel me and say that I’m a racist. Got a mean hook, they can’t get me with that jab.”
See? She told you she wasn’t one.
Well, she doesn’t actually deny it there. But does she have to? We all know the truth; she loves us. How else do you explain the braids and the newfound love of hip-hop?
Don’t call that appropriation, it’s appreciation! Or at least that’s what Barr would like us to believe. But adopting a superficial aspect of Black culture — cornrows and hip-hop cadence — without any genuine engagement with its history or struggles isn’t appreciation; it’s caricature. It’s a pattern we’ve seen before: borrowing the aesthetics while ignoring or trivializing the people who created them.
But that’s not our Roseanne. Want proof she’s now got our backs? Look no further than at who she targets in her last line… the ultimate culture vulture Eminem. “Screw Eminem, bitch, I’m Roseanne!,” she reassures us.
There’s no “cap” there (for the uninitiated, that’s our slang for “lies”). Barr and MacDonald have studied our culture and it shows! MacDonald repeats “cap” about seven times in his verse after he gets in the following dig: “you’ve got lipstick all on your beard, you’re a man.” That’s not a knock on anyone’s sexuality or gender identity, btw, it’s just a reminder that it belongs on your lips, not your beard. C’mon folks, lighten up! Have we let our wokeness completely blind us to someone’s genuine concern for our fashion fitness?
And, if you think Barr herself is displaying anti-trans sentiment in the following line: “Why’d they try and turn Becky into Dan?,” she’s not. It’s simply a nod to her former TV husband and daughter Dan and Becky Conner — whom she misses dearly — in an effort to show she has no hard feelings about them carrying on as if she never existed.
Finally, Barr certainly hasn’t forgotten the flack she took for butchering the national anthem at a MLB baseball game some 35 years ago. But her attempt to reclaim patriotism through the song’s refrain ‘we wave the flag!’ raises an important question: is this patriotism inclusive, or just a rallying cry for her MAGA base? True patriotism involves a commitment to justice and equality, not just the performance of loyalty to a flag or a certain president-elect. Certainly she knows that, doesn’t she?
So, you see? Roseanne is neither racist nor transphobic nor unpatriotic. And how is she being rewarded for all this goodwill? The song replaced country singer Kane Brown’s “Gorgeous” at No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes chart on Saturday (Jan. 18). And, if we’re truly appreciative of these cultural ambassadors’ latest act of kindness-in-song, we’ll help send “Daddy’s Home” to heights MacDonald’s last attempt to unite us in the wake of Trump’s first assassination attempt — “You Missed” — didn’t: to a position — any position — on the Billboard Hot 100.
After all, it’s the least we folks could do for Barr, right?
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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