Translate

Friday, February 24, 2012

Sesame Street's Love My Hair & Willow Smith's Whip My Hair Videos

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases the Sesame Street "I Really Love My Hair" video, the Willow Smith "I Whip My Hair" video, and a mash-up video entitled "Sesame Street - Whip My Hair "(A mash-up video is one that combines clips from two or more other videos). It's important to note that this mash up video and other YouTube videos that are made from the Sesame Street video and the Willow Smith video are not affiliated in any way with those two videos.

The Sesame Street "I Love My Hair" video aired in 2010 shortly before the Willow Smith video. That video was inspired and produced by Sesame Street's head writer and puppeteer Joey Mazzarino to encourage his adopted daughter from Ethiopia and other girls (particularly Black girls) to love their hair.

Click http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jenee-darden/sesame-street-writer-pens_b_767353.html for more of the backstory about Sesame Street's "I Really Love My Hair".

Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" song isn't necessarily about Black females loving their hair. However, because that song aired shortly after the Sesame Street video that implicitly had that goal, and because both of those songs featured a young Black girl talking positively about her hair, a number of people connect these songs together. This unintended, publicly conferred connection between these two videos is evidenced by several mash-up videos. Those videos use the visuals from the original Sesame Street video and the audio from the Willow Smith song.

Without further introductory comments, here are those three videos.

****
Video #1: Sesame Street: Song -- I Love My Hair



Uploaded by SesameStreet on Oct 12, 2010

Sing along and make the world aware that YOU love your hair!...
-snip-
Here's a commeeeent from this video's viewer comment thread:
"Fantastic video. I really needed something like this when I was a little girl and non-black people would tease me about my hair. Luckily, I grew up to eventually appreciate what I have. :) Sadly, a lot of black people, young and old, haven't yet.
-AlohaDucky; http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=enpFde5rgmw, February 23, 2012

Here are the lyrics for that song:

I REALLY LOVE MY HAIR
(Joey Mazzarino)

Don’t need a trip to the beauty shop,
’cause I love what I got on top.
It’s curly and it’s brown and it’s right up there!
You know what I love? That’s right, my hair!
I really love my hair.
I love my hair. I love my hair.
There’s nothing else that can compare with my hair.
I love my hair, so I must declare:
I really, really, really love my hair.
Wear a clippy or in a bow
Or let it sit in an afro
My hair looks good in a cornrow
It does so many things you know, that’s why I let it grow
I love my hair, I love my hair
I love it and I have to share
I love my hair, I love my hair!
I want to make the world aware I love my hair.
I wear it up. I wear down. I wear it twisted all around.
I wear braids and pigtails too.
I love all the things my hair can do.
In barrettes or flying free, ever perfect tresses you’ll see
My hair is part of me, an awesome part of me
I really love my hair!

Source: http://www.cocoandcreme.com/2010/10/sesame-street-show-natural-hair-love/
-snip-
I've read that a number of people think that the vocalist for this song is Willow Smith. However, the actual vocalist is Chantylla "Chauncey" Johnson, a young African American actress who has worked with The Lion King production. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Chantylla_Johnson

****
Video #2: Willow Smith - Whip My Hair


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmaErg4FUAc&ab_channel=WillowSmithOnlineUK

WillowSmithOnlineUK,  Dec. 10, 2010
-snip-

Click http://www.metrolyrics.com/whip-my-hair-lyrics-willow-smith.html for the lyrics to this song.
-snip-
The video that was originally embedded in this post is no longer available.

****
Video #3: Sesame Street - Whip My Hair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owImAh-GUTs&ab_channel=filmmakorltd.

filmmakor ltd., Mar 18, 2013


winter, 2013. mec jagger edited a sesame street character dancing to willow smith's song. i took her original concept and added more muppets to the mix, cleaned up some edits, and matched the muppets to the music. enjoy! [gg]

-snip-
This video replaces the original video that was embedded in this pancocojams post. 

As a reminder, in spite of its name and its content, this video and similarly produced videos aren't affiliated in any way with Sesame Street or with Willow Smith. I believe that it was just coincidental that two songs featuring a Black girl speaking positively about her hair were aired almost simultaneously. I think that this particular mash-up video "works" as it helps to promote the Sesame Street "I Really Love My Hair" video. And in so doing, the mash-up video also helps to promote the positive message of loving your natural, tightly curled hair, a message that isn't as explicitly given in the Willow Smith video as it is in the Sesame Street video.

****
My thanks to the artists, performers, producers, and uploaders of these featured videos.

Thank you for visiting this page.

Viewer comments are welcome.

No comments:

Post a Comment