Southern Africa High School War Cry Performances Of The 2017 African American Hip Hop Song "Mask Off"

All Bullsh_t*, Oct. 1, 2017
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This word is fully spelled out in this screen name. 

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Edited by Azizi Powell This is Part III of this pancocojams series on South African high schools' war caries. This post showcases videos and comments from several YouTube discussion threads about South African high school war cries that were inspired by the African American Hip Hop artist Future's 2017 Hip Hop record "Mask Off". Information about Future's song "Mask Off" is included in this post. The Addendum of this post showcases a YouTube video of an African American marching band performing Future's "Mask Off" at a United States university sports event. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/south-africans-share-information-about.html for Part I of this pancocojams post. That post showcases two YouTube videos of South African high school war cries, and provides selected comments from those videos' discussion thread. An online excerpt about the unequal South African educational system is included in Pancocojams Editor Note #1. My Pancocojams Editor Note #2 presents my opinions about how American based vlog discussion threads provide more information about South African culture than discussion threads for South African based vlogs.Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/videos-comments-about-south-african.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases videos of and comments about South African high school students performing "flashes" ("blazer spellings") while chanting war cries at their sport events.That post also presents an excerpt from a Wikipedia article about South African high school flashes ("blazer spelling"). An online excerpt about the unequal South African educational system is included in Pancocojams Editor Note #1. My Pancocojams Editor Note #2 presents my opinions about how American based vlog discussion threads provide more information about South African culture than discussion threads for South African based vlogs. I included these same editorial notes in Part I of this pancocojams series. The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural, recreational, and educational purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to Future for composing and recording the song "Mask Off". Thanks to all those who are featured in these showcased videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. -snip- Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/south-africans-explaining-game-of-rugby.html for the related pancocojams post entitled "South Africans Explaining The Game Of Rugby to People From The United States".
**** SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE HIP HOP SONG "MASK OFF"* EXCERPT #1 From https://www.songfacts.com/facts/future/mask-off Mask Off by Future
"Future takes his "mask off" on this track, in which he shares openly about his drug use and addiction. He calls "it how it is."

Percocets, molly, Percocets
Percocets, molly, Percocets

Future repeats throughout the chorus the names of the painkiller "Percocet," and the recreational drug "Molly" aka ecstasy. The drugs fuel his lifestyle even while he's cruising Biscayne Bay in Miami.

Metro Boomin's bass-heavy beat samples the hypnotic flute from "Prison Song" by Tommy Butler. The track is from the 1976 musical Selma, in which Butler paid tribute to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The song's sampled flute riff sparked a popular meme on social media. The "MaskOffChallenge" inspired musicians to film themselves playing the track with their instrument of choice. The trend saw violinists, cello players, pianists and flutists uploading videos of themselves replaying the flute riff in their own special way.
[….]

The song featured in season 4 episode 4 of Cartoon Network's Rick and Morty during a scene where Rick listens to "Mask Off."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the song experienced a resurgence. Future and his FreeWishes Foundation charitable organization launched the "Mask On" campaign to inspire people to wear masks to protect themselves against the virus and provided over 100,000 masks for medical workers and COVID patients.”…
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*WARNING - The Hip Hop song "Mask Off" contains profanity.
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EXCERPT #2
From https://genius.com/Future-mask-off-lyrics Future "Mask Off" Lyrics
"Release Date: February 17, 2017
" “Mask Off” serves as a “rags-to-riches” story that explores the surface of Future’s past, from trapping to living a life of luxury. The slow and syrupy production by Metro Boomin samples the 1976 song, “Prison Song” by Tommy Butler, which featured Carlton Williams.

The song went on to become one of Future’s highest-charting singles ever, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is also certified 8X platinum by the RIAA."...

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN  "MASK OFF" WAR CRIES
With the exception of Showcase Video #1, these videos are given in chronological order based on their publishing date, with the oldest dated video given first.

SHOWCASE VIDEO #2: MASK OFF challenge Hilton College [South African high school]

Lethu Duncan, May 11, 2017 

These BOYZ rocked Gilfillan Field just before 1st Team took on Michaelhouse.
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Statistics as of Nov. 22, 2022 at AM ET - total # of views =2,390,871, total # of comments -567 I believe that this is the most viewed South African war cry videos on YouTube as of that date. The students are chanting "Represent. Hilton represent." instead of the original words for that song "Molly Percocet."   

The word "represents" in this chant has the African American Vernacular English meaning of "proudly publicly declaring where you are from". 

Many of the commenters in this discussion thread wrote about how hyped the Black students were compared to the White students. Some commenters mentioned that Asian students were also hyped. A lot of these comments were racist. For example, at least  one commenter wrote that there were "too many blacks" in this video.  Presumably, that commenter meant that there were too many Black students at that school.  At least one commenter in that discussion thread used what is called "the n word" to refer to the Black students. One response to the comment that Black people were really hyped in this video was that "This is their music".    
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Singing songs or chanting chants that have their origin in a popular song is part of a very old tradition world wide. Using Hip Hop songs for those sports songs/chants is just a modern application of that tradition. One other example of African American Hip Hop records used as South African high school war cries are XXtentacion's 2015 record "Look At Me!" [for example,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIEG-L1Sdw Glenwood High School /Look at me 2019 War Cry, Shaheen Thomas, Jun 2, 2019; The students are chanting Glenn Wood high school, oh yeah"]

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: Mask Off - Peterhouse Boys' Rugby vs St Johns [Zimbabwe, Southern Africa high schools]

 

Peterhouse Music Department, Jun 17, 2017

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #4: Dhs Mask off [Durban High School, South Africa]


Andiswa Mseleku, Jun 16, 2018

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #5: Mask off ( War cry ) - Prince Edward School [South African high school]

 

Sports Catch, Jun 22, 2020

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ADDENDUM:  NOASB "Mask Off" | Battle of the Gulf Coast 2017 [New Orleans, Louisiana, USA]

 

Da Edge, Jun 17, 2017

Battle of the Gulf Coast 2017

New Orleans All-Star Band

Be sure to watch in HD!!!!!!!! | @DaEdge1Productions | @DaEdge1
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Here's some information about NOASB:
From https://www.nolalegacybands.org/nola-all-stars#:~:text=New%20Orleans%20Legacy%20Association%20of%20Bands%2C%20Inc.&text=Founded%20in%20the%20spring%20of,band%20community%20in%20the%20USA.
"About The Band

Founded in the spring of 2009 as an alumni unit, the New Orleans All-Star Band (NOASB) began with a mission to reclaim the throne as the #1 band community in the USA. Unlike its Pre-Katrina predecessor—the original New Orleans Public School All-Star Band—NOASB is a community program open to anyone ages 13+ willing to participate. The band prides itself on being able to take over 300 young people off of the streets every summer and give them a positive way to spend their time.

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This concludes Part III of this pancocojams series.
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