Lanae Defends Chance The Rapper After Jamaica Carnival Twerk-troversy
Dancehall artist Lanae, one of the women seen twerking and dancing with Chance The Rapper at Jamaica Carnival events over the weekend, says the married American rapper shouldn’t be facing criticism for getting his groove on.
“It was Carnival,” Lanae told DancehallMag.
“That’s what we do at carnival, that’s what the event is for, dancing with people whether you know them or not and just having a good time and I am sure that he and his wife were fully aware of where he was going, it was his birthday and I am sure they discussed it.”
She continued: “The couple will be discussing that on their own terms, it is not for the public to decide whether it was right or wrong.”
“He is an adult, he is in a relationship so I am sure they both know what is appropriate and what is not, that’s my take on it.”
Some outraged social media users dragged the 30-year-old rapper after he was recorded shirtless, and dancing provocatively with Trinidadian model Mela Millz as he enjoyed his birthday on the island. He even slapped her butt playfully for good measure.
Meanwhile, Lanae, who is best known for her songs Whine, Stay Dung Deh with Leftside, and Too Young with Vybz Kartel, also shared a clip of her own carnival moment with the rapper on Monday (April 16).
In that video, Chance falls to the ground behind a twerking Lanae, and had to be held up by another male reveler.
“He was just dancing til he started slapping,” one user said of the more controversial Mela Millz clip.
A second screamed: “Chancellor where is yo wifeeee”. A third on Twitter commented with laughing emojis: “Ain’t he married?”.
@AshmacGetsIt wrote: “For clarity. Can we get a zoom in on his ring finger?????”, while another observed: “it was tew muuuuuch. lol a lil dancey dance, sure. he went to the next level with it.”
Chance and his wife Kirsten have known each other since 2003 and got married in 2019. The rapper shares two children, Marli and Kensli, with his wife.
Neither he nor his wife commented publicly on the matter.
Not all of the comments were negative, as one person said: “Chance The Rapper reveling and all of them saying he’s cheating lol … cultural deficit much.”
Other users jumped to the rapper’s defense, explaining the concept behind a Caribbean carnival.
“They’re mad at Chance the Rapper for ‘cheating on his wife’ y’all. Don’t bring that European nonsense to this ethnic household and let that man enjoy Caribbean culture!”
It was not all fun and celebration for Chance, as the rapper also visited the US Embassy in Jamaica to discuss his plans to host the Black Star Line Festival on the island in January 2024.
Speaking recently on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer revealed his aspiration to bring the mega-festival to the island following its success in Accra, Ghana last January.
“We’re actually thinking about hosting the next one in Kingston, Jamaica. We’re still working it out in our heads. And we love the city of Accra and Ghana and West Africa as a whole. We just want to continue to, like, create community in other spaces,” he told Fallon.
The Ghanaian staging, held in the historic Black Star Square on January 6, attracted approximately 52,000 patrons.
Chance is currently working on a new album titled Star Line Gallery also inspired by the Black Star Line—a shipping line created by a Jamaican leader of the Pan-African movement, Marcus Garvey. The ships were sometimes used to transport people and make largely symbolic port visits to cities in Latin America in celebration of black self-determination, business ownership, and economic potential.
Complex Magazine noted that several members of Chance’s immediate family were Garveyists in the past, and that he hoped to carry on their legacy by infusing the corporation’s ethos into that of the new album.
“It’s going to be all Black artists from everywhere around the world with all different experiences, but a connection, and in conversation with me and my collaborators to create new pieces that show what it means to be Black right now,” he told Complex.
“It’s not all drenched in the conversation of trauma or about the most familiar aesthetic of Black that we know right now. It’s about what is real.”