Police from Hot 97 in Ebro make a ‘terrible joke’ about Tinashe’s last name”Throw a Fit”.
Hot 97 host Ebro Darden apologized for saying that the “2 On” singer has a “ghetto-ass name” on a 2013 interview that resurfaced on social media this week.
The 46-year-old New York City radio personality retweeted images of the offensive moment on Friday, accompanied by the following message: “Yes, this was a terrible joke, we were using the parody of the name to let people know his origins … I love Tinashe, that’s my friend still. ”
In the clip, 20-year-old Tinashe tells Darden and her co-host Peter Rosenberg that her last name is Kachingwe, who she later explained was Zimbabwean.
In response, Darden said, “Now can we point out how clear it is with a ghetto name?”
When Tinashe looked uncomfortable in her seat, Rosenberg quickly shut down Darden’s joke. “It is not a ghetto name,” he said. “It is an African name.”
But Darden elaborated: “Yes, but sometimes these ghetto names are actually African,” he said.
In an apparent attempt to defuse the tension in the studio, Tinashe replied: “They are probably derived from African names and run as a tangent to the ghetto.”
However, Darden didn’t stop there, referencing the artist’s skin color once again. “Don’t start,” he said, pointing at her. “Okay, young yellow?”
Tinashe giggled at the DJ’s comments and finished the interview.
Twitter user @theknoyjen tweeted a truncated version of the chat on Thanksgiving Day and wrote, “Yeah, he’s better than me because I would have gotten really disrespectful.”
The post, which racked up nearly 11,000 likes as of Friday, received passionate responses from supporters of Tinashe, now 28.
“Why do you only associate the ghetto with dark skin?” a person asked, whether another wrote, “She is patient or took care of this a lot because I would have been FIGHTING!”
Another individual questioned how Tinashe was able to remain calm in the situation.
“Imagine being in a position where two moldy guys are discussing the color of your skin and how ghetto it is, how was I supposed to react?” they wrote. “I too would have been stunned.”
Another person criticized Darden for his “blatant stupidity”, elaborating, “So having a ‘ghetto’ name is synonymous with being dark skinned? Are we also going to discard the cultural meaning of African names and how are there royal ceremonies behind them? ”
Representatives for Tinashe were not immediately available when contacted by Page Six for comment.