50 Cent Is Upset At The Grammys For Not Including Spanish Subtitles For Bad Bunny Performance, And He's Not Alone
Once again, 50 Cent is on the internet calling people out — this time, it's in defense of the biggest Puerto Rican rapper and singer in the world.
Yeah, I didn't have that on my 2023 bingo card.
Bad Bunny (real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) opened the 2023 Grammy Awards with a mash-up of "El Apagón" and "Después de la Playa" and had everyone in attendance shaking their booties.
Especially Taylor Swift.
I will never get over this moment between T-Swift and Bad Bunny.
It's literally the wallpaper on my iPhone.
But the moment that got everybody else talking was when the not-so-inclusive captions appeared during the live broadcast of the performance.
During Bad Bunny's performance, the captions simply read, “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH]” and “[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH].”
50 Cent didn't hold back when he called out the broadcast for the disrespectful move, and I can't believe I agree with him.
He took to his Instagram to post, "The Grammys need to be check about this, Fvcking @badbunnypr bigger than everybody right now and you can’t pay for closed caption. Wtf is this speaking Non-English. ??FIX IT! #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi"
50 doubled down and posted a following IG, writing, "??WTF going on here, ??I DONT WANT TO HEAR SHIT FIX IT! #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi
It wasn't like they had to guess what Bad Bunny was saying. The song lyrics are literally available everywhere. I have the Spanish proficiency of a two-year-old, and even I can sing the chorus of Bad Bunny's most popular songs.
Bad Bunny included the moment in a grateful shoutout on his Instagram, writing, "la palabra mas bonita que existe es: GRACIAS. Soy agradecido con Dios, con la vida, con el amor que recibo. Agradecido de poder vivir momentos que nunca imaginé. Agradecido de las personas que me quieren de verdad, los que me apoyan genuinamente, los que me entienden y por los que no también. Agradecido de poder hacer lo que mas amo, MúSICA. Me siento feliz, me siento orgulloso de mi y por eso doy GRACIAS."
For people reading in [non-Spanish]: "The most beautiful word that exists is: Thank you. I am grateful to God, to life, to the love I receive. Grateful to be able to live moments that I never imagined. Grateful for the people who truly love me, those who genuinely support me, those who understand me and those who don’t too. Grateful to be able to do what I love the most, MUSIC. I feel happy, I feel proud of myself and for that I give THANKS."
And yes, I'm making a point here.
According to BuzzFeed News, CBS captioning "speaking non-English" is normal, but it also highlights a bigger conversation about accessibility and respect. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said it best, “This issue is about respect. The millions of Spanish speakers living in the US deserve equal treatment and consideration as CBS’s English-speaking viewers."
“When millions of Americans tuned in to watch record-breaking Latino artist Bad Bunny perform on one of Hollywood’s biggest stages, they were met with a reminder that for CBS Spanish is simply [NON-ENGLISH].”
I have to note that CBS displayed captions for the performance during replays of the broadcast, but maybe it's time to get it right the first time.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States. Let's put some respect on their culture.
Some Twitter users were also pretty annoyed by the captions, or lack thereof:
Seeing [SPEAKING IN NON-ENGLISH] in closed captions in 2023 is a great reminder that a lot of us can’t separate our accessibility from our culture, which is why those conversations need to be inclusive as all hell.
y’all these award shows shows the blatant xenophobia in the industry like it doesn’t hurt to treat a non english speaking artist with basic respect
the grammys claim to be diverse and then proceed to treat non english speaking artists like the plague
66,000,000 of us speak Spanish here in the great US of A.USA is the second largest Spanish speaking country worldwide second to Mexico. Non-English. Get out.
Ok #Grammys inviting Bad Bunny and not getting a bilingual CC transcriber that just typed SPEAKING/SINGING NON-ENGLISH
Y’all I’m so tired of this ignorance!TWENTY counties speak Spanish, 20!How is it that in this day & age we continue to accept this type of behavior?How difficult was it to have captions say: speaking Spanish? How?! Estoy cansada de la ignorancia, ?basta!#speakingnonEnglish
No more Bad Bunny disrespect will be tolerated in 2023. Get those language-inclusive captions together.
I'm looking at you, 2023 Coachella broadcast.
