American rapper and record executive Lil Wayne was recently a guest on RevoltTV’s Drink Champ. He shared stories that span from the early days of Cash Money Records, to recording his classic mixtapes and evolving into a CEO and skateboarding. In his chat with hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, Dwayne Carter revealed that he once took an ancestry test conducted by a web based genealogy company and it turned out he is 53% Nigerian. It didn’t seem like new truth to him, back in 2018, the rapper in his hit record ‘A Millie,’ said he he was ‘tougher than Nigerian hair’. A few weeks ago, while playing “Never Ever Have I”, he was asked about the one place in the world that he would love to visit and he mentioned Nigeria and Egypt.
As expected, the news has pumped adrenaline levels up amongst Nigerians. While some are excited about the euphoria that comes with it, some are bothered about the validity of the Lil wayne’s claims. It’s not like the truth matters anyway, if one of the greatest rappers ever says he’s more Nigerian than American, so be it! But if we are keeping it one hunnid, I think this could just be part of the promotion for his new album ‘funeral’. I mean, everyone knows Africa is the new cool, and one of the surest ways to spark a buzz is by associating with Nigeria.
How authentic is an ancestral DNA test?
When it comes to ancestry, DNA is very good at determining close family relations such as siblings or parents, and dozens of stories are emerging that reunite or identify lost close family members (or indeed criminals). For deeper family roots, these tests do not really tell you where your ancestors came from. They say where DNA like yours can be found on Earth today. By inference, we are to assume that significant proportions of our deep family came from those places. But to say that you are 20 percent Irish, 4 percent Native American or 12 percent Scandinavian is fun, trivial and has very little scientific meaning. We all have thousands of ancestors, and our family trees become matted webs as we go back in time, which means that before long, our ancestors become everyone’s ancestors. Humankind is fascinatingly closely related, and DNA will tell you little about your culture, history and identity.
Watch RevoltTV interview:
