"Appropriating Black Culture?" Viral "Kool-Aid Pineapple” Video Sparks Debate Over SGChildren's "Detroit" Accents

An X post by user DRTnky has gone viral after expressing confusion over a video filmed by online creator Faisal Marican and the Makancartel Family.

In the post, the user said they recognised the setting as Singapore but was confused by the children's accents, saying they sounded "like they were from the hood in Detroit" The user also noted that the children later began singing in Malay, with the user asking "What's going on????"

The video was created by online creator Faisal Marican, who, together with fellow creator Kai Emilio, is behind the viral "Kool-Aid Pineapple" drink that has gained popularity on social media and through pop-up stores.

The video featured a collaboration with the Makancartel Family, a fellow social media creator account. According to its TikTok profile, lisaspam.sg, the mother is a single parent raising her Blasian children, who are of Singaporean and Nigerian heritage.

According to the Department of Statistics, inter-ethnic marriages have been on the rise, accounting for 19.1% of citizen marriages in 2024, up from 17.0% a decade earlier.

However, the data is classified under Singapore's CMIO framework (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others), with Africans grouped under the "Others" category. As a result, there is no separate breakdown for marriages involving African spouses.

In addition, researchers Jacqueline Nguyen and Gail M. Ferguson found that hip-hop has evolved into a global youth culture that transcends race and ethnicity.

For many young people, it serves as a form of belonging, creativity and self-expression, rather than an attempt to "be Black"

The global popularity of hip-hop has also spread African American slang, fashion and music far beyond the US, making them part of mainstream youth culture in many countries.