Rita Wilson raps now—and the judges actually guess some Masked Singer contestants correctly
TV Features Rita Wilson
Perhaps knowing that her rapper son, Chet Hanks, was never going to get the “White Boy Summer” he predicted—or at least that it will look very different than he imagined—Rita Wilson decided to show us that rapping is apparently a family affair as she “spit some flow” while guest judging on tonight’s episode of The Masked Singer.
The totally impromptu performance came while the actress and producer was critiquing The Chameleon (who is almost definitely Wiz Khalifah). “You know, you might have a competitor Chameleon,” she said while guest-judging alongside Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Robin Thicke, and Nicole Scherzinger. “You might not know this about me, but I can spit some flow.” Encouraged by McCarthy, Wilson proceeded to bust into a verse from “Hip Hop Hooray.” The clip was released on YouTube Wednesday ahead of the episode.
This actually isn’t the first time the Wilson has performed the Naughty By Nature song. The actress and producer actually collaborated with the group on a “remix” of the song last April as part of a MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. “‘Hip Hop Hooray’ is like modern day Shakespeare,” Wilson said at the release of the remix. “I originally learned the song for one of the most fun roles I ever played in the film Boy Genius. It took me a month to learn because it’s so complex and nuanced; it was like training for a marathon.” In a statement released by Naughty By Nature at the time, the group said they were “honored” to have Wilson recite their lyrics: “We were totally shocked she could rap the verses so well.”
Wilson’s flow also impressed Masked Singer judge Nick Cannon, who recently returned to the Fox reality singing competition after being replaced by Niecy Nash while he recovered from COVID-19. “Yo! That’s classic television right there,” said Cannon, who also started the show gushing about Wilson’s musical accolades: “She’s an accomplished singer, songwriter, actress, and producer with four albums under her belt. She’s performed all over the world on such iconic stages like the Grand Ole Opry to the Sydney Opera House. Her latest singles ‘I Wanna Kiss Bob Dylan’ and ‘Hello World’ are available now.”
But it wasn’t all about Wilson on Wednesday’s episode of The Masked Singer…
Details about the April 21 episode of The Masked Singer discussed below.
Ultimately Crab and Seashell were the two singers with the fewest judges and audience votes and eliminated. Ahead of their respective unmaskings, the full-time judges were reminded of their First Impression guesses and made their final guesses. Here’s how those played out:
Crab
Robin Thicke: “Cool from Cool n the Gang” / Ray Parker Jr.
Nicole Scherzinger: “A member of the Jackson 5” / Keith Sweat
Ken Jeong: Bobby Brown / Bobby Brown
Jenny McCarthy: Bobby Brown / Bobby Brown
Rita Wilson: N/A / Martin Lawrence
The actual celebrity: Bobby Brown
Seashell
Robin Thicke: “Cool from Cool n the Gang” / Ray Parker Jr.
Nicole Scherzinger: Hillary Duff / Tamera Mowery
Ken Jeong: Kristen Cheonweth / Sarah Silverman
Jenny McCarthy: Vanessa Hudgens / Vanessa Hudgens
Rita Wilson: N/A / Scout Willis
The actual celebrity: Tamera Mowery
When McCarthy and Jeong guess together, they succeed. The two also correctly guessed Caitlin Jenner as the Phoenix earlier this season.
34 Comments
Have you heard anyone in the Hanks family rap? Not Chet.
I guess Tom could do it because he can do anything.
Didnt he and Dan Akroyd rap the Dragnet theme?
Dragnet rules. As does the rap from the film.The pay off to the running joke about the virgin Connie Swail is brilliant.
Someone shared this in the comments on Nathan Rabin’s site and I am now convinced that Chet Haze’s whole… thing is the universe punishing Tom Hanks for the existence of this video.
What’s Aykroyd’s punishment?
I’m gonna go with… Exit to Eden.
Jim Belushi instead of John.
He’s Dan Akroyd.
Isn’t being Dan Aykroyd bad enough?
Being Aykroyd. And Caddyshack 2.
25 years of waiting for a Ghostbusters sequel.
Chet Haze’s whole… thing is the universe punishing Tom Hanks for the existence of this videoSeems plausible, but I really want the explanation for Chet Haze to be that Rita Wilson spits bars nonstop around the house and Chet’s just trying to be like Mommy.
OH, that’s what he’s done. I totally forgot about this. This is great Beastie Boys slash “I forgot” ‘homage’. Ha, ha. Tom could be an early Beastie.
That has to be one of the most 80’s video I’ve ever seen.
♩ ♬ “Hi, I’m Tom Hanks, and I’m here to say,that I am the best rapper in the world today.” ♩♪ ♫
“Shoulda won an Oscar for Castaway,Got a gold guy for Gump so that’s ok”
“Play a zippy guitar riff with your mouth!”
Thank you for not declaring it now White Woman Summer Rita Wilson.
I’m… not sure how I feel about this. But these women’s faces say everything I can’t articulate in words.
“It took me a month to learn because it’s so complex and nuanced; it was like training for a marathon.”Really? Because as a teenager I managed to learn all of Wu-Tang’s “Triumph” and Outkast’s “Bombs Over Baghdad” over a couple of days each, and I was extremely high at the time. I still have most of the lyrics banging around in my head, although its hard for me now to keep up with “BOB” unless I have someone to trade off verses with.And as always the more I hear about this show the more I hate its very existence. And do people really like Nick Cannon’s ignorant ass enough that he needed to be brought back? Especially if you had the delightful and effervescent Niecy Nash around to replace him?
To be fair (to be faaaiiiiaaaaah), extremely high is probably the optimal condition for learning Wu-Tang’s “Triumph.” U-God’s verse in particular is one of my favorite bits of extended nonsense from anything ever; I’m not sure there is any sequence of words in there that constitutes an actual sentence.
U-God’s verse does contain one of my favorite bits ever, though:“The fake false step make the blood stain the ground
A jungle junkie, vigilante tantrum
A death kiss catwalk, squeeze another anthem
Hold it for ransom, tranquilized with anaesthesias”Its on that borderline between evocative and non-sensical where lots of my favorite poems and rap lyrics fall.
Well, now I feel slightly less silly for having memorized all that Monty Python.
Oh don’t worry, I could also communicate entirely in Monty Python and Simpsons quotes at the time.
Well, you know, people have different skill sets, right?
Congrats on your teenaged brain having an easier time learning something than an adult’s?
It’s refreshing to occasionally think, “I want the last 40 seconds of my life back.” It’s a reminder to seize the day; gather your rosebuds while ye may; or motherfucking something.
The only Rap song that truly matters is “Rappin’ Rodney”.
I previously posted something in this space that was completely inaccurate.
Almost 30 years later and I still do the thing with my hands.
beat off?
The “hey, ho, hey, ho” thing. I’ve been doing the other for at least 31 years.
Man, Tom what have you done to encourage this bad rapping? Ha, ha.
Also, me being half white and half Asian and guilty of it, too, why do tons of white people sound the same while trying to rap? I mean exactly the same. Weird.