Podcast hosts and cultural analysts Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson passionately addressed a controversy on their “Nightcap” Instagram show, taking issue with a recent New York Times article that they claim attributed the popular fade haircut solely to NFL star Travis Kelce.
The storied newspaper published a story in late January headlined: “Barbers, in America and abroad, are being inundated with requests for ‘the Travis Kelce.’”
The concern raised by Sharpe and Ochocinco is that the fade haircut has been part of American culture since its inception in the 1940s and 1950s, pioneered by members of the U.S. military — a fact that is noted in the Times article. It has also been a prominent feature in Black barbershops since the mid-20th century.
In an episode uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, Feb. 3, Sharpe said, “Ocho, I’ve been getting a fade since 86.”
“Wait, he don’t have a fade, he got a buzz cut. Like when you go to the Army bro, how bro,” Ochocino added, as the “Club Shay Shay” host shook his head in disbelief.
“Right, they just changed it up, Unc,” Ochocino continued.
Then, speaking right to the publication, Sharpe says, “So, New York Times, so that’s how you start Black History? Giving Trav — and that’s my nephew — you gonna give him credit for the fade? We’ve been seeing the fade for years!”
The former football stars are not the only ones who took objection to the article, although it is unclear how many in that chorus of would-be media critics were aware of what the article says. One person zeroed in on what they characterized as the cultural ineptitude of an otherwise respected news source.
“The New York Times referring to a fade as “the Travis Kelce hairdo” right before black history month is NASTY, lol,” one person wrote.
the new york times referring to a fade as “the travis kelce hairdo” right before black history month is NASTY lol pic.twitter.com/PWKGXzZL4R
— mike taddow (@MikeTaddow) February 1, 2024
Another said the blame lies flatly on Black people for not protecting our sacred spaces and traditions.
“The movie ‘Get Out’ is happening right before our eyes. They are stealing our essence and don’t want us. Too many of yall giving out ‘passes to the cookout’ way too easily. Disdatbullsh—t,” the person commented on Instagram.
One person who jumped into the comments was the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, himself.
“These headlines are wild,” Kelce wrote. “The fade has been around long before my life even began.”
The New York Times’ assessment was also on sports analyst Jemele Hill’s radar. She took to her X account to claim the 173-year-old newspaper is incompetent to report on culture.
“The NYT thinks that Travis Kelce invented the fade [OMG palm over face emoji] When you have zero cultural competency on your staff, this is how you end up with stories like this, and explaining swag surfin,’ which is at least 15 or years old,” she tweeted.
The NYT thinks that Travis Kelce invented the fade 🤦🏾♀️ When you have zero cultural competency on your staff, this is how you end up with stories like this, and explaining swag surfin,’ which is at least 15 or years old. pic.twitter.com/EgqZ1vJmBN
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) February 2, 2024
NYT and other mainstream media platforms were swift to give the “Shake It Off” singer the credit for making the “Swag Surfin,” a national dance craze — despite it being a staple at HBCU events for years.
So popular is the song that an Atlanta pastor used it during his New Year’s Eve sermon. Despite facing significant backlash for this decision, the preacher remained steadfast, asserting that the song resonated with the experiences of the members of his congregation.
Rapper Mook Man from Fast Life Yungstaz, the group that put out the song, said the streams of the song have grown 700 percent recently.
“My initial reaction to Taylor Swift Swag Surfin’ was I thought it was dope,” said Mook to TMZ. “I automatically knew it was gon’ be a good look just because of who she is, what she got going on.”
“Our streams across all platforms is up 700 percent, our YouTube numbers done went up, we done gained 20,000 subscribers in like two weeks, man,” he added. “So everything is up. It’s just been a dope thing to watch everything unfold so quickly like that. We saw a jump when other viral moments happened, but this is probably the biggest jump in the viral moments. Shoutout to those Swifties.”
“She gotta rap on that thing, man. Nah, that’d be dope. And then look, she could bring us out at the concerts too, man, on tour. So it’s dope, bruh. Taylor can do whatever she wanna do, man,” Mook continued.
