Comedian Majah Hype has issued a verbal apology on a radio station in Guyana for his comments made in a podcast where he said “Guyana is not Caribbean,” “We show them love we accepted them but they’re not Caribbean,” which has incensed many Guyanese and persons across the Caribbean region.
During an interview this morning on Hits and James 94.1 Boom FM’s Jumpstart programme with Gordon Moseley and Renata Bailey, Majah Hype said:
“The reason why I woke up this morning is because I wanted to you know, extend my apology to anybody who was offended by it because believe it or not, there’s a lot of Guyanese people that messaged me… like hundreds of people that like… I didn’t see anything wrong… I don’t know why everybody’s upset and… You know I feel like even though those people aren’t upset I still have to you know, show my respect to the people who are.”
So, what exactly landed him in hot waters with Guyanese and other people from the Caribbean region? It stemmed from a conversation on the Talkthatshhhh podcast, a clip was shared of him responding to a question about one of Guyana’s dishes when it all went downhill.
Question: “curry chicken or chicken curry?”
Hype: “It’s definitely curry chicken…the only person that you’re going to hear saying that is Guyanese people…and they’re not Caribbean.”
He was then asked, why aren’t Guyanese people Caribbean?
“Because it’s in South America…”
…We show them love we accepted them but they’re not Caribbean.”
Majah Hype explained in the radio interview this morning that the podcast was done in early September, and the basis of the conversation was whether it was curry chicken or chicken curry. Majah Hype said to him it was a comedic conversation as he was trying to explain to the young man that the only people you would hear saying chicken curry is really Guyana. Majah Hype said out of that it just spiraled.
Majah Hype explained what he meant when he said ‘We accepted them’.
“Like I said it was a comedic conversation so for me that was the joke part of… you know… the debate. So, when I said we, I meant Caribbean versus South America. And that was just like I said… it was a joke, but I understood after seeing it myself and viewing it and stuff like that… I understood why it might have came off offensive.
I did apologise twice, but it seems like everyone who did not see it and they probably heard about the posts or heard about the clip … that did not see the apology… you know it was just basically an attack.”
The comedian said he tried to explain as best as he could what it was about but said everyone was cherry-picking at the comment.
As a result, Majah Hype said he believed it was now his responsibility to fix it and just apologise to those who were offended.
The comedian said because his apology did not come across to everyone, he decided it should be done on a platform where everybody could hear it at once. (Loop News)
