Public Enemy's Flavor Flav is not your average Taylor Swift fan. And he's not even a run-of-the-mill member of the Swiftie community. No, Flav has now self-knighted himself King Swiftie.
Flavor Flav and Chuck D of Public Enemy pointing out the obvious, October 2023.
Discussing a wide variety of Flavor Flav events, the radio hosts of New York City's Ebro in the Morning asked him this week how the Swift-ness all began.
Relating the request from his partner's children about wanting to attend Swift's Eras Tour show in Detroit, he was granted tickets and VIP passes. When he made his appearance at Ford's Field, Swift concertgoers recognized the rapper and began a friendship bracelet exchange en masse. As he recalled, "Next thing you know, I have friendship bracelets all up the arm, man. We were trading bracelets and everything! Her fanbase embraced me, and I embraced them back."
He lavished praise on Swift, comparing her to Mary J. Blige for having the ability to write songs that are relatable. He named 1989's "Bad Blood" as one of his favorite tracks, explaining "that’s [about] everybody's relationships, or everybody's families, or everybody's friendships, it's like, you know, 'I used to be good friends, now you did something to me, now we got bad blood, look what you've done!'"
The iconic rapper has spent the last few years rehabilitating his public performances from a flamboyant character who caused tensions within Public Enemy and numerous jail incarcerations for everything from drug addiction to domestic incidents to one of positivity. In nearly every high-profile social media post that shows Flav (and his legendary clock necklace), he is embracing, or as he says "I like to give warm hugs" to every person he meets.
And his King Swiftie position is warranted. Flav acknowledged her, wearing a T-shirt with lyrics from the song "Willow:" I come back stronger than a '90s trend" at the iHeart Radio Music Awards in March. He received a 1989-themed sweater to match his blue-tone, jewel-encrusted clock necklace and proceeded to wear it — a lot. He attended the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in December, wearing of course, his Swiftie sweater and handed out Swift-themed guitar picks to the reporters on the red carpet.
He has also taken on some riskier, showboat invites: singing the National Anthem at an NBA game and throwing out the first pitch at a Detroit Tigers game, both bucket list items.
