Back in 2015, Tom Hanks' son, Chet Hanks, caused a media frenzy when videos and Instagram posts depicting his blatant use of the n-word surfaced. At the time, Chet was trying to launch his rap career and used the term in captions for two of his posts. One of the posts read, "2 types of people in this world: those who know exactly what it is they want and are doing everything they can to get it; and those who just wander aimlessly through life because they are scared to death of failure... F**k yall hating a** ni**az I’ll never stop chasing my dream." The other read "Check out the song me and my ni**a @chillthatdude just dropped on my Soundcloud."
Chet sparked a great deal of backlash from various communities, and one of the aspiring rappers' friends, rapper Scrilla King, publicly denounced his use of the term and announced the end of their friendship. “He wakes up thinking he can be black today and know what we go through. He doesn’t. I wake up black every day, he does not," he said.
In a recent appearance on Van Lathan’s The Red Pill Podcast, Chet took a moment to provide some insight into his use of the term. "I was on a lot of drugs... I wanted to be, like, down you know what I mean," he shared. "I just felt like I wasn't enough."
Catch Chet's explanation below.