Kid Rock has newly posted the below video on his social media, seeking to dispel claims that he lip synced his much-derided performance of “Bawidaba” at this past weekend’s ‘The All-American Halftime Show‘. That divisive performance was part of some politically-motivated counterprogramming put together by Turning Point USA. It aired against the official Superbowl LX halftime performance staged by Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny.
Streamed across the internet and broadcast across a number of other outlets, the opening performance of Rock‘s late 90s hit “Batwitdaba” via that special was mercilessly roasted across social media for alleged lip syncing. In an interview on Fox News yesterday, February 09th, Rock denied he lip synced the performance, insisting that the maligned footage was the result of an audio syncing issue experienced by the production crew.
He also vowed to fly his DJ out to his home last night and shoot a new video arguing his case. The below clip is that video. Rock said in a caption alongside it:
“My halftime performance was pre recorded but performed live. No lipsycing like the haters and fake news are trying to report. When they synced the cameras to my performance on Bawitdaba, it did not line up as I explain in this video.”
In that video, he and his DJ Paradime performed an acapella version of the track in question, showcasing the old school vocal tradeoffs they employ together live. Rock also went on to explain [transcribed by theprp.com]:
What’s up, people?
We’re here to address the fake news media and all the trolls that are piling on trying to say I was lip syncing on the Turning Point USA halftime to “Bawitdaba“. First I got to say thank you to my DJ Paradime, We call him Freddie, who flew down from Detroit this evening, this Monday night. [He] flew down from Detroit this evening, just so we can make this video for you. And we get to hang out, drink a couple beers.
So the Turning Point on “Bawitdaba“, you know that song is chaos. And the first thing is — if I was ever going to lip sync — which I wouldn’t — that would be the last song I would ever have to bring in the fold to do it too. We performed this song every night on tour since 1998, since the day it was released. So the Turning Point event. So, they sent me a first cut, you know, we taped it, then they sent me a first cut, and my comment was, ‘the sync is off.’ They were trying to line up.
First off, if we would have done it, if we would have recorded it, and then played like we were singing it, lip synced it, it would have been pie, it would have been pie to line up. It was very difficult for them, because somebody clearly wasn’t super familiar with the song. Also, when I asked ’em, I go, ‘You know, Freddie wraps that song with me, my DJ’, and they’re like, ‘He does what?’ I’m like, ‘Oh no.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, do we have any cutaways of Freddie? And no, they didn’t. He wasn’t lit up. He didn’t have any TV time, sorry dog.
So they don’t have that footage. Now, it’s extremely difficult for them to line up the sync. It could have been done if we had more time. I’m confident they could have got it right. I only got to see one edit. And I didn’t think it was the end of the world. I saw what it was doing, the mics coming down. The sync was off.
Because when we’re rapping it, that song takes so much energy. You’ve seen me. People see me, I’m flipping mics, I’m jumping around like a like a rabid monkey on stage — still trying to at 55-years-old. And so me and Freddie are like this [the pair then proceeded to run through the song acapella, trading off the words.]
So he’s filling in those words for me so I can [breathe and ] bang my head, keep going and carrying on. Now, when I’m doing that. You see me, I’m all over the stage. Oh, I’m flipping the mic. I’m down here. I’m over here, back. Boom. I know these guys had a difficult time getting that sync together.
So I have nothing but good things to say, not only about Turning Point, the production team that they worked with on this and other events, they’ve done top notch, first class all the way. Nobody’s perfect and gets it right every time, but for the haters and the trolls out there [flips the bird], that’s exactly what happened.
And by the way, most of you know this. If you have any inclination, some of you, they are in the entertainment world, you can look at that and be like, ‘Oh, the sync’s off.’ But no they had to, like, lie and say, ‘Oh, he was lip syncing.’ And then the problem is people amplify this all over the internet. And I know most people don’t even care, but there’s certain people that just keep repeating it so people think it’s a fact. And this goes on on both sides.
They did it to Bad Bunny, in his defense, when they were saying, ‘He said you have four months to learn Spanish’, he was on ‘Saturday Night Live‘. I think he was joking, but they do it far too often, especially in the fake news media. The left wingers, crazy libtards.
So if you want to come see us perform live, if you really want to see it live, our ‘Freedomn 250 Tour‘ goes on sale this Friday. Tickets available through Ticketmaster, believe it or not. I’ve worked something out pretty good with them. I’ll be explaining that in the following days to come, tomorrow or the next day, because, like I said, tickets are on sale Friday.
What else? And then, oh, that people are asking, it’s called the Freedom 250 Tour: The Road To Nashville. And everyone’s wondering what’s the road to Nashville? Another video will be coming next week or something to explain exactly what that is, certainly coming weeks, we’ll see. But that’s deal no lip syncing here, no Tutti Frutti. Freedom 250 Tour on sale this Friday. God bless you all.”
Dates for Kid Rock‘s ‘Freedom 250 Tour‘ were announced last week. Rock‘s revelation of working with Ticketmaster for this new run is a surprising turn of events, given his his role in the FTC’s ongoing lawsuit against Live Nation & Ticketmaster over price gouging and scalping. Late last month, Kid Rock testified against the current practices being employed by ticket companies in inflating prices in front the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee over the matter.
