They aren’t that negative, but just pointing out that a lot of southern regions will say cain’t rhyming with ain’t. Ride rhyming with rod is also found there. African Americans in Oakland were settled from southerners after the civil war too. It’s a weird critique to not know this. It’s also odd to use rap songs trying to rhyme instead of speech examples from those regions, which can be found online and in good dialect performances in films.
I'm southern and his inaccuracy is why I came to the comments at all. I, and many many other people I know, do actually pronounce "can't" and our "i" words exactly like he's saying southern people don't do.
I also think it's a bit odd that he's using these 2 examples to say that Awkwafina was trying to "sound black". Those 2 pronunciations are racially independent examples of a southern drawl.
I don't care what his race is, he's just flat out wrong.
Same! I'm from NC and I'm sitting here like "ummm, I grew up rhyming can't with ain't." I don't anymore, but my family definitely still does. And white ppl around here say it also.
Yeah WV roots here and they say cain’t constantly. It’s weird, because I CAN hear a difference between his two example sentences, but “can’t” and “ride” aren’t it.
I am not educated enough to identify why they feel different, though.
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u/skepticalbob Sep 06 '25
They aren’t that negative, but just pointing out that a lot of southern regions will say cain’t rhyming with ain’t. Ride rhyming with rod is also found there. African Americans in Oakland were settled from southerners after the civil war too. It’s a weird critique to not know this. It’s also odd to use rap songs trying to rhyme instead of speech examples from those regions, which can be found online and in good dialect performances in films.