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Man breaks down 50 Cent's '21 Questions revealing 21 red flags

Have you ever actually listened to the lyrics of some of your favorite club hits? Not the songs you can recite by heart because they're constantly in your playlist rotation, but the ones you were dropping it like it was hot to in your early 20s before your knees started to sound like someone poured milk on Rice Krispies.

Yeah, those songs. The ones you know the chorus to but you only really heard them played in the club or on the radio weekend mix on your way to said club. Well someone decided they were going to have another listen to 50 Cent's "21 Questions" and it left him with a list of questions of his own. Andrew, who goes by Andrew the Hedgehog on social media surmised that the rappers song should've been named "21 Red Flags" given the question 50 was asking.

"Am I the only one who thinks that 50 Cent was being pretty unreasonable on '21 Questions?,'" Andrew starts to explain. "Like it starts off innocent enough, 'if I fell off tomorrow would you still love me? If I didn't smell so good would you still hug me?' You know, like cute valid questions about whether she just likes him for his fame and his nice cologne or she's really in it for the long haul."

50 cent laughing GIFGiphy

That's when Andrew notes that it starts taking a pretty drastic turn that has him questioning what exactly the famous rapper is trying to get his love interest to commit to. The line where 50 Cent asks if he got sentenced to a quarter century if his girlfriend would still stick around is where Andrew pauses for reflection.

"Like, I don't know 50 that's a pretty big ask. If you get convicted by a jury of your peers of a crime that carries a 25 year sentence, you must've done something pretty heinous. Like, the worst of the worst white collar crimes get like 10 years," Andrew surmises before adding that in order to receive such a long sentence someone would've had to commit a violent assault or possibly manslaughter.

50 Cent Smh GIFGiphy

Honestly, he's got a really good point. Now we all have questions, Mr. Cent, why exactly are you going to jail for a quarter of a century? That's a long time to ask someone to hold out hope for reunification without knowing the details. But Andrew wasn't done with his own set of questions for the hit-maker.

There's a line in the song where 50 Cent asks if he went from driving a Mercedes to a hoopty if the girl would still stay with him. Andrew raised some financial concerns that might constitute a reason for someone to leave over the vehicle downgrade.

"If you drove a Mercedes Benz and had to return to driving a hoopty, you didn't just fall off, you were extremely irresponsible with your money over a period of time. Which again, I think is a very valid deal breaker. Like, my wife doesn't even drive a hoopty. She makes a teacher's salary, she can still afford a Volkswagen Tiguan. I mean, like 50 Cent be more responsible with your finances, this is ridiculous," the man says.

Andrew's randomly concerned video about a song older than most Gen Zers has other people agreeing with his cautious analysis of the fictional relationship. One person demanded that Andrew make his own version of the song, writing "Now you need to make a remix, 21 reasonable questions."

50 Cent GIFGiphy

Another says, "This relationship sounds draining."

Someone thought it was a good idea to remind Andrew about 50 Cent's propensity to hold grudges, saying, "Sir 50 cent holds the craziest grudges and you felt confident enough to dissect his lyrics from the early 2000’s???"

One person writes, "I agree with you sir… 21 Red flags 🚩 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩Run ladies!"

"13 year old me sung that song at the top of my lungs to my crush. 34 year old me realizing that song is the epitome of toxic relationships. 😂" someone else shares and they just may have a point.

Who knows if the actual 50 Cent will ever see this logical adult breakdown of his early 2000s hit. But if he doesn't, Andrew has made us all take a step back to evaluate the song that's embedded into the soundtrack of the lives of Millennials and we're all better for it.

Funny on purpose or by default?

Imagine this: You're at Target when a guy in his early 30s awkwardly approaches and asks if he can "try to make you laugh with a physical comedy-type thing." He then proceeds to attempt to sneeze confetti, fumble his keys and, of course, fall down for no reason. He's open to notes. In fact, he always asks for them, and in this particular case, his extremely polite one-person audience suggests "lifting a box that's clearly too heavy?"


That's Dax Flame, and he has been creating content since he was a kid back in Dallas. The thing is, he's actually quite famous, having become one of the first YouTube stars to receive a million clicks. To say he was ahead of his time would be an understatement, as he slowly built a following by dressing up as an "angry Superman" and venting on camera, among other strange and hilarious videos. He'll stop at nothing to make people feel simultaneously happy and uncomfortable. It's so layered and mysterious that even a good portion of his longtime fans can't figure out if he's Andy Kaufman-level genius or just plain awkward.

@ttfeo

Dax Flame’s villian origin story. #daxflame #daxflameprojectx #daxflameedit #redrex #editaudio #villian #orginstory #evil #whereitallbegan #vsp #capcut #ttfeo #edits

If you Google Dax Flame, the suggested queries include: Is Dax Flame for real? Does Dax Flame have anxiety? Was Dax Flame in the movie 21 Jump Street? The answer to the latter is yes. But the other two questions remain unclear.

The truth is—it might just not matter. With 2.3 million followers on TikTok and over a million on Instagram, Dax's star continues to rise. He appeared in the films Project X, 21 Jump Street, and 22 Jump Street and often asks random people if they've seen those films. And yet, fans still wonder—is he in on the joke? Did he create the joke? Is there even a joke at all?

An entire documentary called Ice Cream Man was posted on YouTube, which explores Dax's enigmatic personality and his dreams of hosting an online game show about making smoothies. If he breaks character, it's tough to tell. One of the commenters shares, "Dax radiates charisma. It doesn't matter how you look at him; he is so genuine that you will feel drawn to him and appreciate his approach to things in life. His speech is very gentle, and he didn't put pressure on either of the contestants during the show. It was awesome."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Five years ago, the BBC did a story on him and wrote, "Dax Flame was huge on YouTube. But that was more than a decade ago. What happens as he tries to revive his career—and why does a mystery about his channel persist to this day?"

Now, a handful of years later, Dax IS reviving his career. Sort of. In the last year or so, he has started trying his hand at stand-up comedy by doing open-mics. Hard to tell if it's cringe on purpose or just a level of anti-comedy brilliance done with such an adorably deadpan delivery you'll feel gaslit. That said, he might just make you laugh harder than any working headliner today.



He also enjoys ordering pizzas and giving gifts to delivery drivers when they arrive.


That's why this week, when Will Smith appeared in one of his videos, his fans went wild. On what appears to be a basketball court, Dax asks Will, "If you check out my new song, I'll check out your new song." Will agrees, "That's a deal." And in keeping with Dax's brand of (in his words) "making people feel awesome," Dax then asks, "Do you feel good?" Will emphatically replies, "I feel great!"

One Instagram follower wrote, "It must have been such a honor for Will Smith to meet Dax Flame."

After watching these videos, we still might not have a clear answer as to "Is Dax Flame for real?" But many of us will feel awesome, either way.

Music

13-year-old's unique 'Bohemian Rhapsody' rendition was so impressive it even wowed Queen

Angelina Jordan's "America's Got Talent" audition earned her an instant Golden Buzzer.

Angelina Jordan blew everyone away with her version of 'Bohemian Rhapsody."

We've shared a lot of memorable "America's Got Talent" auditions over the years here at Upworthy, from physics-defying dance performances to jaw-dropping magic acts to heart-wrenching singer-songwriter stories. And after watching Angelina Jordan's "AGT: The Champions" audition, we've added it to the list because wow.

Jordan came to "AGT: The Champions" in 2020 as the winner of Norway's Got Talent, which she won in 2014 at the mere age of 7 with her impressive ability to seemingly channel Billie Holiday. For the 2020 audition, she sang Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," but a version that no one had ever heard before.

With just a guitar, a piano, and her Amy Winehouse-esque voice, Jordan brought the fan-favorite Queen anthem down to a smooth, melancholy ballad that's simply riveting to listen to—especially considering that Jordan was only 13 years old when she did this.

Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

What this video doesn't show is Heidi Klum hitting the Golden Buzzer faster than you can sing, "Nothing really matters to meeee." The judges were blown away by Jordan's performance, as were the people in the comments.

"That's a ONE in A BILLION voice right there. Just amazing," wrote one commenter.

"I am typically not a fan of songs being redone particular to such a magnitude," shared another. "They almost always fall short of the original. But to completely rearrange a song in the manner that she has, from a legend, and then make you forget about how the original even sounded because her rendition is so good is utterly amazing."

"As Freddie once said, 'Do whatever you want with my music as long as you don't make it boring.' I think he'd really like this," shared another.

Though Queen's beloved lead vocalist Freddie Mercury is no longer with us, the band did offer words of praise for Jordan's performance, retweeting her audition video with the comment, "Wow! What a rendition of #BohemianRhapsody."

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is such an iconic song, it's hard for anyone to do a cover of it justice. But 13-year-old Angelina Jordan managed it masterfully. In bare feet, no less, which she explained in a thank you video to Heidi Klum for the Golden Buzzer honor.

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"When I was around 6 years old, I see this little girl around my age," Jordan shared. "I gave my shoes to her because she had scars on her feet and it was really cold. So whenever I'm on the stage, I was reminded about all the children that don't have any parents, clothes, and shoes. She's always in my heart." Jordan has shared that she "made a promise many years ago to a beautiful soul" to not wear shoes on stage—a promise she has kept.

Jordan would move on to the Top 10 in "AGT: The Champions," and though she didn't take home the top prize, she did impress the audience with another classic rock tune, Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."

- YouTubeyoutu.be


Since her time on AGT, Angelina has been singing her heart out, covering other Queen songs and even performing the official FIFA anthem in 2023. You can follow her on YouTube and TikTok and find her singles (including "Bohemian Rhapsody") on Spotify.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

Pop Culture

Italian gibberish song from 1972 offers uncanny impression of the English language

If you've ever wondered what English sounds like to non-speakers, look no further.

Le Pietre Rotolanti/YouTube, @HarrietMould/Twitter
In 1972, an Italian singer wrote a hit song with English-sounding gibberish and it's so trippy

You've probably heard plenty of people doing impressions of other languages, speaking gibberish that sounds vaguely Chinese, French, or German. However problematic and offensive those impressions might sometimes be, it speaks to the fact that every language leans on certain sounds, cadences, and vocal inflections that help define it. Even if we can't speak or even understand those languages, we often inherently understand those key markings.

But have you ever wondered what it might sound like if someone were to speak in gibberish that sounded kind of like English? Even better, what if someone sang a whole song that sounded like a jazzy, upbeat American bop — without using any actual English words? If so, you're in luck!

Apparently, a song many of us have never heard of shot to the top of the charts in Italy in 1972 for the most intriguing reason. The song, written and performed by Adriano Celentano and is called "Prisencolinensinainciusol" which means...well, nothing. It's gibberish. In fact, the entire song is nonsense lyrics made to sound like English, and oddly, it does.


mary poppins, silly songs, music, musicals, songs, gibberish, funnyPrisencolinensinainciusol is the new SupercalifragilisticexpialidociousGiphy

Occasionally, you can hear what sounds like a real word or phrase here and there—"eyes" and "color balls died" and "alright" a few times, for example—but it mostly just sounds like English without actually being English. It's like an auditory illusion and it does some super trippy things to your brain to listen to it.

Here, Celentano performs the song in all of its glory, in a bizarre but passionate display. You just have to watch and listen to fully appreciate the artistry on display here:


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Wow, right? In a 2012 interview on NPR's All Things Considered, Celentano explained how the silly pop song came about.

"Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did," he told Guy Raz, through interpreter Sim Smiley.

"So at a certain point, because I like American slang—which, for a singer, is much easier to sing than Italian—I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate," he said. "And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn't mean anything."

In fact, Celentano didn't even write down any lyrics for the song at first, but just improvised the sounds. And people didn't appear to care. "Prisencolinensinainciusol" reached number one on the charts not only in Italy, but also in France, Germany, and Belgium.

adriana celentano, italian singer, singer, opera, rock and roll, funny musicA young Adriano Celentano singing on stageBy Collezione Biblioteca Comunale G.D. Romagnosi, Salsomaggiore Terme, Public Domain,

Celentano is known for a lot more than just his English gibberish. He's been an incredibly unique and innovative talent in the Italian music scene, credited with bringing new moves and flavors of dancing and also introducing rock and roll to Italy. He's also a renowned actor, having appeared in dozens of comedy films. If you watch the performance above, you'll see how his physical, goofball style could fit right into a slapstick movie.

He's also a serious musicians, quite often considered one of the most prolific and influential artists in Italian history.

Celentano's ability to sound like he's singing in English without actually saying anything in English is pretty impressive. Especially when you hear him sing in Italian, like this:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Adriano Celentano is still alive and well as of this writing, kicking around at the ripe age of 87. A fun fact to consider after watching his brilliant English gibberish: Celentano can not actually speak English! In a 2009 interview he admits to trying to learn the language but finding it extremely difficult (same, honestly). But his deep study did lead to his absolutely incredible mimicry of the sounds and cadences of English.

Languages are fun. And funky. And frustrating when you don't understand them. Celentano was purposefully making a point with "Prisencolinensinainciusol" to break down language barriers and inspire people to communicate more. Whether he succeeded in doing that or not, it sure is entertaining to see him try.

This article originally appeared five years ago.