YouTube version

Last week, we broke the story that the Obama Fried Chicken in Brownsville was featured in Clipse’s new rap video on YouTube, but that the restaurant marquee was erased for the MTV version. Our scoop sparked cries of censorship on message boards and in fried chicken restaurants around the country. But it turns out that capitalism, not politics, was behind the move to erase the controversially-named restaurant‘s sign for MTV. In an exclusive interview with Brokelyn, “Popular Demand” director Rik Cordero says the decision was not made by him, the network, or the artists. So whose call was it?

“The decision was made by the owner of the restaurant,” said Cordero, “who wouldn’t sign our location agreement unless we paid him $3,000 cash. Therefore, the sign had to be edited out for network television.”

"Popular Demand" director Cordero.

Apparently, the version on YouTube, shown below, is not governed by such constraints. Cordero added that “there was really no hidden meaning” behind his choosing to film the video at a restaurant once protested by Al Sharpton for propagating racial stereotypes:

“Our treatment called for a location in front of a chicken spot on the intersection of Rutland and Rockaway, we had a choice of shooting in front of Crown Fried or Obama and the majority of the talent and crew on set voted for Obama. Now you can argue that Obama Fried Chicken had the chicken game on lock because it was way busier than Crown Fried that day, but that’s beside the point.”

The best part of this whole story? That in a hilarious reversal of typical business practices, the restaurant owner had the gall to demand three grand from someone who wanted to advertise his company on MTV. And the craziest thing: it totally worked!

“I can’t really knock the guy,” Cordero said, “because taking out the sign has now given Obama Fried Chicken even more free promotion than if we had left it in.”

The two videos, in case you missed them. First the YouTube version, followed by the MTV version with a blank marquee where “Obama Fried Chicken” should be.

But the video, which also features Cam’ron, is not shot at Popeye’s—the restaurant featured on screen seems to have no name at all. Somewhat oddly, the trio raps at length in front of a place with a blank yellow marquee. You have to watch the unsanitized version on YouTube to find out that the location is the infamous/beloved Obama Fried Chicken in Brownsville, Brooklyn, as the following before-and-after shots reveal.

YouTube version

MTV version

It is possible that MTV erased the Obama Fried Chicken sign for the same two reasons networks typically pixilate brand cameos: they 1) don’t want to run afoul of copyright laws or 2) don’t want to give free advertising.

Or is it there another reason behind the yellow-out? That MTV doesn’t want to deal with the fallout from blaring “Obama Fried Chicken” across American TV screens? You may remember the local controversy surrounding the place when it first opened in March. City Councilman Charles Barron, called the eatery’s name “outrageous” saying that it plays into “racist stereotyping of black people in America” and threatened protests. The owner, a Bangladeshi immigrant, defended the name as a tribute.

There’s also a decent chance that director Rik Cordero was intentionally trying to create a stir. Cordero, a Queens native, is also behind a number of contentious videos including last year’s “Be a N****r Too” video for Nas, which included lynching footage and other Civil War-era racist imagery. Following are the two videos, starting with the unscrubbed version, followed by MTV’s take.