GREENVILLE — Trying to understand the beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake?
“Saturday Night Live” teased Greenville to help explain it.
On its May 4 show, the popular late-night sketch comedy show released a skit, “Good Morning Greenville,” featuring pop star Dua Lipa, actress Heidi Gardner and actor Mikey Day.
“It’s time to wake up and stand up tall and tell your neighbor good morning y’all,” the theme song goes. “Good morning Greenville.”
The nearly six-minute spoof takes place on a fictional morning TV talk show in Greenville. It features references to South Carolina, fake Southern accents, a South Carolina-based weather screen and makes fun of White TV anchors trying to explain rap songs by Black artists.
After discussing cicadas and whether “soup is bad for you,” Gardner’s character, anchor Gail Johnson, and Day’s character, anchor Mason Monroe, address the controversy between two of rap’s biggest artists, who have traded multiple diss tracks since March.
“Now, every rapper is getting mixed into this beef like they were chopped onions and cayenne pepper,” Day’s character said. “I mean, you got Kanye, Two Pack, Shoop Dog, As Soon As Possible Rocky,” mispronouncing the names of 2Pac, Snoop Dogg and ASAP Rocky.
They ask for the perspective of a Black weatherman, Derick, played by Devon Walker, standing in front of a weather map where you can read Spartanburg and Laurens. Later in the video, you can see Anderson and Union.
“Please let me just do the weather and go home,” Walker’s character said.
The anchors next consult Wanda Weems, played by Dua Lipa, a so-called “culture critic” who teaches piano at a local grade school and said her most common rapper to teach is Elton John.
Wearing a blond wig and talking in front of a red-string conspiracy board, Dua Lipa’s character points out obvious details of the song and dissects slang used, which diverges into a discussion of the Crips gang.
Dua Lipa
The anchors later hold up paper puppets of Drake and Kendrick and pretend to speak as the rappers.
“You know what?” Gardner’s character portraying Kendrick said. “You’re right. Shame on me for doing those mean raps about you.”
“Well, bless your heart for saying that,” Day said as Drake. “Shame on me, too, I suppose.”
The bit ends when the anchors nearly use a racial slur, abruptly cut off by “technical difficulties.”
People with Greenville connections seemed split on social media over how to respond, with some calling it accurate, others calling it insulting and many questioning why in the world SNL chose Greenville.
Users commented on a WYFF Facebook post that it was “So funny!!!” and that the writers “pretty much nailed it.” A user on X wrote that it’s “pretty apparent your writers know zip about Greenville, SC.”
Greenville-area anchors took to X to respond as well.
“SNL did a parody of a morning show in @CityGreenville last night. ‘Good Morning Greenville.’ I would have reposted if it had been funny,” wrote WSPA anchor Fred Cunningham.
“Agreed...But they got the cities correct on the map,” Richard Edmund of Fox Carolina responded to Cunningham’s tweet.
The YouTube video has accumulated over 800,000 views.
It’s not the first time Greenville and SNL have intersected. Fred Armisen and Pete Davidson, both former SNL stars, visited Greenville recently. Armisen shot a music video in downtown Greenville, and Davidson has performed multiple times in the city.
