America’s recent reckoning with the way racism has worked its way into all aspects of our lives (at least in cases where it was not baked in from the beginning) is long overdue, and now these difficult conversations have apparently taken its toll. reaches industry. As reported by Rolling stone, the ice cream company Good Humor has decided to retire its old ice cream truck jingle “Turkey In The Straw” due to the racist history of the song. As Rolling stone explains, the song initially gained popularity through blackface minstrel shows, and if that’s not enough of a justification to throw it in the dustbin of history, the Wikipedia page of the song has a special section for “racist versions.” (And that is them very racist.)
So with that song out, Good Humor did what any ice cream company would do in a similar situation: It called RZA and asked him to write a new one. The new melody mixes “traditional ice truck sounds with jazz and hip-hop elements”, and RZA explains that he wanted to write this new song so that it would be “good for every driver” and “every child”. Moreover, for what appears to be “the first time in a long time”, the vote of RZA will be made available to all ice cream trucks in the country “forever.” In other words, this could be theoretical de iis song ivich– and honestly, if you could get RZA to write your jingle, why would you never replace it?
Now we just have to see how the ice cream truck industry survives in a post-COVID society. Maybe they could add some kind of catapult that throws ice safely into people’s hands? Until that happens and it’s safe for ice freezers to re-roll our streets, you can hear RZA’s melody below (and below is a video he made about it).
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