During this week’s episode of The Masked Singer on Fox, fans discovered that the person behind the Space Ranger costume was the legendary Flavor Flav.
Joining this season of the show was a dream come true for the former Public Enemy member, who said that checking off this item from his bucket list was a moment that could not be put into words.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, you know what I’m saying?” Flavor Flav told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in an exit interview. “I love entertaining. I love hyping up the crowd. I love bringing smiles to people’s faces. And not only that, but I love putting people in suspense. So being on The Masked Singer put me on the platform to be able to do all of those things and achieve all of those things, and boy did I have fun doing it.”
Revealing himself as Space Ranger during a special episode of The Masked Singer
Flavor Flav’s reveal was done during a special edition of the popular show where it paid homage to the iconic Ghostbusters film franchise, even opening the show up with iconic actor Ernie Hudson, who has been involved in each of the sequels since the original debuted in 1984.
That moment was unique for Flavor Flav, whose group Public Enemy was formed just two years prior in 1982.
“Let me tell you something, Ray Parker Jr. has become one of my good friends,” Flavor Flav said of the man behind the beloved “Ghostbusters” track that remains popular today. “Ghostbusters is definitely an iconic movie, and so by me performing ‘Cleanin’ Up the Town,’ I was kind of stoked to do that song. It was very challenging, something out of my ordinary.”
He added, “It was something that I just had to pull off, because there’s nothing in this world that Flav can’t do and Flav can’t pull off. I think I kind of did a good job at pulling it off.”
The challenge behind keeping his identity hidden
As someone with one of the most recognizable voices in the industry, Flavor Flav said it was quite the task to keep his identity hidden on the show.
“It was challenging to hide because the clues were so easy,” he said. “I have one of the most distinctive voices on the planet, and those clues were very easy, you know what I’m saying? The P.E. (housed in the corner of the screen during his performance) — take my voice, link it up to the P.E. Everybody knows [it] doesn’t mean physical education. It means Public Enemy. The hardware that I was wearing around my neck. … Come on, everybody knows that Flavor Flav wears hardware around his neck. Clocks … also, the clock belt that they had on the Space Ranger. And not only that, they showed the clock belt twice. Everybody could tell who that was behind the mask because there’s only one person in this world that really wears a clock every single day.”
What Flavor Flav wants his next big adventure to be
Now that he can officially mark being a guest on The Masked Singer off his bucket list, Flavor Flav has his eye set on the next mission — becoming one of the first musicians to visit outer space (very fitting for a Space Ranger, we must say).
“I want to fly to space and experience that,” he said. “I want to be one of the first rap music people, one of the first musicians or whatever, to get on a space shuttle and go into outer space!”
For now, though, the living legend is just grateful to still be here to receive his flowers from fans and fellow artists.
“Just being alive and being able to take a breath, that’s the thing that I’m most proud about,” Flavor Flav said. “There’s a lot of people that went to sleep last night …they didn’t wake up like we did today. I’m most proud that God gave me the opportunity to wake up today to have another day of life.”
The Masked Singer airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
