Floyd Mayweather knows a thing or two about performance. He?s also adept when it comes to defying expectations.
No one blinked when Lil Wayne accompanied Floyd on his ring walk. That made sense on several levels. But everyone blinked, at least at first, when teen heartthrob Justin Bieber did the same.
No one questions The Bieb?s success. The only question was his connection to Mayweather and vice-versa.
?When you?re the best,? explained Floyd, ?you only want to surround yourself with the best. He?s an exceptional artist. He?s the future.?
Rather than debate whether Justin Bieber is the Greatest of All Time or simply an All-Time Great, let?s shift gears to the next exceptional artist Floyd wants to spotlight.
It?s none other than Miley Cyrus. Those of you who weren?t recently adolescent girls may need an update. Cyrus was the quintessential girl-next-door who just transformed herself, in an attention grabbing coup, into the Roboslut du jour. Maximizing the MTV Music Video Awards platform, the former innocent acted guilty as charged, or at least as suspected, with an over-the-top performance that had tongues wagging.
?Cyrus?s twerk act gives minstrelsy a postmodern careerist spin,? wrote Vulture?s Jody Rosen. ?Cyrus is annexing working-class black ?ratchet? culture, the potent sexual symbolism of black female bodies, to the cause of her reinvention: her transformation from squeaky-clean Disney-pop poster girl to grown-up hipster-provocateur.?
That may be a mouthful, but it, like wagging tongues, is nothing the new and improved ?Hannah Montana? can?t handle.
Reinventing oneself is nothing new. Madonna has done it. Britney Spears has done it. Lady Gaga has done it. Even Tom Hauser has done it.
While some are dumping on Cyrus and her betrayal of feigned innocence, Floyd Mayweather, as usual, is going against the grain. He wants her to join him during his next ring walk.
?I was thinking about letting the twerk queen Miley Cyrus bring me out,? he told Billboard. ?Why not??
I?m waiting for Paulie Malignaggi to weigh in before answering that question.
