It's been almost a year since I first wrote about Ronald Jenkees and his "unique mix of nerd, Kentucky hick, and spare bedroom hip-hop gangsta." At the time, I was not only mesmerized by Ronald's genius keyboard skills, but the unique YouTube personality that is "Ronald Jenkees."
But over the past 4 months or an undercurrent of controversy surrounding Jenkees has started to creep to the surface. It seems there are quite a few people who have a problem with Jenkees' persona on YouTube. In fact, some of them think that Ronald Jenkees is a blatantly fake character, that was created with the sole intention of gaming the YouTube crowd.
This has led to lively discussions in forums, Fresh Peel comments, and in the YouTube comments section.
Out of all comments I've read in regards to Jenkees, very few criticize his music. The point of confrontation seems to always stem from differing opinions of just how authentic Ronald Jenkees is.
I've found there to be three very different opinions on Ronald's authenticity:
- Ronald Jenkees is an outright fake.
- Ronald Jenkees is a talented musician that has created stage personality.
- Ronald Jenkees is totally authentic. All the hats, funny voice, and stupid sayings are 100% Jenkees.
This again begs the question, what is the true definition of authenticity?
Is there no place in the conversation age for characters, fictional stories and stage names? Must everything be presented with a disclaimer in order to truly be authentic?
If that's the case, transparency could make things pretty boring.
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What do you think?
