Shia LaBeouf’s performance in the recently lauded film American Honey has been called the actor’s best work to date, but now we have the actor’s appearance on Sway in the Morning to draw into question whether it was a great piece of acting, or just Shia doing Shia.
After briefly discussing his Missy and Tupac tattoos, LaBeouf is informed that he’s “not in Hollywood”, to which he responds by assuming what can only be described as 8 Mile stance. And then, well, he spits. He really does.
Whether you get down on this or not will really depend on your tolerance for a) people rapping with too much harsh emphasis on syllables and b) whether you can in fact take him seriously or not. (Seriously, though, you really should. He’s doing some fascinating work these days.) And all of that said, actual rappers have taken on the “Five Fingers of Death” and done a lot worse than this. Like a great many freestyles, LaBeouf gets corny at points, but the general assurance and skill with which he delivers his verses suggest that yeah, most likely, he’s done this before.
We will probably spend the next few days eagerly awaiting a fire mixtape from the actor, but in the meantime let’s all take in Sway’s comments on LaBeouf, which feature a heartening message that, frankly, we could all use after such a hellish week: “This is what the show is about. There’s no divisiveness in this show. There’s no discrimination in this show. You either got bars, or you don’t.”
And today, as America stands in the face of an uncertain future, Shia LaBeouf has bars.
