Maya Rudolph's mother, Minnie Riperton, was a popular singer in the 1970s who died of cancer at just 31 years old in 1979, per The New York Times. Rudolph has paid tribute to her mother on multiple occasions, including during a photoshoot for a subsequent "Saturday Night Live" hosting appearance where she recreated two of Riperton's album covers (via Today). Twitter users were quick to recognize the connection. "Obsessed with all of Maya's bumpers but the tribute to her Mom was GORG," one netizen tweeted in response to Rudolph's "SNL" getups.

Despite her clear resemblance to Riperton, Rudolph — who is both Ashkenazi Jewish and Black — described feeling less connected to her identity as a Black woman. "Because my mom died when I was so young, that identity was torn apart, in a way," Rudolph stated In a 2015 sit-down with The Guardian. "I grew up without a lot of female identity, and specifically Black female identity. Some of it was naturally there. Some of it I just sort of made up. And some of it was probably lost."

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