Sure, there were a neglectable few within Hip Hop who supported Donald Trump. However, a large majority of the culture gave a middle finger to a figure many saw as racists, misogynists and flat out evil. From actually calling out Trump on record to overwhelmingly supporting his opposition, a clear choice had been made. In a last plea for votes, Hillary Clinton even threw a free grandiose concert featuring Jay Z.
But, was it enough?
As America waits for Trump to officially take his place in The Oval Office, Hip Hop could take some adjustments in the political realm. For this edition of Stray Shots, HipHopDX Senior Features Writer Ural Garrett and Contributor Marcel Williams discuss exactly where the culture succeeded, dropped the ball and what can be done in future elections.
Is A Change In Approach Necessary For Hip Hop’s Political Aspirations?
Ural Garrett: Being completely honest here, classism is the root of Hillary’s defeat at the hands of Trump. Hip Hop’s support for Hillary Clinton proved exactly that. Earlier this year, I detailed how the Democratic primaries reflected a serious ideological divide that eventually worked in favor of Trump. Bernie Sander’s grassroots support by the likes of Lil B and Killer Mike matched the anti-establishment theme of this election. Anyone familiar with the mentioned rappers totally understood how much they thrive outside of pop culture.
On several occasions, Killer Mike predicted exactly what would happen if Clinton became the nominee and was shunned for it despite being the most articulate. Plus, it’s hard to argue against the credibility of someone whose political activism stretches beyond the U.S. presidency. If he checked out during this election, who am I to judge? At least folks like Chance The Rapper got people voting.
Clinton attempted to align herself with mainstream pop’s view of Hip Hop and face planted. Using Pusha T to gain votes or providing free Jay Z performances didn’t attract new voters. Going on The Breakfast Club and proclaiming her love of “hot sauce” didn’t attract new voters. “Dabbing” on Ellen didn’t attract new voters. Doing the Mannequin Challenge didn’t attract new voters. Why? Because those represented the populous establishment of Hip Hop.
President Obama used Hip Hop successfully for one reason. He openly admitted to being an honest fan of the culture and always organically found ways to make that known. Clinton’s pandering was inauthentic and didn’t work toward expanding the voter base not one bit. Didn’t help that rappers like Jay Z, Pusha T, Migos, Rae Sremmurd illustrated elitism the former First Lady surrounded herself with.
Clearly, there are many examples of rappers sending lyrical shots toward Trump going back as far as last year. YG and Nipsey Hussle’s “FDT” damn near became Hip Hop’s theme song for the election. Too bad nothing really came from it outside of just being a dope track. YG giving out red tinted bagels had to be the most bizarre display of activism I’ve seen in my life. There’s also an irony in someone using gang symbolism to support a woman who once called his kind “super predators.” Not to mention a husband whose legislation probably gave life terms to a bunch of his homies. For a large portion of rappers, hating Donald Trump was an exercise in marketing.
And, that’s the problem with how the Hip Hop community handled politics this time around.
Being a part of the political process stretches beyond getting worked up every eight years. Local and state government is just as important as the fight for The White House. This morning, I watched Rhymefest make a bold statement on CNN saying Trump’s presidency is the best thing to happen to America. Not because it would “Make America Great Again,” but would encourage more involvement in the political process. He went so far as to encourage more blacks to join the Republican party in order to create competition for minority votes. Of course, this comes from the same guy who once attempted to run for alderman of Chicago. This type of thinking creates real sustainable change.
Marcel Williams To be honest, I think Hip Hop came together for Hillary in ways that we didn’t come together for Barack. In 2008, we came together to make history. The first Black man elected to the highest office in the nation. While he was running up against a racial thinking John McCain, we didn’t need to band together so strongly to defeat an obvious evil. trump (I refuse to give him the respect of proper noun capitalization) is that obvious evil. John McCain ran on the issues. He ran on policy. The Orange Goblin ran on xenophobia, misogyny, hatred, bigotry, and racism. We’ve never once saw him outline a plan for anything in a debate. He never had a clear and concise answer for anything. He never wanted to be inclusive of Hip Hop or Blacks or any minority. He talked in circles. AND IT WORKED!
We saw rappers like YG and Nipsey not only make a song aptly titled “Fuck Donald Trump” but did what they could to galvanize their listeners and get them to the polls. Gucci Mane spoke at HBCUs about how important it was for them to vote this election and how he wishes he could vote.
Hillary pandered to Black folk with “Dinner With Pusha T” and free Jay Z & Beyonce concerts. She chose grandiose and nuance over action and movements. The DNC took Black people for granted. The DNC took Hispanics for granted. The DNC took Hip Hop for granted. We don’t owe Hillary or the DNC anymore than what we’ve given them. They owe us an apology and they really need to work at regaining our trust and support.
What needs to change from a Hip Hop perspective is LEARNING. We need to figure out how to best educate our youth on how government works. We need to end the apathy. We need to realize that the millennials of this country outnumber baby boomers in volume and we’ve pulled even with them voting aged bodies. There’s no reason we should continue to let them impose their antiquated will over us. This is our country. This is our future. It’s about time we start acting like it. You want weed legalized in your city, state, and federally? Get the fuck up, band together, and force legislation for it. WE HAVE THE NUMBERS! Want to see killer cops finally jailed for their crimes? Get the fuck up, band together, and force legislation for it. WE HAVE THE NUMBERS!
Every civil right we enjoy as minorities, we enjoy because of legislation. Our freedom was literally voted on. Our right to vote was literally voted on. Our right to go to school was literally voted on. Don’t tell me voting doesn’t work. We need to mobilize.
The celebrities go get bent after the blue dogs and black elite (ministers, political leaders, business, etc) of course. After all they had their hands on the scale to push Clinton as well in the primaries. Clinton hitched her wagon to Obama and thought it would be good enough to win.
Why would any black person support a woman that labelled black youths as ”super predators”??
A DISGRACE TO THEIR RACE! TRUMP IS HIP HOP! TRUMP IS A BALLER! BIGGIE WOULD HAVE VOTED TRUMP!!
I ɢᴏᴛ ʜᴏᴏᴋᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ʜᴀᴠɪɴɢ ᴀɴ ᴏɴʟɪɴᴇ ʙᴜsɪɴᴇss ᴀʟᴍᴏsᴛ ᴀ ᴅᴇᴄᴀᴅᴇ ᴀɢᴏ ᴡʜᴇɴ I ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴀɴ ᴏɴʟɪɴᴇ ᴄᴏᴜʀsᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴍʏ ғɪʀsᴛ…
————-——————-offerwork.tk
Hip-Hop fucktards and the hipocrytical BLM fascist bullshit helped get Trump elected. Thank Killer Mike and T.I..
I love RTJ but the funniest thing about this election was people acting like Killer Mike had any sort of influence or political clout. motherfukers just released a hipster-ironic cat meow album and here he is trying to be a diabetic MLK
To the editors –
yall the same bias-elite-overinfluencing-mofo’s as the ones you write about.
“Do your research, ask questions, question intent, and don’t get pooled into group thinking”.
Articles as one sided as this is exactly why the silent majority won…… keep crying DX staff lmfao! Up like Trump 2016!
Put your money where your mouth is. Write a well-reasoned, logically sound article about why Trump would be good for the hip hop culture. I’d love to read it.
Hip Hop is the future. Vote Kanye.
The fact hip hop supported Hilary who’s never had the communities best interest unless it was time to vote, just tells me one of two things:
1. They are uninformed
2. They are about as big of corporate sell outs as Hilary
I’m not a Trump guy, but to black community can not support Hilary the way we so unless we just don’t know about her corruptions.
I’m pretty sure Hip Hop supported Bernie, but when he lost the primaries, it went from Pro Bernie to Anti Trump. Hillary was the wrong choice all along and the DNC either failed to recognize that, or felt entitled to the millenial / black / latino vote.
Until democrats demand the DNC go a more progressive route like Sanders, nothing will change. 90% of the population (both dem/repub) want the money out of politics, so finding a candidate that will help remove the Super Pacs and Lobbyists is probably the best start.
democrats need a candidate that won’t take federal money away from under performing schools as that only hurts the students and their future.
They need someone who will ensure police have the proper training, instead of some 9 month course, so cops aren’t walking into a situation with the shoot first mentality.
They need someone who will decriminalize non violent offenders.
They need someone who isn’t from the establishment.
They need someone who won’t decrease the wealthiest Americans taxes by 6.9% while defunding social programs for the poorest of the poor (planned parenthood, snap program, etc.).
Until everyone in the DNC is fired and replaced with progressive politician in the Sanders mold, absolutely nothing will change.
lol “where we go politically?” for a group that talks about how “woke” they are you seem to be in the dark about a lot of things. here’s an idea where you should go, stop voting democrat and for the exact same policies that have tanked and betrayed the black community since the 50s. maybe after that, hispanics and everyone else can clue in to just how savagely the democrats have fucked over the middle and lower classes.