If 2024 was the year of expelling culture vultures within hip hop in order to recenter Blackness and gatekeep the music, then rappers Snoop, Nelly, Rick Ross and Souljah Boy didn’t get the message. And the backlash against them has been pretty strong since their performances at President Donald’s Trump’s inauguration festivities.
The call outs continued through Grammy weekend. Merely mentioning Snoop’s name at the award ceremony triggered sounds of disapproval. Janelle Monáe even remixed “Hot in Herre,” Nelly’s biggest party anthem, to loudly diss him in a freestyle over the track at a Grammy afterparty: “F—ck you, Nelly!” she screamed into the mic. “I used to like Nelly but then he went to perform for Donald Trump.”
All of this happened while rapper Kendrick Lamar swept the Grammys with what’s arguably become the best diss track of all time. “Not Like Us,” his taunting victory lap in a longstanding beef with Drake, anchored 2024’s year of truth (yeah, the portal that comedian Katt Williams opened up). But instead rappers like Snoop and Ross are ignoring everything we’ve learned from that beef.
What stance will hip-hop take during a second Trump presidency hell-bent on rolling back the rights of Americans, stealing taxpayer money with unconstitutional cuts to vital services and promoting white supremacy?
It seems Snoop, Nelly and the other rappers’ appearances at the inaugural celebrations were reflective of hip hop’s capitalistic ideals: get as popular and rich as possible, and do this by whatever means necessary. But what does that say about the current state of hip hop?
Seeing the inauguration clips of Snoop Dogg, who once said that anyone who performed for Trump was a “jigaboo ass nigga,” was especially sad. Many have speculated that the reason for this was Trump’s 2021 pardon of Death ow Records co-founder Michael Harris, who spent 33 years in prison on drug charges.
When confronted online by fans and people who generally looked up to him, the elder hip-hop statesman dismissed everyone by claiming he has too much love in his heart to address the haters. It almost feels like a strategy from the Black celebrity deflection playbook, which the Black community is all too familiar with: act like everyone, including those who may have legit criticisms of you, is simply trying to drag you down, while simultaneously invoking God or acting holier than thou to make it seem like you will rise above them. As if that was not enough, Snoop also felt the need to remind everyone that he is still 100% Black at the end of the day. Anyone with two eyes can see that.
It’s sad when even Elon Musk jumps on his X social media platform to point out Snoop’s hypocrisy. I guess Harvey Dent was right when he told Bruce Wayne in 2008’s The Dark Knight film, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Video of Snoop Dogg from 2017.
To some extent, it’s unsurprising that Snoop is moving in this way. During the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, he shared the Canadian rapper’s AI-generated track “Taylor Made,” in which Drake uses the voice of the late Tupac Shakur — Snoop’s friend and former labelmate — to take shots at K.Dot, who hails from Compton. The younger West Coast representative felt a way about Snoop Dogg doing this and took a jab at him on his recent GMX album: “Snoop posted Taylor Made, I prayed it was the edibles //I couldn’t believe it, it was only right for me to let it go.” If Snoop couldn’t even remain loyal to his coast during the largest rap beef of the last decade, him doing a 180 to perform for Trump is perhaps less surprising. And he can’t blame this one on edibles.
Rick Ross, too. Given his recent beef with Drake, siding with Kendrick and Future after the 2024 “Like That” track with Metro Boomin, Ross cozying up to Trump directly contradicts his bars in the “Champagne Moments” diss where he criticizes Drake for not being true to his “white boy” roots.
“Like his moves, but he never had to fight in school
Always ran, another nigga had to write your grooves
Flow is copy-and-paste, Weezy gave you the juice
Another white boy at the park wanna hang with the crew,” Ross spits.
Nelly has said that performing for the president was the highest honor and tried to defend Trump with the argument that the president could grow and learn from his past mistakes. No wonder Janelle said f—ck Nelly. Soulja Boy, who emerged onto the scene with the undeniable 2007 hit “Crank It,” but was criticized by rap veterans like Ice-T for the simplicity of his music, was pretty honest about his decision to perform: he needed the money and said that former Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Joe Biden didn’t reach out to him. To be frank, with the long list of big-name celebrities like Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder and Jennifer Lopez endorsing and doing events for Harris’s presidential campaign, Souljah isn’t the first person you would call to galvanize voters.
Though Snoop Dogg, Nelly, Rick Ross and Soulja Boy hail from different cities and eras of hip hop, each one shows how hip hop was meant to be a voice for the voiceless and show different aspects of the Black experience. However, performing for a white man with a history of racism while the Black community is under attack, goes against the attempts by Kendrick and others to reclaim the music and stand against bigotry. Those four are literally chasing dollars and more celebrity with a crowd of people that would’ve called them the hard N-word back in the day.
In the 1980s, Trump said he didn’t want Black guys counting his money. He accused the Central Park 5 of being guilty even after their exoneration. He pushed for former President Barack Obama to release his birth certificate to prove he was born in the U.S. What are these four rappers thinking by entertaining him?
Hip hop, the music that once spoke against presidents like Ronald Reagan and other politicians who denigrated rap and supported anti-Black legislation and policies, is being compromised by goofies who seem to be OK with selling out the culture that Kendrick Lamar and many others are attempting to reclaim.
What happened to the solidarity of 2017 and everyone refusing to answer Trump’s call for performers? Back in the day, there was a lot of shame around being labeled a sellout and not taking a stand against racism. It’s hard to imagine a rapper in 2007 performing for Republicans; Kanye’s West famous words, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people,” underscores this. These days? Apparently nothing is off limits. Just look at Kanye and his 180-degree switch up to support Trump’s campaigns.
Many celebrities, Black activists and music fans were quick to come after singer Chrisette Michele for her performance during Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, but the actions of the four rappers at this year’s inauguration are almost as if Trump’s return is business as usual. And it’s anything but that.
In witnessing rappers’ support of Trump, including the likes of Waka Flocka Flame and Fivio Foreign, it seems Trump represents the aspirations of hip hop. Rappers want to have clout. They want the money and the fame. But is it worth it when many of your fans, homies and peers are looking at you sideways?
What these rappers seem to have forgotten, or are at least willing to overlook, is the fact that Agent Orange and his cronies are actively creating policies to tear down the Black community and using terms like “DEI” as a dog whistle to insult Black people and other oppressed groups.
There are rappers and musicians who are ready for change and are pushing back against the actions of the current administration. Judging by the record number of Grammys (five, to be exact) garnered for “Not Like Us,” even the music industry is siding with Kendrick. Singer Alicia Keys is using her platform to call for protecting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Pop artist Chappell Roan is calling for artists to be paid a liveable wage.
Hip hop, it’s your move. What are you gonna do?
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