Artwork by the phenomenal @lazybeamarte.

You know how they say, New Year, New Me? Well, guess what. It’s a new year, and I’m back to my same antics.

You would think that after spending an amazing holiday with my parents, I would feel renewed, refreshed, and restored. I wish that were the case. But unfortunately, my new year has already begun with stress, frustration, agitation, and everything in between. And you know who I have to thank for a lot of my problems these days? Our dumbass president. Our stupid, belligerent, obscene, repugnant, diabolical rapist of a president. So I decided to bring back my Trump’s Downfall post, six years later, because somehow we have found ourselves back to square one. Never mind all of the millions of people who died during the pandemic, or everyone who got teargassed during the protests. Honestly, who cares about how much we’ve embarrassed ourselves in front of foreign countries? And the rape allegations? Boys will be boys, and Trump will be Trump, am I right? We truly never learn. Lately, I have been surrounded by those around me who love to smile in my face and then post racist rants online, hiding in the shadows of American pride and a president who “speaks the truth.” So, I have decided to return the favor. You all believe you’re doing something right by stripping away rights, financial security, international law, and national benefits programs. Those freeloaders didn’t deserve them, right? These decisions will come back to haunt you, but in the meantime, those of us with common sense are the ones made to suffer. Trump doesn’t care about you. Keep feeding his ego, because when this ship goes down, you’re going down with us. Although I find myself struggling to hold on to the small bit of sanity I have left as my patience and willpower dwindle day by day, nothing feels quite as cathartic as reading musical lyrics degrading this orange fucker. Although he may not see the reality that a majority of the country hates every bone in his body, it sure feels good to bruise that disgusting ego a bit.

When I first thought of revisiting these posts, I expected to see a large influx of new music mentioning Trump after his second win. But to be frank, most of the music I didn’t include in the first post was made closer to the end of his first term and around the time he lost his second term. I’m now realizing it’s because we felt energized enough by his loss to see a future in which his behavior was condemned. When Donald Trump won his second presidential election, we saw a much scarier future, the one that we are living in today. While I understand that the pendulum swings, it’s hard to imagine just how extreme everything will have to become in order for the country to swing back and right itself. The things that we are seeing, the things that we are discovering. It’s terrifying. And how do we find hope after that? When we have first-hand seen how full of hate our neighbors, our classmates, our co-workers, our family members can all be, how do we find peace and unity? We experienced fear in ways we never imagined during his first term, as the world suffered together. But now, it’s our own people. Our own people taking jobs with ICE to rip families apart, our own people getting taken from their work and their schools despite their citizenship. With Trump’s first presidency, we could all collectively envision an end in sight. But now, I’m not so sure.

In the times of terror and dread, I’m so thankful for music. I’m thankful for the years of protest in the forms of lyrical melodies and fun beats and silly raps. I’m thankful for the coping mechanisms artists around the world have given us to foster a sense of solidarity when everyone feels so isolated, even though we’re no longer quarantined. I’m thankful for the words that embody all that I feel, all that makes me angry, when all I want to do is stay silent out of worry that I’ll let the enraged tears fall from my eyes, giving these assholes the satisfaction when I am so helpless already. The words from these songs lift one another up, and tear our president down, lyric by lyric, brick by brick. Music will be part of our salvation, and part of Trump’s death.

Read more: Trump’s Downfall Pt. 2 (Yes, He’s Somehow Still President)

It’s no surprise that Hip-Hop came to the forefront when speaking out against Donald Trump. Six years ago, I highlighted Nipsey’s “Fuck Donald Trump,” the National anti-Trump anthem that still gets blasted as a musical middle finger to our dictator. My personal favorite to analyze was Anderson .Paak’s “Six Summers,” a song that feels particularly relevant considering it has officially been six summers since my last post about this, and things have gotten significantly worse. But De La Soul’s “Remove 45” lays down the facts, the horrors, and the impact of how the country has changed drastically over the last ten-plus years, with Trump as the face of the Republican Party. Styles P kicks off the star-studded track by outlining the president’s racist beliefs with the lines, “feelin’ appalled while I’m watching CNN. The president’s a racist, when will it see an end? It’s difficult to take hate, think about it. Only a racist would race-bait. It’s you a Black man or you an immigrant that speaks Spanish, you ain’t in a safe space. You gotta worry about your life again, they tryna make America white again. Grab ‘em by the pussy and he don’t like Blacks, he don’t like Mexicans, he don’t like Arabs. But you don’t wanna hear it if you don’t like facts and less the alternative.” As ICE raids have been on the rise, Brown and Black people have been at risk. It doesn’t matter where we were born, Americans are getting detained, deported, and potentially trafficked. This was all under the guise of immigration policy, with national security being the primary concern. But what happens when our own domestic policies are the biggest threat to national security?

Maseo then joins in to give his two cents with his verse, “within the head of the governing body, we found a cyst. A narcissist who’s a racist, the flow of a modern government’s in a stasis. The cynic illusion, those who migrate now are called an intrusion, to this new agenda, so we stand, as defenders and protestors callin’ y’all a fascist.” When Trump first came into power, we didn’t think he would be capable of the damage he inflicted on the country. Our government is set up with checks and balances to prevent this sort of thing. But, he exposed our deeply rooted disease of racism, a disease we thought was only concentrated in certain areas or with certain types of people. We didn’t expect it to still be so prevalent. Furthermore, the checks and balances were completely thrown off kilter, as Maseo recognized as a “stasis.” We no longer have moderates or common sense to keep us grounded. Instead, we have a cabinet, a Supreme Court, a Congress, and a Senate packed with bigots, rapists, klansmen, and other villains ready to Make America Great Again.

Pharoahe Monch offers us his thoughts on the next verse when he raps, “a billionaire, reptilian in human skin, imposter. Allahu Akbar, this is for la raza. He’s sick mentally, not credible, inherently, so stupid, he thought Bitcoin was edible currency. Clown-ass president, more of a clown’s ass than Ronald McDonald’s rump, look, every person that voted for Donald is not a racist, but every racist who voted probably voted for Donald Trump.” Pharoahe Monch never strayed away from sharing his experience as a Black man with the world through his lyrics, and this was just a small snippet of the work he created to protest President Trump. While Trump was always disconnected from the common man, Monch’s line, referring to Trump as an imposter in human skin, rings particularly true these days, as we are first-hand witnessing a lack of humanity so unfathomable that it is difficult to believe these are human beings with actual feelings capable of making these decisions. My favorite line, however, is the last one, which directly references Trump’s followers. In the first election, there was a slight bit of grace for Trump supporters. We understood why people may have voted for something different, or why pieces of Trump’s policies could have resonated, despite his terribly unkind remarks. However, we reached a tipping point. Because while it is true that at some point, you didn’t have to be racist to vote for Donald Trump, you are absolutely racist if you still support him. Among many other things. Even just voting for him the second time around, when things went so poorly before, raises a million red flags. Pharoahe concludes his verse with his revolutionary cry, exclaiming, “I been waitin’ to say this, fuck you, you suck. It’s glue under the toupée, your father was Ku Klux. Kevlar body armor, we ready to suit up, and televise it, ‘cause I don’t give two fucks.” This perfectly foreshadowed his group th1rt3een’s collaboration with Cypress Hill on the track, “Fight,” which features molotov cocktails being thrown at Klansmen. And if we thought the people were ready for a revolution back in 2020, just remember, we’re only a year into this presidency, and American citizens are getting kidnapped and deported. The revolution is just getting started.

Who's reading about Trump's executive orders to ban refugees & immigrants, on an iPhone? A device created by a Syrian immigrant's son 🙋🏾‍♂️

— PHAROAHE MONCH (@pharoahemonch) January 29, 2017

Mysonne upholds the fifth verse by stating, “you gotta remove the president, it’s evident he’s negligent. He lacks intelligence needed to be the president. So as a resident and U.S. citizen, I say we vote, and I vote to get rid of him.” One of the biggest attacks on our democracy has been the lack of transparency during the election process. While Donald Trump may have won the election the first time, the second time was definitely questionable, revealing further fallacies to our so-called democracy and the corruption that’s behind it. We always knew it was a very flawed system, working to keep large groups of people unrepresented and unheard. But we are now seeing, more than ever, that we are steering away from democracy, and we need to right ourselves to get back on track. Mysonne continues to rap, “there’s never been a time I can remember when we had anyone in office this ignorant. Now we got evidence that he committed treason, we all want him gone, now we got a reason. How we gon’ believe in a county when the leader is a racist bigot, and a cheater.” Ironically enough, Trump’s committing treason has been at the bottom of the list of terrible crimes he has committed, and for some reason, his supporters couldn’t care less. They are so adamant about keeping villainous criminals out of their country that they will support the biggest example of one as their president to uphold justice. It’s like when you’re the mistress in a relationship and then wonder how in the world they could cheat on you. Our president has continued to reveal his true, evil colors, and his supporters will hopefully eventually learn that he couldn’t care less about them; this is about power, no matter who gets bulldozed down. Mysonne then concludes his verse by stating, “the land of the free and the home of the brave, and if Trump has his way, then we all gon’ be slaves. And the fact that he’s praised by some lets us know that America still has so far to go.” At this rate, I’m not even sure how many minorities will be left alive or in this country for him to enslave us, but it’s the last line that holds the most amount of truth.” It is unfathomable to me how many people can still support this. Immigration laws are one issue. I may be far-fetched for sympathizing when it comes to illegal immigration. But the cold-blooded murder, the ripping children away, the cruelty to innocent human beings. How is this still political and not at the point of a humanitarian crisis? What further destruction needs to happen? Racism and bigotry have been exposed during this presidency, yes. But it doesn’t end there. Trump’s presidency has displayed a whole group of people in our country who are okay with savage crimes against humanity in the forms of terrorism, murder, kidnapping, and so much more. That kind of damage is irreparable.

Chuck D and Posdnuous close up the song with the final two verses. In Chuck D’s verse, the rapper highlights Trump’s win by rapping, “ain’t got nothin’ to do with how many of y’all voted, cause these criminals broke it.” In both elections, Trump’s votes raised eyebrows. Not to mention that whenever the votes got close, his supporters wanted them to stop counting. Living in a swing state, we saw the impacts of this for hours. We saw his supporters threaten our democratic system with violence, weapons, and intimidation, and yet nothing was done about it. We watched as people camped out, ready to protest the electoral process with aggression. And yet, as I worked at my local polling center as an election judge, quietly wearing a simple sweatshirt with The Future is Female printed on the front, I had grown men angrily questioning who I was and what organization I worked for. As if wearing a sweatshirt that displayed my pride of being a woman would sway the election. Chuck D continues on to rap, “pay attention to how much money y’all was spendin’, nineties rap treated Trump like a Cash App.” There’s no doubt that Hip-Hop has a relationship with Donald Trump. Back in the day, he was the archetype: the millionaire with businesses, money, and women. We all know it was a facade, masking his failed businesses and nepotistic upbringing. But as most of Hip-Hop, as demonstrated by these songs, turned their back on Donald Trump as he turned his back on Black people, we saw sweeping endorsements from the very rappers that we grew up with. While there’s no doubt that there were financial motivations, it was the principle of the matter, making us wonder if a few thousand dollars in our Cash App could encourage us to denounce our morals and fight for equality. Chuck D concludes his verse with the sentiment that, “now we know, sixty-five percent of the United States is wack, if y’all let this dude come back.” And while he may have lost the 2020 election, that only got us a few years to make some progress, just for him to take it all back.

Posdnuous then starts his verse with, “we are the unknown cogs in the American Dream. But treated like nightmares, and on the podium standin’ right there, the voices who don’t speak for us, who won’t seek the truth.” My parents are a shining example of those unknown cogs, just like most minorities and immigrants. The United States was built on people like this, pouring their energy, time, and money into making it the way they were always promised, while also allocating those resources to American systems and the economy. They represent what America was always meant to be. And now we have this creature as our figurehead, spewing rhetoric in which most of us with any common sense don’t believe. Posdnuous then raps, “we did, let him tell it, he wasn’t elected, but anointed. Trying to set a record when it comes to appointed judges under his watch with no face that look like mine. And through my kid’s lifetime, there’s be laws etched in stone like grooves.” One of the scariest aspects of this presidency has been watching Donald Trump fill the Supreme Court with his puppets who have not one care for justice. Instead, they are all looking to serve their own agendas, taking away the power and the rights from the people who most need them. Once again, they don’t represent most of us. We all understand the long-term impact of these decisions, especially because once Donald Trump is dead and gone, we are forced to sit here with the repercussions.

Public Enemy took a similar approach in using their powerful and sophisticated words to expose our president, with Chuck D heading the song. In his verse, Chuck D raps, “whatever it takes, rid this dictator. POTUS my tail, ass debater/Like no other in this lifetime. White house killer, dead in lifelines. Vote this joke out, or die tryin’, unprecedented, demented, many president’d. Nazi Gestapo dictator defended/It’s not what you think, it’s what you follow, another four years gonna gut y’all hollow. Gutted out, dried up, broke and can’t borrow.” In Chuck D’s verse, he mostly highlights how we’ve never had a president quite like Trump before, and we shouldn’t now or ever again. Rather than representing democracy, Trump has led his presidency as a dictator, making a mockery of the United States government. He enabled domestic terrorists to storm the White House, has stood by as police brutality has occurred, and is now watching as ICE kidnaps and murders people of all ages and complexions. All of that is in addition to the absurd death toll that took place during the pandemic due to his inadequacy and ignorance. And now, as many of us are risking our freedom and our lives for justice, it is creating the precedent in the United States that all of this is okay, that white supremacy and murder and injustice are alright, so long as the other side is comprised of minorities and immigrants and those willing to stand up for them. As we have found ourselves in that next set of four years, our president has become even more comparable to Adolf Hitler, no longer just throwing up recognized hand gestures; he’s allowing the same discriminatory horrors to unravel as well.

He continues his thought process in the second verse with the lines, “orange hair, fear the comb-over. Here’s another scare, keep them hands in the air, better not breathe, you dare not dare. Don’t say nothing, don’t think nothing, Make America great again the middle just love it. When he wanna talk, walk y’all straight to them ovens. Human beings of color, yeah we be sufferin’.” In this verse, Chuck calls out Trump’s iconic hairstyle, one that has made him the subject of ridicule. But unfortunately, while we love to make fun of the clown that haunts the White House, he truly is something from a living nightmare, especially for people of color. During Trump’s first term, we had to fear police brutality, which was becoming more prominent. Following that, more violence would ensue as Trump would unleash the National Guard on those protesting those events, leading to more teargassing and forms of aggression. In this term, we are dealing with this and even more. Trump is finally taking care of those immigration policies he first mentioned in 2019, making those ovens from the Holocaust that Chuck D mentioned feel not quite as hyperbolic.

Looking back at it, Chuck D’s third and final verse feels like a cruel joke as he begins with the lines, “better rock that vote or vote for hell. Real generals now, not some USFL. Not a fuckin’ game, I dare not mention his name. Operation 45, yeah it’s the same thing. Sounds like Berlin burnin’, same thing, history’s a mystery if y’all ain’t learning. End this clown show, for real a state bozo, Nazi cult 45 Gestapo.” Unfortunately, we are living in the Hell that Chuck D foreshadowed. And we don’t even know if our votes meant anything anymore. This presidency does resemble Berlin burning and the Gestapo and the Partitian and so many other historic events that led to bloodshed and loss of life. At this rate, how many more people need to die until we say that’s enough? With Donald Trump as President, I fear how these years will be remembered in history books, because tragically, many in power will determine how history is written.

The older generation proved to be the angriest, with much to say, as Ice Cube was the next to release a track in honor of the President of the United States. In his song, “Arrest the President,” Cube spearheaded his verse with the impactful, “arrest the president, you got the evidence. That n**** is Russian intelligence. When it rains, it pours, did you know the new white was orange? Boy, you’re showing your horns. They’re tryin’ to replace my halo with thorns.” One recurring theme with the older group of rappers is that they love to mention that our president looks like a fucking cheese doodle, coated in bright orange from his hair to his feet. There’s a lot of wordplay surrounding color, with A Tribe Called Quest notably referring to him as Agent Orange. But the wordplay based on the show Orange Is the New Black is clever, especially given both his complexion and his track record. But when you’re white, Trump has proven that that doesn’t even matter. You can get away with crime, whether it’s child trafficking, terrorism, or anything in between! But, to Cube’s point, the irony lies with the vilifying of minorities and immigrants when half of these assholes racially profiling them should have been locked up years ago.

But the old heads of Hip-Hop weren’t the only ones to take their shots. The young poets of rap have painted their lyrics of protest with distinguished diction to call out the POS -oops- I mean, POTUS, on his antics and what his actions have done to the Black community. Obviosly, Nicki Minaj is not one of them. Instead, artists like Kendrick Lamar created literary masterpieces with beautiful allusions of the current state of the country, with “The Heart, Pt. 4,” being one of my favorite examples. In the song, he replaced his usual sophisticated cadence which a slightly more simplified scheme to get his point across, rapping, “Donald Trump is a chump, know how we feel, punk. Tell ‘em that God comin, and Russia need a replay button, y’all up to somethin’. Electorial votes look like memorial votes, but America’s truth ain’t ignorin’ the votes. It’s blasphemy, how many gon’ blast for me? I prophesied on my last song, you laughed at me. Oh when the shit get brackin’, don’t you ask for me. How many leaders gon’ tell you the truth after me? Kendrick’s verse started off like one of my rants, flooded with anger so much so that I sound like a child throwing a tantrum. But, truth be told, you can’t argue logic and reason with those who support him. You have to dumb it down for them. Similarly to Cube, Kendrick also called out Trump’s ties to Russia. Trump’s foreign alliances are terrifying, evil, and powerful. What’s also all of those things is how quickly he changes his pace and insults them, as if they don’t have access to things like nuclear weapons. We have been at the brink of war numerous times throughout this presidency, and yet, we have to adjust to the next bad thing that happens so fast that we honestly forget about it. And are we even equipped to worry about an international war when we are at the brink of a civil one? Kendrick’s next few lines can be interpreted in a few ways. When he refers to the electoral votes as memorial votes, he could be referring to all of the people who died under President Trump, as well as the lives we would inevitably lose (which is happening as we speak.) However, it could also refer to the death of the electoral college. America’s idea of a democracy has crumbled. We have witnessed foreign powers intervene with our electoral process, and any illusion of a democracy that once veiled the United States of America has decapitated, revealing the corruption that plagues our system. Like I mentioned, the pendulum will eventually swing back to right itself. But what will we lose in the meantime, and how much will future presidents now think they can get away with?

Wale grew up around my neighborhood, and if you saw where we lived, it would be no surprise why he took the approach he did with his verses in his song, “Smile.” Where we grew up, we didn’t envision a future like this for the United States. We grew up sheltered by liberalism, diversity, and progress. Today’s day and age feels reminiscent of a lot of people’s realities of their hometowns that they escaped, smothered by racist ideologies that they just accepted as all they knew. But that wasn’t the experience in Montgomery County, Maryland. At least not for me. But Wale shares a bit more about this sentiment from a slightly different perspective when he raps, “and a possible bigot slash misogynist is ‘bout to run the whole damn thing. And the ballot my sister filled in in another city didn’t do a goddamn thing.” I love that line because the first thing I did when I moved from Montgomery County to Philadelphia was change my voter registration. I understand the impact of my one vote in a swing state like Pennsylvania, even though it could be argued that our votes were thrown away anyway. But I would never let that belief win. I will never let anything prevent me from at least trying to make the change I want to see, and to avoid a hellscape quite like this one.

Later in Wale’s lyrics, he raps, “look at the world we inspired and look at the stars that we brung. They think that when that literal big wig starts that we done. They think because Hillary lost that the cards will be Trumped. You out you mind.” Number one, that literal big wig line is absolute genius. That is almost as hilarious as Trump’s horrible toupee. I digress. Wale mentions the Black influence on the United States, the very culture that a large portion of America exists on. So many of the racists out there profited from Black culture, or utilized it in some shape or form to mold their personality, or their music taste, or the way we dress. I know plenty of white men who are completely on board with everything that is happening, but who LOVE Hip-Hop. The same white guys who love this blog because they reminisce about the songs that formulated their childhood, but then argue with me when I stand up for the atrocities of what’s happening. In my opinion, one of us is encapsulating the essence of Hip-Hop. And it’s not supporting ICE raids and police brutality. It’s sure as hell not backing the blue. But they feel a sense of entitlement to it all; to Black culture, to Black humanity, to the rights of Black people. But just like Wale said, whether it was Hillary or Kamala or any other minority or women, the country will prove they are not ready to elect, we will continue to fight. And reclaim the things that are ours. Whether it’s rap music, exotic spices, flavorful dishes, or brightly colored clothing, these things do not belong to the very people who hate our existence, and we will make sure they know that.

Although of the generation of Ice Cube, but arguably one of the bigger influences on rappers like Kendrick and Wale, conscious rapper Common delivered a powerful message when he enlisted the help of Philadelphia-native Bilal on “Letter to the Free.” In his track, Common raps, “instead of ‘n****’, they use the word ‘criminal.’ Sweet land of liberty, incarcerated country. Shot me with your ray-gun, and now you want to Trump me. Prison is a business, America’s the company. Investing in injustice, fear and long suffering, we staring in the face of hate again. The same hate they say will make America great again. No consolation price for the dehumanized, for America to rise it’s a matter of Black Lives. And we gonna free them, so we can free us. America’s moment to come to Jesus.” In today’s day and age, we are seeing that no matter the facts, innocent people are being murdered. And yet, Trump supporters are able to discover the smallest detail to justify the killings. I saw them mourn the life of Charlie Kirk, a man who said that mass shootings that occur in schools are just sacrifices in order for us to have the right to bear arms, and then turn around and say Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good committed crimes. What were their crimes? Using their privilege to step to the forefront and defend the lives of their Brown and Black neighbors? The Brown and Black people are the front-facing criminals; we’re guilty until proven innocent just because of the way we look. It doesn’t matter if we have our papers, high-paying jobs, or a clean track record; they don’t need any of that to gun us down or detain us. White people are finally understanding, just a bit, that fear, that it doesn’t matter whether what you did legally crosses the line or not. People like ICE and the police have become the judge and the juror, and we’ve lost our rights. Common outlines the alternative to serious matters, including police brutality with our prison system, a privatized business, whether they are actually privately owned or not. Either way, the government and the private owners are able to profit off of each prisoner behind bars, reducing the desire for rehabilitation and instead creating a system that lands them back in there. Unfortunately, when revisiting this song a few years later, we didn’t account for all of the people who would be detained and kidnapped, potentially facing treatments far worse than the American prison system. It is always and forever remembering that Black Lives Matter. But now, we have additional consequences and outcomes. The police academy rejects had to go somewhere.

White rappers

If you’re into the underground Hip-Hop scene, then chances are you may know New York rapper Marlon Craft. In his song, “State of the Union,” Craft had quite a few angry words for our president. In his opening verse, Craft raps, “sniffin’ the party line, intoxicated from white. That fake superiority created by authority to convince the poorest he still one caste up. Cause at least you not Black, and if at least you not that, and if you see him got mad that the elite eat on backs of your labor, you’d point at your neighbor instead of up to keep you off track. They told you your sins weren’t sins but beneath the hatred is shame.” First things first, there is no way Trump is not a coke head. I will die on that hill. Even so, in Craft’s song, he views whiteness as a drug, one that is clouding all vision. When you look at Trump’s following, that’s what they want. They want white superiority over the melting pot that America was always promised to be. He then continues by demonstrating the hierarchy of these very people, at least in the eyes of racists. They believe that a poor white person is still above a Black person. That’s why, when we see all of the federal funding, like Medicaid, being cut, lower-class Trump supporters are the first to be impacted. But they would rather lose out on those programs than have to deal with minorities and homosexuals, because they still view themselves of a higher caliber. They also think that their labor jobs are far above those of immigrants who work in fields and factories, when in reality, the elite view them all the same. They are disposable, barely human beings working to keep the rich fed and wealthy. The poor white people who voted for Trump were given so much grace because they were struggling and wanted to see a different approach to managing the country, even if it meant throwing their Black and Brown neighbors to the wolves. Especially if it meant throwing them to the wolves. No matter how you word it, you were still able to overlook the treatment and discrimination of others, and that is even more prevalent now than ever.

Because this song was made between Trump’s first win and his second election race, Craft then raps, “truth is, if not for COVID, Trump would’ve won re-election in a landslide. So we evaded Armageddon, for good old store brand oppression.” The pandemic was a major reason why Trump won. But we are seeing now that Craft was not speaking in hyperbole when referring to a second Trump term as Armageddon, because that’s exactly what this feels like. Life now feels apocalyptic, especially in places like Minnesota, where innocent people are dying for no true cause besides keeping Black and Brown people out of the country. Craft continues on to say, “but if a leader more savvy, and less sociopathic, with true fascist aspirations come along, it’s gon’ be tragic. Seventy-four million proved if the right rhetoric is used, we could end up on the wrong side of World War II too.” While we all know our darling president to be quite the imbicile, it’s the people with whom he surrounds himself that are frightening. He won because he knew the right verbiage to win over his following, even though he knew nothing about politics. If JD Vance comes to power, an actual politician with these wretched beliefs, he will be able to accomplish far more than Trump, who at this point, blindly throws darts and waits to see which lands. Craft finishes up his verse by rapping, “to defeat white supremacy, you gotta first want to defeat white supremacy. I don’t think most of us really do. How many white mirror convos really bearin’ fruit? The only hope is that this moment in history, looks the same in both timelines of what the end could be. Whether this the infection risin’ up and we fight and quell, or if it scraps us and humanity just dies and fails. Our country saw progress because the overall consensus was that this was where it needed to go. When a large portion of the population realized, wait, that doesn’t have to be the case, they rallied together behind their figurehead, who spoke boldly and loudly enough to inspire them to do the same. They realized that maybe it was okay to say things like the N word or other racial slurs out loud than they thought. And at this point, all we can do is wait to see how much this furthers until a change is made. But until then, how much more hatred will be revealed?

Many white artists in Hip-Hop, such as Marlon Craft, Eminem, and the late Mac Miller, recognized their privilege to speak up about President Trump, and Macklemore did not shy away from seizing the microphone to do so. In his “Trump’s Over Freestyle,” Macklemore passionately rapped, “now, all you high-fiving MAGA white boys drinking White Claws, care about your taxes more than human rights, sign off. You no mask-wearing, big truck-driving, ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ talking shit about the riots, double standard once the white folks went and tried it. ‘They’re patriots,’ no, those are terrorists, Brian. And all you liberals out there being silent, while Black people dying at the hands of police violence.” It’s hilarious because we begged Trumpers to wear masks for months to save others, and now, all of the ICE agents mask up and refuse to show their faces. A lot of people equate what is happening now with the Holocaust and what people would do if they were faced with hiding people in their homes. While I am not going to remark on the comparison, I do think it’s a great way to reconcile with how you are standing up today. Many of us can’t be on the frontlines because of our skin tones. Because, no matter our citizenship or our religion, we will be considered the terrorists, while others may face lesser consequences, as we witnessed on January 6th. Their horrific acts were acquitted, while innocent people exercising their right to protest were tear-gassed and attacked. For some of us, as an act of preservation and safety for not only ourselves but also our loved ones, we have to hide in the shadows of blog posts and Instagram stories. Because if something happens to us, the sympathy will be worthless and one-sided.

The last two verses feel particularly shitty as Macklemore raps from the perspective of Trump losing his second term, four years before he would win again. He raps, “it’s like Trump is just a symptom that we ain’t free from, just old white supremacy that he would feed us. We celebrating, but to think a new era’s begun. Still half the country feels the same way that he does, so what the fuck are we gonna do now?” He continues on to rap, “we thought 2021 was gonna save us, we thought that we were gonna all love our neighbors. We thought COVID was over being contagious. Nope, America still armed, dumb, and dangerous.” COVID is a perfect analogy for Trump’s second term, because we’ve been through it once, and while it feels like a distant, cruel, fever dream, it hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s just continued to mutate and develop to feel even worse, with new symptoms, leaving us unsure of what to do or how to handle it. Some of us have finally reconciled with ourselves, facing the facts, while some of us are so far gone, too far in the quicksand of racism, conspiracy theories, and the unknown mass where they intersect. The four-year interregnum we had without Trump allowed us to live in a delusional bliss, where we could temporarily forget the millions of lives, jobs, and days lost. We knew there was a possibility, but we did not expect it to happen like this. Trump has done one thing more successfully than other presidents, and that is to stick to his promises. He is ridding the country of us Black and Brown people who plague his streets, and his devotees are following his every command, no matter how dangerous or reckless. We are unsure of what the future holds. For the next two years, and for the years beyond. But the worst thing we can do is to let them silence us. Band together with your neighbors and your community. Hold on to your safe spaces. I believe in the power of music, and I know that when artists overcome the grieving period, I’ll have enough new music to write a third part to this series, because our art and our work are the form of protest that will destroy egos and break down walls. Make them uncomfortable before they can get to you, because you belong here just as much, if not more.

It’s really scary to know that we are only halfway through this. We saw a different set of problems in 2016, problems that are still prevalent. But if Trump and the republicans know how to do one thing, it is to distract us with fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. But there is one thing I’m certain of: I’m not backing down. No matter what they throw our way, we won’t hide. We won’t set this as the new norm. This is not the America I was born in, or the America my parents came to. This is Trump’s America, and he won’t be here forever. We will take our country back with courage, logic, unity, and culture. And art. We will absolutely take our country back through our voices and our paintings and our fabrics. We cannot stop creating, no matter how many times are algorithims are fucked or our profiles get shadow-banned. We will keep going, and Trump’s downfall will be even sweeter the second time.

I’m extremely proud to announce that we will be continuing the fight at Cadence in the Clouds, taking place on February 24th from 7 PM to 11 PM. Tickets are on sale now, and each ticket supports a Brown or Black artist who has boldly used their art and platform to stand up to the atrocities occurring. From Palestinian rappers and food to Latina live painters to Black women engravers, we will have a variety of art forms from a range of talents. Additionally, every ticket purchased receives:

-One artist bio

-An engraved glass to take home from Maiden September

-A record (part of our crate-digging installation)

-Complimentary snacks from Al Salam Grill (our artist will be breaking his fast during our event. Come join for a very special Iftaar!)

-Pastries and sweets from Party Girl Bake Club

-A DJ set from DJ Bear One

-Live painting from Lazy Beam Arte

-A performance from A.Rob and Sahlii

And so much more!

We will additionally be auctioning off some very special pieces of art, and will be raffling:

-One studio session with mixing and mastering with DJ Bear One

-One photoshoot or music video shoot with Brandon Holiday

-One Spice on the Beat electronic press kit

Even if you are unable to attend the event, you can still purchase tickets to support these artists. This is not a celebrity-run We Are The Worldevent that is nationally televised. These are real Philadelphia artists putting their platforms and their safety on the line to advocate for a change. They deserve for their voices to be amplified, and we can do that with support, community, and resources. I created this event to remind the world of what America really is: a melting pot of cultures where people can speak their minds and live freely. A democracy that is anti-fascist and pro-justice. A country that encourages diversity and applauds fighting what’s wrong. This is not America. Help us take it back.

Purchase a ticket here.