
Critics are still puzzled at certain hip hop artists performing at the inauguration of the same president who paused the remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, and other cultural and historical annual events in federal workplaces. They shouldn’t be.
Diehard fans of rap music from the genre’s golden period hold dear the notion that hip hop is about resisting systems of oppression, not capitulation. We look back on hip hop’s golden era (the mid-‘80s to the mid-‘90s), when Afrocentric artists like Public Enemy, Paris, X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, the Coup and KRS-1 shared the spotlight with less politically charged acts like NWA, the Geto Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Digital Underground, Too $hort, Salt-N-Pepa, et al. The golden era was before big businesses discovered hip hop’s cultural cache and largely left it alone to flourish, leaving record labels like Sugarhill Records, Def Jam, Uptown and Luke Records to give their artists total creative freedom while label owners grew rich. This was when hip hop arguably had the most integrity. Rappers were expected to be what they rapped about. No self-respecting hip hop artist openly aspired to go pop.
None of these artists have professed any love for Black or poor people. Their music expresses their love for “getting money” by any means necessary.
But the truth is many of your favorite rappers sold out years ago. When platinum-selling rappers Nelly, Rick Ross, Kodak Black, Soulja Boy, and Snoop Dogg announced performances at Donald Trump’s inauguration, I was disappointed but not surprised. None of these artists have professed any love for Black or poor people. Their music expresses their love for “getting money” by any means necessary. If that means selling drugs in your neighborhood or pushing negative images that induce your kids to join a gang or indulge in drugs, so be it.
Soulja Boy emerged on the rap scene as one of the internet's first hip hop superstars. His debut single, “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” was an internet sensation, prompting a bidding war among recording labels. Interscope won the war and Soulja Boy became a teen sensation. Initially presented as a wholesome, clean rapper you could let your kids listen to, Soulja Boy later teamed up with 50 Cent and became more known for his antics outside the recording booth. He changed his name to Big Draco and now does harder edge music and videos depicting scantily clad women and weapons. Soulja Boy was unfazed by fans’ reaction to performing for Trump.
Then there's Nelly, another apolitical rapper who accepted Trump's invitation. Nelly claims he didn’t need the money but respects the Office of the President, regardless of who's in it. He rebuked fans over their boycott.
“I did not know you was riding with me because you thought I would ride with who you voted for. I didn’t know that,” said Nelly. “He’s the president. He won. This isn’t a campaign, this isn’t an RNC. I’m not out on a political campaign.”
Nelly wasn’t MAGA in 2017, however: "I just don’t like Donald Trump as my president. Dude is a trip. I’m more or less mad at him because I can’t stay at his hotel now. You done fucked that up. And I’ve been staying there for 15 years, and now you pull this. Get it together, homie.”
What happened between 2017 and 2025 to make the “Country Grammer” rapper change his mind is a mystery, but his lyrics make clear he was always about the money. What do you expect from lyrics like, “Let me in now, let me in now, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, let me in now.”
Rick Ross is another pre-inauguration ball performer whose presence makes sense, considering his music content. Ross’ musical themes mostly center on the illegal acquisition of wealth, like drug dealing. With him you get end-to-end theme songs for criminality. Rarely does his music express remorse over anti-social behavior, and he lacks the social commentary of rappers like Scarface, Trick Daddy and Plies. Ross also seems obsessed with bad guys like Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and drug dealers such as Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory of Black Mafia Family (BMF) and Ross’ own namesake, Freeway Ricky Ross.
Combine these two elements with banging hip hop beats, and you have an irresistible dose of aural poison capable of influencing legions of young, impressionable kids. It probably doesn’t matter to Ross that his “bad guy” persona flies in the face of his own college-educated former correctional officer background. Likewise, his performance for Trump’s inauguration contradicts what he once said about Black Trump supporters being delusional.
Members of the hip hop community are boycotting Ross for performing for Trump, with one angry fan taking to X and urging rap fans to let his music rot.
Kodak Black’s inaugural appearance, meanwhile, makes the most sense from a quid pro quo point of view. In 2021, Trump granted Black clemency from a four-year sentence, so it appears Black owed him a favor. Black, a Haitian American, should find it galling that Trump referred to Haiti and African countries as sh*thole countries in 2018. Trump singling out Haitians from getting special consideration for asylum and making baseless claims of Haitians eating pets during his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris should also bother the rapper. Any self-respecting Haitian should want nothing to do with Trump, much less perform for him. But the operative word here is “self-respecting.”
Last—but certainly not least—is the iconic Snoop Dogg, Trump’s most puzzling performer given his history. In 2017, the Long Beach rapper released a video addressing police brutality, depicting a policeman painted in clown-face, shooting a clown-faced, weed-smoking suburban driver with a water pistol. The scene echoed the tragic killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot in the torso by Cleveland Police while holding a toy gun. Another scene in Snoop’s video depicts a blonde clown president named “Ronald Klump” who Snoop shoots with a “BANG” flag pistol. The video concludes with Klump in chains.
Trump and the Secret Service didn’t appreciate Snoop Dogg’s video. The president’s former attorney, Michael Cohen called the video “totally disgraceful” and demanded an apology from the rapper. (Years later, Cohen would testify against Trump in a “hush money” trial that garnered Trump 34 felony convictions.)
The Secret Service even paid Snoop Dogg a visit to investigate the perceived threat. No formal charges were filed, but it was clear Snoop wasn’t a fan of Trump’s presidency, so his change of heart was a clear shock to fans.
Billboard Magazine claims Snoop’s attitude toward Trump changed after Trump pardoned former Death Row Records co-founder, Michael “Harry O” Harris, who was imprisoned for attempted murder and drug trafficking.
“That’s great work for the president and his team on the way out,” Snoop Dogg said in 2021. “They did some great work while they was (sic) in there and they did some great work on their way out. Let them know that I love what they did.”
Snoop remains defiant about the performance with no explanation or apologies: “Get your life right, stop worrying about mine. I’m cool. I’m together,” he said in an Instagram post. “Still a Black man. Still 100 percent Black. All out ’til you ball out or ’til you fall out.”
While many hip hop fans are upset with Kodak Black, Nelly, Soulja Boy, and Snoop Dogg for performing at Trump’s inaugural ball, the question remains if fans will stay true to their convictions and permanently cancel these artists … or will all be forgiven when they drop their next hit?
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Charlie R. Braxton is a poet, playwright, and cultural critic who writes about music and politics. He is the author of three volumes of verse, “Ascension from the Ashes” (Blackwood Press,1990), “Cinders Rekindled” (Jawara Press, 2012), and “Embers Among the Ashes: Poems In A Haiku Manner” (Jawara Press, 2018).
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