By Since kicking off his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s team has tried everything to appeal to Black voters. In February, Trump told a group of Black conservatives that his indictments endeared him to “the Black people.”
“A lot of people said that’s why the Black people liked me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” he said at the time.
When the former president was convicted of 34 felony charges for attempting to overturn the election, his team claimed that he was being railroaded by the country’s corrupt criminal justice system—not unlike a Black man.
And during his debate against President Biden, Trump tried to rally Black voters by accusing migrants of stealing “Black jobs,” whatever that means.
Now, the GOP presidential nominee is turning to rap and hip-hop artists to win over Black audiences, probably more than any other presidential candidate before him. Many of the genre’s stars are embracing him with open arms.
On Tuesday night, rapper Forgiato Blow, who went viral for a song about boycotting Target’s Pride collection, premiered the video for his track “Trump, Trump, Baby.”
The #RNC2024 is in full swing.
From the VP pick to right-wing celebrities, there’s no shortage of Republicans who are excited for a week of… Trump everything. pic.twitter.com/k3LRn1kCXD
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 16, 2024
The video featured most of the hallmarks of the far-right rapper: his giant chain with Trump’s head, a Cybertruck spraypainted with “Trump 2024,” and absolutely god-awful editing.
Forgiato Blow is a far cry from a star in mainstream hip-hop, but his co-star in the video, rapper, model, and alleged feminist Amber Rose, is a different story.
For those not in the know, back in the late 20o0s, Amber rose to fame for dating fellow rapper Kanye West—now Ye—who had his own right-wing rebrand in recent years. But in the 2010s, after she and West parted ways, Rose became a household name in digital feminist spaces for her outspoken progressive politics and activism. In 2015, she organized the first “Amber Rose Slutwalk,” an annual protest to empower women and the LGBTQ community. She frequently called out rape culture and society’s misogynistic double standards in interviews. She even called Trump a “fucking idiot” in 2016.
But her politics have recently, and bizarrely, shifted to the right. Three months ago, Rose posted a photo on Instagram with Trump and his wife, Melania, with the caption “Trump 2024.” Since then, many of her posts on the app have featured her decked out in the signature bright-red MAGA hat or contained a pithy caption dunking on President Biden.
On Monday, she gave a rousing speech at the Republican National Convention, exclaiming that Trump supporters were her people and where she belonged.
“I realized that Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay, or straight, it’s all love,” said Rose.
Rose is not the only rapper riding the Trump Train.
Last week, rapper and Internet troll Azealia Banks, who emerged as a Trump supporter in 2023, was spotted at the former president’s rally in Miami. “O Let’s Do It” artist Waka Flocka Flame reportedly told any Biden supporters in the crowd to “get out of my concert” during a show earlier this month.
Both Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, pardoned by Trump for federal weapons and firearms charges, respectively, have proclaimed their admiration for the real estate mogul. And SexxyRed, a St. Louis rapper who said in October 2023 that she supported Trump, has used Trump campaign imagery throughout her “Make America Sexy Again” tour, including a giant MAGA-style cap.
Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, was even rumored to be a surprise guest at the RNC, after sharing a truly terrifying edit of Trump’s head on the rapper’s body—a reference to a meme circulating after Trump’s assassination attempt. Jackson has said that Black men relate to Donald Trump because they “got RICO charges.”
As the election ramps up, Trump has been courting more of these performers—with help from a fellow fraudster. Earlier this year, Rolling Stone reported that Billy McFarland, who organized the infamously disastrous Fyre Festival, was connecting Trump’s campaign to rappers including Brooklyn’s Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow, who joined Trump onstage at a rally in the Bronx.
Are these stunts winning over Black voters? It’s hard to say. Many Black media figures and social media users have called out the former president and the artists who support him. MSNBC host Joy Reid has cautioned Black voters to do their own research in response to Rose’s RNC speech.
As November nears, even more hip-hop artists may pledge their allegiance to Trump—whether or not it makes a difference at the polls.
