Kamala Harris Up Close in Hip-Hop — Andscape

In September 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage on the lawn of her Washington, D.C. residence to have fun 50 years of hip-hop. Guests included rap immortals and powerlifters like Slick Rick, MC Lyte, Doug E. Fresh, Fat Joe, Common and Lil Wayne. “Hip-hop is the ultimate American art form,” Harris told the group. “Hip-hop now shapes nearly every aspect of American popular culture and reflects the incredible diversity and ingenuity of the American people.”

Of course, the event now looks as if a lifetime ago. It happened before Joe Biden shocked the political landscape on July 21 by becoming the primary sitting president to drop out of the reelection race since President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 and endorsed Harris as the primary Black woman and first South Asian American to move the presidential ticket; before Harris introduced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and before she launched her campaign with the support of Beyoncé, whose anthem “Freedom” became official candidate theme song.

The message was very clear when Megan Thee Stallion and former Migos rapper Quavo appeared at sold-out rally in Atlanta for Harris in front of 10,000 ardent supporters, telling the group that Harris “stands for business.”

“You can’t understand the fight against gun violence unless you’re in the field or in the heart of it,” Quavo said. The rapper has been working with Harris since his nephew and bandmate Takeoff was killed in 2022. “One thing I’ve learned from working with Vice President Harris is that she’s always got her back. From inviting me to the White House last year to talk about these solutions, to passing some of the biggest gun safety laws today.”

The convergence of hip-hop and politics hasn’t been this apparent since Atlanta’s Jeezy and rhyme giant Nas declared,My president is black!” during candidate Barack Obama’s seismic 2008 presidential campaign. The historic election of the primary black president transcended political showmanship. It signaled the emergence of the primary hip-hop president.

Rapper Jay-Z He campaigned for Obama in 2012. and was a frequent guest on the White House with Beyoncé, who sang the national anthem during Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. They also supported presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her own historic 2016 campaign. As for Harris, she has the support of a strikingly diverse group of hip-hop artists and producers, including Love for special tasks, Lil Nas XLil Jon and Plies who he said Harris had “Trump, MAGA, Republicans and mainstream media so shocked.” And while rapper Cardi B has said she won’t vote in the upcoming election unless there may be a ceasefire in GazaFrom the start of the presidential campaign, she opposed misogynistic attacks on Harris.

“I’ve always known how people are when it comes to women, but disrespecting them?” Cardi B said of Harris in late July during a Spaces session on X. “Listen, if you don’t like her as a politician, that’s your business. But if you don’t respect her because she’s a woman? That’s very disgusting,” adding, “The way you disrespect her, that’s what makes me like her.”

As documented in the Andscape film The seeds of this unlikely political union date back to President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 Inaugural Ball, where legendary actor Jimmy Stewart introduced performance by the legendary New York City Breakers. Ironically, it was Reagan’s devastating policies against the black and Latino communities that accelerated the event of hip-hop as crucial musical and cultural art type of the last decade.

“Too $hort, Ice-T, Toddy Tee, Public Enemy,” executive producer and narrator Jeezy said. “Those are just a few rappers who are exposing what Reagan’s so-called war on drugs did to the places where hip-hop lived.”

For a lady who stands on the shoulders of Shirley Chisholm, the primary African-American woman and the primary woman to hunt a major-party nomination for president of the United States, that connection has sometimes been tenuous. On Aug. 14, rapper and criminal justice reform advocate Meek Mill questioned Harris’ record during her tenure as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011.

“I want to ask Kamala Harris questions about her past as DA, even if she had to be tough. All I hear about her is rumors,” the 37-year-old rapper said published on XFormerly generally known as Twitter. “I would ask her 3 questions about black and brown men going to prison and her views and try to help her understand from a survival perspective that she may never have had to face!”

A Facebook post that was shared greater than 200,000 times ahead of the November 3, 2020 election said: Harris Puts 1,500 Black Men Behind Bars on Marijuana Charges as District Attorney Dispels Charges. Harris actually oversaw 1,956 marijuana convictions. Only 45 people ended up in state prison.

While nobody can dispute Meek Mill’s sincerity — In 2017, he was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison for violating his probation on a firearm and drug-related misdemeanor dating back to when he was 19, and he was released on appeal before being pardoned in January 2023 — talk that has only emboldened some hip-hop artists to support former President Donald Trump.

Lil Pump, Waka Flocka Flame, Kanye West and Sheff G are only a number of of the rappers who’ve publicly endorsed the Republican nominee. Sexyy Redd faced criticism after telling podcast host Theo Von in October 2023 that some black people supported Trump “when he started bailing black people out of prison and giving people this free money.”

“We love Trump” Sexyy Redd said“We need him back in office. We need him back because, baby, those checks. Those stimulus checks. Trump, we miss you.” (For context, the Biden administration delivered $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans in 2021 through the coronavirus pandemic. Sexyy Redd also appeared to withdraw her support for Trump, saying: she didn’t support anyone.)

Ice Cube made headlines in 2020 after rejecting a call from Harris’ camp, and has since develop into a favourite of conservative pundits like political commentator Tucker Carlson and podcaster Joe Rogan. Fivio Foreign and Kodak Black recently released a surprise pro-Trump track, “ABOARD THE 47RD.”

“,” rapped Kodak Black, whose 46-month sentence for forging documents used to purchase a gun at a Miami gun shop was commuted by Trump in 2021.

Harris, nevertheless, shouldn’t be losing sleep. The Howard University graduate and Oakland, Calif., native, who can recite the lyrics to Sugar Hill Gang’s 1979 breakthrough “Rapper’s Delight” by heart and I used to be listening to a fellow Oakland MC Too $hortquickly becoming a milestone in hip-hop culture.

This week, the joyful spirit of hip-hop’s return was at home on the Democratic National Convention on the United Center in Chicago as Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination. Common performed his latest song, “Fortunate,” with Pete Rock on the second night of the convention, telling the group, “I thank God for this moment where Kamala Harris will change the world for the better with love, hope and grace.”

DJ Cassidy breathed latest life into the often solemn ceremony of Roll Call delegates for every U.S. state and territory, playing a spread of songs combining different genres featuring hip-hop gems from Jay-Z, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to House of Pain and Kendrick Lamar.

Grammy Award-winning industrial producer and creator Lil Jon represented Georgiareversing the “from the window to the walls” chant from his classic East Side Boyz and Ying Yang Twins song “Get Low” by shouting to the group, “VP Harrissss … Gov. Walzzzz!”

It was a reminder that Harris, 59, was still in college when Run-DMC’s 1986 album ushered in hip-hop’s golden age. After all, are you able to imagine Trump dancing to Q-Tip’s “Vivrant Thing”?

Maybe not, but it surely doesn’t get any more hip-hop than that.