Hip-Hop has traditionally been called the CNN of the streets and a voice for the oppressed but if you are only checking the headlines about some of its stars, you might not believe that.
Recently, a slew of rap giants have publicly come out to show their support for Donald Trump and/or his administration. The artists, while claiming to not understand politics, have toted the belief that 45 is going to do right by people of color without evidence and that by voting for him their bank accounts will be protected. Some just think he is cool.
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But they actually don’t speak for all of the culture. No one does for that matter. There are some voices that counter the narrative that folk like Ice Cube, Lil Wayne, Lil Pump, and Polow da Don have floated. A few of them have banded together with a Spelhouse duo, Kirsten Magwood (P.O.P. Media) and Marc Bamuthi Joseph (The Kennedy Center) to reclaim the conversation of activism and awareness to the music that gave us Chuck D, KRS1, Nas, and Lauryn Hill.
WATCH: 45 Seconds To Expose Trump #45Lies2020
The campaign is called #45Lies2020 and its sole purpose is to expose the lies of the 45th president. The inspiration behind the movement was birthed after the first debate, where the POTUS seemed to have trouble telling the truth. So, Joseph and Magwood recruited some friends, Kamilah Forbes (The Apollo Theater) and Anthony Veneziale (Freestyle Love Supreme) to help expose Trump whenever he next tried to pass off fake news for facts.
A partial list of participants is as follows: Rappers Black Thought, Talib Kweli, Lady Luck, MuMu Fresh, and Mickey Factz; supermodel Naomi Campbell; members of the Hamilton Cast: Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, and Daniel J. Watts; Def Poetry Jam poets Mayda Del Valle, Lemon Andersen and Jessica Care Moore; actress Kerry Washington; BLM activist Alicia Garza; singer Syndee Winters; and Abiodun Oyewole from the Last Poets (the true Father of Conscious Rap).
“45 Lies is a movement to speak to the Hip-Hop generation in their language,” says Magwood, one of the Co-Creators of the Instagram campaign. “The goal is to bring truth to the sea of lies exacerbated by 45 and his administration”
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Joseph, her partner, continues. “The artists of 45 Lies represent the diversity and democracy that America advertises. We featured Muslims, Jews, Christians – artists who could have been our children or our parents. It’s been a joy to work in a project that reflects America in the full color of our aspirations.”
The Washington Post has documented over 22,000 lies that President Trump has told since entering into office. The campaign scrapes just the surface — and seeks to inform voters before they cast their ballot on November 3rd.
