[Opinion] The Backlash Against Nelly, Snoop Dogg, and Rick Ross for Turning Their Backs on Our Culture Is Warranted

Black entertainers performing at a divisive inauguration sparks backlash, with critics questioning their alignment with a morally questionable leader.
Opinion

I listen… and I do judge. 

Like many, I did not watch the latest inauguration of “he who shall not be named” as he once again steps into the White House.

When the announcement of Black entertainers who agreed to perform throughout the day-long “celebration” was made, I was shocked that anyone with a household name in the Black community would agree to align themselves with a man who has proven himself to lack a moral compass and any regard for the challenges our community continues to face. I was equally shocked by the Black men listed to appear.

Hip-hop heavyweights such as Nelly, Snoop Dogg, Soulja Boy, and Rick Ross all performed for a sea of faces, none of whom reflected the communities that they claim to stand for. Of course, at some point in my life, I learned that separating the entertainer as a person from their art would spare me from a flood of disappointments, especially in the age of social media.

“For the love of money” rings true in the transactional relationship between consumer and entertainment. However, when it comes to musical artists in the Black community—especially in the hip-hop genre—decisions such as performing for a group of people who many, myself included, describe as bigots, racists, and homophobes, the backlash isn’t unwarranted.

Although hip-hop has become one of the top mainstream music genres, generating billions of dollars, the fact remains the same: the subculture was birthed as a response to social and economic challenges faced by our community in the 1970s. Yes, more than 50 years have passed, but the truth is that the Black community still grapples with many of those same challenges.

Due to political discourse over the years, our progress has been slow in achieving equality in equity, jobs, education, and overall quality of life. And the man that over 70 million Americans voted to put back in office has no desire or plan to support that progress. Leaving our advancement up to him would push us further back from the small steps we’ve managed to make.

He has already signed executive orders to revoke decades-long diversity and affirmative action practices in the federal government, including one signed in 1965 by President Johnson, two years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have A Dream speech. This order gave the Secretary of Labor the authority to ensure equal opportunity for people of color and women in federal contractors’ recruitment, hiring, training, and other employment practices. It required federal contractors to refrain from employment discrimination and to take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity “based on race, color, religion, and national origin.”

The man who is back in the White House ended initiatives for Black educational and economic advancements just hours after he was sworn in.

When rappers like Nelly and Snoop Dogg have spent their careers putting their communities in the spotlight—Nelly showcasing the energy of St. Louis during his Country grammar era, and Snoop Dogg introducing the culture of Los Angeles with his 1983 Chevrolet Malibu Wagon bouncing while sippin’ gin and juice—it is not hard to understand why their decisions to perform for a man who has waged war on our voting rights and wants to eliminate the advancement of the culture they’ve helped to cultivate is, to say the least, jarring.

Soulja Boy said it himself during a recent social media rant: “Obama didn’t put money in my pocket… Kamala didn’t put money in my pocket,” the rapper shouted while holding a bundle of cash, claiming the man back in the White House “put money in his pocket.”

I get it—we are a nation founded on capitalism, and there’s no denying that. But not only did I watch the wave of hate that was exposed and created between 2016 and 2020, I listened. I listened to the rhetoric from that sea of faces Nelly and Rick Ross chose to perform in front of, faces that say we are not qualified to hold office or run businesses. I listened to the fear in marginalized people’s voices after threats and lies were spread about their humanity and lives by the MAGA cult.

Therefore, I am judging the decisions made by the Black men who built their careers on the culture they recently turned their backs on—for the sake of capitalism and a sense of belonging to a group that has no interest in the communities they’ve spotlighted through their music.

While the spin from these artists’ camp may claim they are trying to bring unity through music, sorry to break the news—Hot in Herre isn’t bringing this country together, as if we’re all racing back to the dance floor when it plays in the club.

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