By
This post is the fourth in “MAGA and Masculinity in 2024,” an ongoing series examining the societal fallout from right-wing hypermasculinity — and the people fighting its toxic messaging by positively redefining what it means to be a man. You can read the first post here, the second here, and the third here.
There’s been a lot of reporting this election cycle about Donald Trump's campaign aligning with rappers in an effort to woo young Black men. I recently wrote about a pro-Trump rap concert scheduled for cities Trump has baselessly demonized.
As a Black man, I’ve found this outreach — and frankly, some of the news coverage framing rappers as Black community spokespeople — insulting of Black men’s intelligence. I don’t know what else to make of the presumption that Black men look to Lil Pump and Waka Flocka Flame — both Trump supporters — for political insight. (My personal love for “Grove St. Party” notwithstanding.)
Trump’s hip-hop alliances, and the fact he and his followers seem so thirsty to promote them, are revealing.
I also think some of this coverage has missed the mark by portraying hip-hop’s occasional ties to Trump as something bizarre or novel. Historically speaking, it’s not. And none of us should be surprised that a genre criticized for promoting the degradation of Black women and the violent destruction of Black men includes artists who support a candidate who seems to stand for these things. Trump has a history of demeaning Black women. He embraces policies and rhetoric known to subjugate Black people. In those ways, he embodies the same toxic masculinity, cruelty and crassness that many hip-hop artists — and the wealthy record companies behind them — advertise.
It’s notable that Trump, who’s been found liable for sexual abuse, touts rap endorsements from one artist who pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in a rape case, and another who faced backlash in 2020 over resurfaced tweets in which he said he wanted to drug one of his social media followers and “rape her a-- all night.” (Side note: Semafor noted that Trump’s support from Black sports figures includes multiple men who’ve committed sex crimes. I’m sensing a trend.). Trump has also welcomed endorsements from rappers currently facing violent crime charges — including conspiracy to commit murder — as he and his followers have sought to discredit the criminal charges against him and boost his bad boy image to Black men they think will enjoy it.
I’m skeptical of this election strategy. But I do think Trump’s hip-hop alliances, and the fact he and his followers seem so thirsty to promote them, are revealing. They signal to voters the type of Black men he supports, and the Black men he feels are inclined to support him: criminals, abusers and offenders of varying types. Men enamored by the same type of hypermasculine gangsterism he is, in all its violence and misogyny.
For hip-hop, I see the Trump associations as a crisis on par with the entertainment industry's longtime celebration of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is facing dozens of sexual assault accusations, including from some minors, and was federally indicted last month on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, among others. (Combs has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.)
Combs is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while he awaits trial. But the controversy surrounding him threatens to expose an industry that seems to have enabled or ignored his violent machismo for years. In both scenarios, we see a genre infatuated with toxic masculinity — artists and an industry that glamorize powerful men who show strength through conquest, domination and self-enrichment.