The country’s strong political polarization also applies to the American rap scene.
Published on 04/11/2024 19:04
Reading time: 3min
<img alt="American rapper 2 Chainz performs during a Kamala Harris meeting in Atlanta (Georgia) on November 2, 2024. (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / AFP)” width=”432″ height=”243″ sizes=”100vw” src=”https://www.francetvinfo.fr/pictures/p8izgJsHD2aSKZgK4DTAS0xevgE/0x292:3841×2451/432×243/2024/11/04/atlanta-6728c18679ca5764359623.jpg” fetchpriority=”high”/>
American rapper 2 Chainz performs during a Kamala Harris meeting in Atlanta (Georgia) on November 2, 2024. (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / AFP)
On the eve of American election day, the parties are holding their last meetings and still garnering rallies, particularly from artists who show their support for one of the two candidates until the last moment. What about the hip-hop scene, the most listened to music in the United States? Elements of response with artists from Atlanta, Georgia, one of the centers of gravity of American hip-hop.
Rap Pretender wears a “Harris 2024” t-shirt. With his guitar, he sings a song against the right to bear arms in the United States, where he warns against voting for the Republican. “If Trump wins, he will use the Justice Department to arm everyone against the media, for example, or anyone who disagrees with himassures the rapper. Faced with such serious things, I am not a wealthy person, but I can act with my art and I do not believe that it is propaganda.”
Many hip-hop artists have committed to the Democratic side in connection with the defense of black Americans, but some have also chosen to support Donald Trump. “It creates a big divide in the art scene with artists who want you to think, to vote like them. So they sing it, they rap about it, they talk about it in interviews, but in truth the public has had enough “souligne a DJ reconnu d’Atlanta.
Media exchanges between artists are sometimes very violent, like the style of rap that made Atlanta famous: trap, where it is about gangs, drugs and calls for murder. An escalation which pushed the courts in 2022 to arrest Young Thug, an artist affiliated with a gang. By invoking the “Rico” law, the prosecutor has moved the political lines in the community, explains Romu, a Frenchman from Atlanta, a specialist in this music: “The ‘Rico’ law is that you can use things that were said in the context of music as a charge, ultimately. And there was a trial in Atlanta which meant ‘Soon Young Thug will be an example’he explains. So we’re going to say that it’s true that there is a certain movement of artists who want to move away from this state of mind of violence.”
Hence the expansion of Christian rap and the shift that rap is taking today in Atlanta and which is notably defended by a young 23-year-old rapper: “I think my music can be political. Sometimes I make sure it’s not political because I know people listen to this music at face value and apply it to their lives. So rather than promoting violence, we must always look for positive ideas that people can do in reality.” In his latest song, the artist sings that he will not vote by asking the Democratic candidate for forgiveness in advance.
