Kamala Harris gets her hip-hop close-up

In September 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris stood on a stage on the lawn of her Washington residence to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Among the guests were such rap immortals and heavyweights as Slick Rick, MC Lyte, Doug E. Fresh, Fat Joe, Common, and Lil Wayne. “Hip-hop is the ultimate American art form,” Harris told the crowd. “Hip-hop now shapes nearly every aspect of America’s popular culture, and it reflects the incredible diversity and ingenuity of the American people.”

Of course, that event seems like a lifetime ago now. It was before Joe Biden shocked the political landscape on July 21 by becoming the first sitting president to drop out of the reelection race since President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, and endorsed Harris as the first Black woman and first South Asian American to lead the top of a presidential ticket; before Harris introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate; and before she kicked off her campaign with the support of Beyoncé, whose anthem “Freedom” has become the candidate’s official theme song.

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

“You can’t understand the struggle of gun violence if you not in the field or in the heart of it,” Quavo said. The rapper has been working with Harris since his nephew and fellow bandmate Takeoff was killed in 2022. “So, one thing I learned from working with Vice President Harris is she always stands on business. From inviting me to the White House last year to discuss these solutions, to passing the biggest gun safety laws today.”

The convergence of hip-hop and politics hasn’t been this conspicuous since Jeezy of Atlanta and rhyme giant Nas proclaimed, “My president is Black!” during candidate Barack Obama’s seismic 2008 presidential run. The historic election of the first Black president went beyond a political flex. It signaled the emergence of the first hip-hop president.

Rapper Jay-Z campaigned for Obama in 2012 and was a frequent White House guest with Beyoncé, who sang the national anthem at Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. They also stumped for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her own historic 2016 run. As for Harris, she has the backing of a strikingly diverse group of rappers, such as Questlove, Lil Nas X, Lil Jon, and Plies, who said Harris had “Trump, MAGA, The Republicans & Mainstream Media So Shook.” And though rapper Cardi B has said she won’t be voting in the upcoming election unless there is a ceasefire in Gaza, she pushed back against the misogynistic attacks on Harris since she entered the presidential campaign.

“I always knew how people are when it comes to women, but the disrespect?” Cardi B said in late July of Harris during a Spaces session on X. “Listen, if you don’t like her as a politician, that’s you. But if you disrespect her because she’s a woman? It’s very disgusting,” adding, “The way that y’all disrespect her, makes me like her.”

As documented in the Andscape film Hip-Hop and the White House, seeds of this unlikely political connection go way back to President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 inaugural ball, where legendary actor Jimmy Stewart introduced a performance by the storied New York City Breakers crew. Ironically, it was Reagan’s devastating policies targeting the Black and Latino community that accelerated hip-hop’s growth as the decade’s most vital musical and cultural art form.

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

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

“I wanna ask Kamala Harris questions about her past as a da, even if she had to be tough. All I hear is rumors of her,” the 37-year-old rapper posted on X, formerly 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 standpoint point she may have never had to encounter!”

The Facebook post that was shared more than 200,000 times before the Nov. 3, 2020, election that said Harris placed 1,500 Black men behind bars over marijuana charges as district attorney has been debunked. Harris actually oversaw 1,956 felony marijuana convictions. Only 45 people were sent to state prison.

While no one can question Meek Mill’s sincerity — in 2017, he was sentenced to two to four years for violating parole over a misdemeanor firearm and drug charges dating back to when he was 19, and was released on appeal before being pardoned in January 2023 — such talk has only emboldened some hip-hop artists’ support for former president Donald Trump.

Lil Pump, Waka Flocka Flame, Kanye West, and Sheff G are just some of the rappers who have publicly backed the Republican candidate. Sexyy Redd received backlash after she told podcast host Theo Von in October 2023 that some Black people embraced Trump “once he started getting Black people out of jail and giving people that free money.”

“We love Trump,” Sexyy Redd said. “We need him back in office. We need him back because, baby, them checks. Them stimulus checks. Trump, we miss you.” (For context, the Biden administration delivered $1,400 checks to most Americans in 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic. Sexyy Redd also seemed to walk back her support of Trump, saying she wasn’t endorsing anybody.)

Ice Cube made headlines in 2020 after turning down a call from Harris’ camp and has since become a favorite among conservative pundits such as political commentator Tucker Carlson and podcaster Joe Rogan. Fivio Foreign and Kodak Black most recently dropped the head-scratching Trump endorsement track “ONBOA47RD.”

“I ain’t even see this many Black people freed during the Obama days/Told her she can have anything she want, just not my Donald chain,” rapped Kodak Black, whose 46-month sentence for falsifying documents used to purchase weapons at a Miami gun store was commuted by Trump in 2021.

Harris, however, isn’t losing any sleep. The Howard University graduate and Oakland, California, native, who can recite the lyrics to Sugar Hill Gang’s 1979 landmark “Rapper’s Delight” by heart and listened to fellow Oakland MC Too $hort, is quickly becoming a cultural touchstone in hip-hop circles.

This week, the joyous throwback spirit of hip-hop was in the house at the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago for Harris’ official acceptance of the Democratic Party nomination. Common performed his recent collaboration with Pete Rock, “Fortunate,” during night two of the convention, telling the crowd, “I thank God for this moment in time where Kamala Harris will change the world for the better with love, hope and grace.”

DJ Cassidy breathed new life into the usually staid ceremonial delegate Roll Call for each state and U.S. territory, playing a range of genre-jumping songs that included hip-hop gems from Jay-Z, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to House of Pain and Kendrick Lamar.

Grammy-winning producer and hype man Lil Jon repped Georgia, flipping the “from the window to the walls” chant from his classic East Side Boyz and Ying Yang Twins song “Get Low,” yelling to the crowd, “VP Harrissss … Gov. Walzzzz!”

It was a reminder that Harris, 59, was still in college when Run-D.M.C.’s 1986 album Raising Hell kicked off the golden age of hip-hop. After all, could you imagine Trump dancing to Q-Tip’s “Vivrant Thing”?

Probably not, but it doesn’t get more hip-hop than that.