Rapper YG Boots Fan Offstage For Not Saying Trump Slur; White House Responds
Well. Alright then!
Getty Images Rappers have had a long and contentious history with politicians, so this latest snafu with the White House is, really, no different than any other snafu that rappers have had with politicians since, at least, the 1990s. Who is YG, and what happened between him and Donald Trump?
Originally coming to prominence in 2009 with a hit song called "Toot It And Boot It" (no, really, it was cute), Keenon Jackson — known to the world at large as YG — got signed to Def Jam Records off the success of the song, which eventually made it to No. 67 on the Billboard charts. But his biggest single of his career was "Big Bank," which was released in 2018, and made it to No. 16 on the Billboard charts. He's currently enjoying the success of his fourth studio album, 4Real 4Real, which was released in May of this year.
Now, however, he's made headlines for ... interesting reasons. Let's look at what we know about the situation:
1. The incident happened at the Mala Luna Festival.
According to HipHopDX, the incident involving YG happened at the Mala Luna Festival in San Antonio, TX. The outlet reports that the rapper invited a fan up on the stage, then booted him off when he wouldn't chant "F--k Donald Trump" when prompted. “Don’t come to a [bleep] show with YG on the [bleep] bill if you a Donald Trump supporter. [Bleep] are you doing? Don’t let his ass back in the crowd. Tell him YG said so. Donald Trump’s racist. He don’t [bleep] with black people, so if you [bleep] with Donald Trump, you racist as [bleep] and I can’t [bleep] with you. Period," he said, according to the outlet.
So, uh...he's not a fan of Trump, then?
2. Donald Trump, in turn, roasted YG by proxy after the incident.
President Trump, of course, felt that this was a personal slight against his manhood, and according to Fox News, he commissioned his press secretary to take time out of her busy day to make a snarky comment about the incident to the outlet. "Another example of the tolerant left," she said.
3. YG isn't the only rapper who can't stand Donald Trump.
YG shouldn't feel too badly about getting roasted by Donald Trump. According to XXL, YG joins the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Jeezy, and Denzel Curry in his disdain for No. 44.
4. But there are plenty of rappers who support Trump.
As Roll Call pointed out, there are a few rappers who — unlike YG — are fully in support of Donald Trump. Kanye West, of course, is the most notable example of a pro-Trump rapper. And according to ABC News, Azaelia Banks has endorsed Donald Trump on her various suspended Twitter accounts, Russell Simmons is a personal friend of Donald Trump's, and even Diddy showed his support for Donald Trump in the past.
5. YG is supportive of Kanye West, despite the fact that he is pro-Trump.
YG recently took to Twitter to shout out Kanye West for his success with Jesus Is King. You can check it out below.
6. He's listed as one of the hottest rappers to come out of Los Angeles.
Despite the controversy, XXL Magazine believes that YG is one of the hottest rappers to come out of Los Angeles in the 21st century, and we couldn't agree more! YG has been compared to the likes of Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Dr. Dre — all West Coast legends in their own right.
This might also be a good time to let people know that YG has a song called "FDT," or "[Bleep] Donald Trump," which was released in 2016. Maybe YG just wanted the fan to sing along?
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.