Kevin Powell, an acclaimed writer and activist, is putting Snoop Dogg on blast for performing for Donald Trump ahead of the inauguration ... accusing the rap legend of selling out.
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00:00It's just tragic to me to see what's happening, it's not just Snoop Dogg and the rappers,
00:05it's Carrie Underwood, who as you know, Harvey supported gay marriage and has come out around
00:10gun control in one of her songs called The Bullet.
00:12Snoop Dogg has this history, I interviewed Snoop Dogg when I was working for Quincy
00:15Jones Vibe magazine, one of the first major cover stories, if not the first cover story
00:19of Snoop ever.
00:20And he has a long history in relationship to community, I mean, hip hop was created
00:23by poor people, working class people, the same poor people that Dr. King told us not
00:27to forget are the folks who created hip hop, African Americans, West Indians, and Latinx
00:31folks in New York City.
00:32And this culture has expanded, as you both know, it's a global industry, it's a multi-billion
00:36dollar industry, but it's also something that's impacted literally three or four generations
00:40of people.
00:41And what they are trading in, be it Carrie Underwood as a country music star or Snoop
00:44as a rapper and Soulja Boy and Rick Ross and Waka Flocka and Nelly, they're trading in,
00:50they're very constituents for a bag of money.
00:52That's essentially what's happened here.
00:54Is that what you would attribute it to for these people who did perform, just wanting
00:59to collect a paycheck?
01:00Or has there actually been a sea change, like Harvey said, within the hip hop community?
01:04I think there's a sea change of a lack of values across America, period.
01:08I mean, think about it, can you imagine Bruce Springsteen or Johnny Cash or Nina Simone
01:12or Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan, folks like Harry Belafonte, I can go down the list of
01:16people, can you imagine them, Madonna, Prince, can you imagine these folks actually getting
01:21in bed quite literally with someone who has espoused things that are racist, sexist, homophobic,
01:27transphobic, anti-immigrant?
01:28I mean, we can go down the list of things that have been said.
01:31It's saying to me that you don't really even care about the people who have supported you
01:34all these years, including folks who might be black or queer, et cetera.
01:39All you care about is your own career, your own access, and again, that bag of money.
01:43So there's no shift in values, there's no sea shift, there's just a lack of values completely.
01:48I've never seen anything like this.
01:49I never thought I would see Snoop Dogg in particular.
01:51Forget the other rappers, people have talked about them, but I'm like, in particular Snoop
01:55Dogg, you know, I mean, this is someone who represents so much.
02:00He's an iconic figure, just like Carrie Underwood is, and when folks like that are siding with
02:04someone who's spreading these kind of messages, it's a stab in the back to all of us who have
02:08bought their music, who supported them throughout their careers.