HOT: Trump Ends Ice Cube’s Musical Retirement
President Trump has ended the musical silence of Hip Hop legend Ice Cube. The rapper hasn’t released solo music since 2010, but today he dropped “Arrest the President,” the first single off of a new album due in December. The track is pretty unambiguous, with lyrics like “Let’s meet at the White House/Run in and turn the lights out/They treat it like a trap house/These muthafuckas never take the trash out.” Cube previewed the track with a short video teaser on Election Day.
WARM: Keeps On Rockin’
Neil Young is a pioneer when it comes to asking Donald Trump not to use music at campaign events (a now weekly occurrence by artists). Trump’s infamous Trump Tower announcement in 2015 that he was running for president was soundtracked by Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” and Young (a Bernie supporter… and a Canadian citizen) immediately announced his disapproval, saying it was unauthorized. Amazingly (in hindsight), Trump’s team said they’d stop using the song “because it’s the right thing to do.” Not amazingly, “Rockin’” is back on the Trump playlist. After noticing the song being used at midterm election rallies, Young issued a statement referencing the earlier use and admitting Trump “has the right” to use the song. “He chose not to listen to my request,” Young said of the renewed usage, “just as he chooses not to listen to the many American voices who ask him to stop his constant lies, to stop his petty, nasty name-calling and bullying, to stop pushing his dangerous, vilifying and hateful rhetoric. This man does not represent the character of the people in the USA that I have come to know and love.”
COLD: White For Love
At an early November concert in Canada, a couple of Jack White fans were approached by a security guard who told them to stop kissing. The two women were interrupted by the employee who, according to one of the women, said, “This is not allowed here.” The venue manager apologized “profusely,” and White himself responded at his next show, dedicating his song “Love Interruption” to the couple. White also commented on Instagram, posting a photo of a lesbian couple kissing at a Beatles concert in 1964 as fans around them go nuts for the band. “The news that two women were stopped from kissing during my show in Edmonton really disappointed me,” White wrote. “Let’s promote love and acceptance wherever and whenever we can.”
