Culture Feature

Laughing Through the End Times: 6 Absurd Responses to the Collapse of American Democracy

The attempted coup that took place at the Capitol building on Wednesday was equal parts terrifying and hilarious.

In times of crisis and chaos, it's important to keep a clear head and stay on top of the facts.

It's important to acknowledge that this was an unprecedented breach of security that could easily have been avoided and that it resulted in the deaths of at least four people.

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Image by Andy Feliciotti | Unsplash

"President Kennedy never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon...Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they always made me glad." -Malcolm X.

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Top Stories

Is Hip-Hop Becoming Conservative?

News of Ice Cube's "collaboration" with the Trump administration is shocking and heartbreaking, but it's also part of a growing trend of rappers preaching semi-conservative rhetoric.

Ice Cube

Photo by Ann Johansson/ Shutterstock

Ice Cube, like many Americans, is looking at the upcoming presidential election as a battle of the lesser of two evils.

On Wednesday President Trump's Senior Advisor Katrina Peirson tweeted that rap legend Ice Cube is working with his administration to help develop The Platinum Plan. This proposal is a list of deliverables to the Black Community in the form of jobs, health care, and education.

Ice Cube soon put out a tweet of his own confirming that he had reached out to both the Democratic and Republican parties about discussing his Contract With Black America (CWBA). According to the 51-year-old rapper/actor/director, Democrats wanted to wait until after the election to talk about the CWBA. Trump's campaign, on the other hand, made adjustments to their plan, and is presumably using it as a method to gain the Black vote.

Many on social media were left speechless. Why would one of the most vocal Trump detractors and pioneers of gangsta rap align himself with the genre's biggest enemy?


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Culture Feature

Is Kanye West Really Running for President to "Hurt Joe Biden?"

Kanye West's presidential campaign might be a consequence of a manic episode that deserves sympathy and understanding, but if Kanye gains traction, he has the potential to hurt all of us.

Kanye West

Ovidiu Hrubaru/Shutterstock


Since he announced his presidential campaign on July 4th, Kanye West has been the subject of endless press, headlines, and speculations—both about his mental health and his ability to harm American democracy.

West's campaign has been a labyrinth of twists and turns from start to finish. After he posted the initial announcement of his campaign on Twitter (and garnered millions of likes and an endorsement from Elon Musk), he described his platform as "anti-abortion" and "anti-vaccination" in a Forbes interview.

West, who has previously expressed support for Donald Trump, appears to be running on his own platform, which he calls "The Birthday Party," "because when we win, it's everybody's birthday," he said.

Though he launched his campaign after the filing deadline in many states, he paid the $35,000 fee to appear on the ballot in Oklahoma and appears to be encouraging people to vote for him, and he seems to be campaigning seriously.

The problem here is that we also have one of the most important elections of all time coming up, and we can't rule out the chance that Kanye's candidacy might present a potential threat to Joe Biden's campaign.

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Culture News

Kanye West's Presidential Run Is Great News for Donald Trump

"Better late than never" may not apply in this case...

By Ovidiu Hrubaru / Shutterstock

Update 7/8/2020: In a truly wild interview with Forbes, Kanye West claimed to be done with his support of Donald Trump and "taking off the red hat."

Among other revelations was the announcement that he will be running for president under the label of "the Birthday Party," that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be advising him along with his running mate, Michelle Tidball—an obscure preacher out of wyoming—that he would model his administration after the fictional nation of Wakanda from Black Panther, that he believes vaccines are "the mark of the beast," and that Planned Parenthood is doing "the devil's work."

If that wasn't enough, Kanye also asserted that "America needs special people that lead." And on Kanye's list of special people are Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and (of course) Kanye. As for the Democrats presumptive 2020 nominee, Kanye said "Joe Biden's not special."

Unfortunately for the world, only one of the people on Kanye's "special" list has any chance of winning the election in November... Hat or no, Kanye is still team Trump.

On Saturday, in a strange celebration of Independence Day, rapper, producer, and sneaker mogul Kanye West announced his intention to run for president in 2020.

As in, this year. Right now.

The announcement quickly prompeted messages of support from Kanye's wife, prison reform advocate Kim Kardashian West, as well as from billionaire weirdo/Grimes baby daddy Elon Musk.

Of course, this news comes well past the filing deadline for independent candidates in several major states—which means that unless a political party randomly decides to nominate him, Kanye's name won't appear on those ballots. As deadlines in other states approach—with little apparent effort to gather the petition signatures required—Kanye is officially joining the long, proud history of vanity presidential campaigns. Unfortunately, that's a lot more dangerous than it sounds.

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Culture News

Were Kanye West's MAGA Hats Just a Hoax to Manipulate Trump?

After the rapper made a $2 million donation to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, fans are speculating that his pro-Trump stance might've been a clever hoax.

MAGA Gag

Photo by Visuals (Unsplash)

If anyone has become a meme of themselves since the 2016 presidential election, it's Kanye West.

The rapper/mogul has faced a swarm of backlash over his outward support for President Trump, sporting red MAGA hats and implying his intent to vote for him in 2020.

Kanye West: MAGA hat ‘made me feel like Superman’www.youtube.com

But despite a recent history full of conservative schmoozery, CNN reports that Kanye has donated $2 million to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor—all Black people who have been unlawfully murdered by U.S. police this year. This donation includes legal fees for Arbery and Taylor's families, as well as support for black-owned businesses in Kanye's native Chicago and other cities. Kanye's representative also told CNN that the rapper has established a 529 education plan to fully cover college tuition for Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Then, on July 4th, Kanye tweeted—once again—that he'll be running for president. Elon Musk was first to declare his support.

"We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision, and building our future. I am running for president of the United States 🇺🇸! " he wrote, with the soon-to-be trending hashtag #2020VISION.

Previously, he announced his presidential plans in 2015—during the MTV Awards when his acceptance speech included, "It's about ideas, bro. New ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth. And, yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president"—and in 2019 when he announced, "I'm not going to run [for president], I'm going to walk."

Still, Kanye's hefty donation to victims of police brutality feels a little odd; despite involving himself in philanthropy early on in his career, it's been quite a while since he's made contributions in the name of social justice issues. He's made questionable remarks about slavery and Black people, seemingly forgetting his unimaginably privileged position in spite of his race.

But—and I say this knowing how insane it sounds—maybe Kanye's pro-Trump antics were intended to fool us all this entire time.

Back in January, rapper GLC (a former signee of Kanye's label, G.O.O.D. Music) went on The Red Pill Podcast with Van Lathan and spoke about Kanye's MAGA hat-wearing habit: "[Kanye] was like, 'Bro, I'm just telling' you that we got that amazing woman out of jail in Florida, right?…' We didn't really get to have that meeting until I put the hat on. So he lookin' at like it as, more so, 'OK, I wear the hat, I get the stones thrown at me, I'll have people hating me, but people gonna get free.'"

While this plan seems a little ridiculous, it isn't totally improbable. Lest we ever forget the often-overlooked efforts Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian, has made for prison reform, she advocated for Alice Marie Johnson, a woman who received a life sentence for a first-time drug offense in 1996. President Trump commutated Johnson's sentence in 2018. She also played a major role in persuading President Trump to support the First Step Act, which enacted major reforms in the U.S. prison system.

Now, as Black Lives Matter protests take the world by storm and celebrities' true colors are showing more than ever, it might be time to reexamine Kanye's stances. Is his shoulder-rubbing with Trump just a ploy to butter the president up for Kim's much-needed prison overhaul? Are Kanye and Kim dismantling systems of oppression behind our backs, from the comfort of their insane house?

Considering the absolutely blasphemous hand of cards 2020 has dealt us so far and the fact that our country's leader literally hid in a bunker when people demanded proper leadership...stranger things have happened.

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