Kevin Powell Accuses Snoop Dogg of Selling Out With Trump Performance

TMZ

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.

Transcript

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.

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