Trump-Kanye meeting: A short history of rappers at the White House from Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar to Diddy
Hip-hop superstar drops by to discuss wide array of policy ideas in Oval Office
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump‘s meeting with Kanye West at the White House proved to be every bit as surreal as expected.
The rapper, wearing a Make America Great Again cap and saying it made him feel “like Superman”, hugged the president and declared: “I love this guy right here”.
The duo – who previously met at Trump Tower in New York following Mr Trump’s election victory in November 2016 – discussed a wide range of topics, from North Korea to prison reform, mental health and even designs for a new hydrogen-powered “iPlane”, Kanye apparently sharing an interest in visionary aviation with Howard Hughes.
Mr Trump had previously met with Mr West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, when she visited Washington in June to petition for the pardoning of 63-year-old grandmother Alice Johnson, who had served 21 years in federal prison in Aliceville, Alabama, after being given a disproportionate life sentence for a nonviolent first offence related to a drug-trafficking case.
That encounter was nothing compared to the strange visit of country-rap bad boy Kid Rock, Alaska Republican Sarah Palin and guitarist/right-wing activist Ted Nugent in April 2017, the trio treated to a white china dinner with Mr Trump and posing gloatingly for a photo in front of Hilary Clinton’s official portrait in the East Wing.
Their free-ranging chat covered “health, fitness, food, rock ’n’ roll, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, secure borders, the history of the United States, guns, bullets, bows and arrows, North Korea, Russia”, Mr Nugent told The New York Times.
While Mr Trump’s meeting with Kanye garnered favourable coverage from Fox News, the same broadcaster once repeatedly used Barack Obama’s friendly association with hip-hop artists and other celebrities like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a stick with which to beat him.
Mr Trump himself criticised President Obama for campaigning with Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, only to then do the same himself this week as Hurricane Michael hit Florida.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle hosted Jay-Z and Beyonce on several occasions as well as Kendrick Lamar, Janelle Monae, Common and Ludacris among others, the latter two raising conservative eyebrows over past lyrics. Mr Obama himself is said to have disapproved of the resigned cynicism of Ludacris’s “Politics as Usual”.
He did profess a love for Kendrick Lamar’s “How Much a Dollar Cost” but was particularly fond of Jay-Z, recording a special message for his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame last year and pointing out their similarities: “Let’s face it, we both have wives who are significantly more popular than we are.”
The Obamas are also big Beyonce fans, she sang Etta James’s “At Last” at their inaugural ball in 2009 and Michelle returned the favour by belting out “Single Ladies” on a “Carpool Karaoke” segment of The Late Late Show with James Corden, an interlude featuring a guest appearance from Missy Elliot.
Mrs Obama befriended beatboxer Doug E Fresh as part of her Let’s Move! teenage fitness initiative and once invited him to judge the White House Easter Egg Roll, an occasion also graced by Big Sean and Ariana Grande in 2014, when they performed their duet “Right There” and chatted with Jim Carrey.
Artists like Queen Latifah and Killer Mike have meanwhile attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the latter also making waves during the 2016 presidential campaign when he interviewed Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.
More surprisingly, Diddy (AKA Sean Combs, Puff Daddy, P Diddy etc.) was given a tour by George W Bush in 2004 and, according to legend, thanked the Texan with the immortal words: “Nice house”.
But topping even that is surely NWA’s Eazy-E, who attended a Republican Senatorial Inner Circle lunch on 18 March 1991 – albeit not at the White House – as a thank you from Senator Bob Dole after he donated $2,490 to the party, according to The Los Angeles Times.
George HW Bush addressed the group that afternoon and future California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was also at the table, a remarkable crowd for the man behind “Fuck tha Police” to find himself in.
Former bandmate Ice Cube could not resist attacking Eazy for attending on “No Vaseline”, a diss track from his second solo album Death Certificate (1991): “I never have dinner with the president/And when I see your ass again, I’ll be hesitant.”
Cube, real name O’Shea Jackson, revised his opinion in 2015 when asked by Sky News about the prospect of dining with President Obama: “I think our conversation would be a lot juicier.”
Kanye’s encounters with Donald Trump deserve their place in history but Michael Jackson’s meeting with Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon’s with Elvis Presley remain the grip-and-grins to beat for sheer unlikely spectacle.
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