HOT PROTESTANT HE MY G’ S‘ FUCK DONALD TRUMP’
▶ IN THE SPRING of 2016, as YG was putting the finishing touches on his second album, the Compton native linked up with his friend Nipsey Hussle to excoriate Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. “FDT” is unsparing: YG threatens to “fuck up” the candidate’s next L.A. rally, and Nipsey dangles the possibility of assassination. Crucially, the song centers black-Latinx solidarity in light of Trump’s virulently anti-Mexican campaign rhetoric. (YG actually goes a step further with his opening line: “I like white folks, but I don’t like you.”) The LAPD shut down a video shoot for the song, and YG said the Secret Service leaned on him and Def Jam to cut it from his album. But it remained and became an anthem after Trump’s victory, soundtracking countless protests and rallies. With Nipsey’s death in 2019, the song took on a new dimension, capturing one of L.A.’s most charismatic young leaders near the height of his power. And since late May of this year, its beat has rattled car windows and pulsed out of open apartment buildings across the city, as if it’s following every march on loop.