Chrisette Michele – “No Political Genius”
This past weekend, the R&B singer Chrisette Michele sang at Donald Trump’s inauguration, and after the announcement of her participation drew a predictable backlash, she addressed it in a strange statement. Now she’s taken the kicker from that statement and turned it into a song. “No Political Genius” is really more of a spoken-word piece. It includes references to Spike Lee and ?uestlove, both of whom have criticized her, and it includes lines like this: “This is my standing / For John Lewis and Ben Carson / ?uestlove, Spike Lee, and before them / I won’t divide now / That’s not smart now / God before me, I won’t back down / This is my damn America now.” Check it out below, via Pitchfork.
Judging by everything I’ve seen this past weekend, it’s going to take more than that to convince anyone that singing for Donald Trump was a good idea.