St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red’s rise to fame this year has sent people into a tizzy for varying reasons. She’s received backlash for her sexually explicit lyrics, acclaim for her inspiring will to remain unapologetically herself, and criticism for her raunchy behavior at the BET Awards. I, for one, have loved her come-up, her memorable and openly sexual songs like “Pound Town” and “SkeeYee”, and her overall I-don’t-care-what-anyone-thinks-of-me personality. My admiration of her is what makes it that much more disappointing to hear of her recent support for former U.S. president Donald Trump.
“I like Trump,” Sexyy Red told comedian Theo Von on his podcast This Past Weekend. “Yeah, they support him in the hood. At first, I don’t think people was f–king with him. They thought he was racist, saying little s–t against women. But once he started getting Black people out of jail and giving people that free money, aww baby, we love Trump. We need him back in office. We need him back because, baby, them checks. Them stimulus checks. Trump, we miss you.”
Beyond Red’s obviously misinformed claims — such as the idea that those in the “hood” generally support Trump when iin reality, more than 84% of Black voters have an unfavorable view of Trump, and low income voters largely voted against Trump in 2020 — what’s most confusing to me about her comments is that Trump stands against everything that Sexyy Red has represented. She is a fearless, unbothered Black woman who’s been courageous in embracing her Blackness, openly expressing her sexuality, and unapologetically being herself, even in the face of claims that she’s perpetuating Black stereotypes. Trump evidently has his own ideas of how “ghetto” Black people act, demonstrated in his distaste for who he’s called “thugs,” “wild criminals,” and “monsters.”
The people who tend to align with Trump’s politics are the same ones hating on Sexyy Red for her supposedly overly sexual lyrics and behavior. Conservative commentators like Joey Mannarino have publicly condemned Red and accused her of “emasculat[ing] Black men.” (Mind you, the man is white.) Another conservative, CJ Pearson, wrote, “All you do is rap about your vagina. Have you ever tried saying anything impactful?” The same people who admire Trump have called Sexyy Red “ghetto” and “dirty,” among other racist terms.
It was saddening to see that just days after supporting Trump, Sexyy Red became a victim of revenge porn. It’s often assumed that openly sexual Black women aren’t entitled to consent–– and Trump’s track record proves that he wouldn’t think much differently, exemplified by his reputation as a victim-blamer. His politics are foundationally incompatible with respecting Black women’s rights to publicly express their sexuality without fearing invasions of their privacy. Sexyy Red should know better than to throw her support behind someone who would never return the favor. It’s especially devastating given that Sexyy Red recently opened up about getting raped in the past during an appearance on A Safe Place podcast, in an interview with Lil Yachty and MitchGoneMad.. What’s worse is that the internet has been unforgiving in their reactions to the newly-leaked sex tape, which was posted via Sexyy Red’s Instagram story, without her consent, before it was quickly deleted. People have gone as far as to ridicule the rapper’s “skills” in the video, making light of the situation and treating her like another publicly accessible source of sexual entertainment.
What’s most confusing to me about her comments is that Trump stands against everything that Sexyy Red has represented… She should know better than to throw her support behind someone who would never return the favor.
Red isn’t the first Black woman artist to receive such heinous treatment from the public; Janet Jackson’s body and sexuality have been wrongly considered to be an open invitation for sexual exploitation, and Jackson’s lyrics are largely tame compared to Red’s. There’s a difference between choosing to show off your sexuality in music videos and in your songs, and having people take advantage of that sexuality without your consent. Whether they’re openly sexual or not, Black women are time and time again seen as inherently sexual and therefore available for public sexualization.
Trump supporters have naturally responded positively to Sexyy Red’s endorsement of the reality TV-star-turned-president, with many expressing newfound admiration for her. Not surprisingly, some have expressed that for her to secure their complete support, she needs to change her hypersexual ways. “Wise woman,” one supporter @Sady786x tweeted in response to news of the rapper’s Trump endorsement. “Now she needs to stop singing bout koochie n get to work.” Another tweeted, “Maybe she’s not as ugly as I thought.”
It’s clear that these people are not actually on Sexyy Red’s side; they don’t actually care about her freedom — particularly her sexual freedom. They see her as another “ghetto” inappropriately promiscuous Black woman to laugh at.
It’s also laughable when you break down Red’s assertion that “they support [Trump] in the ‘hood.” Trump has long attempted to promote the falsehood that a very large number of Black people love him. The former president recently asserted, for example, that his support from Black Americans has “gone up four and five times” since the release of his mugshot, a claim that turned out to be false, according to a CNN fact-check. Even if a bunch of people Sexyy Red knows do like Trump, the reasons she cites for admiring him aren’t convincing in the least. It’s well known that Trump has not been the best president for African Americans “since Abraham Lincoln,” despite his outlandish claims.
Red’s argument that Trump has freed enough Black people from jail to be worthy of re-election is frustrating, to say the least. This is the same Trump that has maintained that the Central Park Five (now known as the Exonerated Five) are guilty of their crimes despite being declared innocent. Trump’s decision to grant a pardon to Lil Wayne and commute Kodak Black’s sentence at the tail of his presidency was a clear strategic move aimed at improving his standing among Black voters. It raised legitimate concerns that he may have been using Black artists as political pawns rather than genuinely addressing the systemic racism of the carceral system.
That also brings into question the intentions of Theo Von, the podcast host who interviewed Sexyy Red. Von has invited a range of conservative guests to his podcast, and it makes me think that this is yet another case of a conservative internet celebrity using a Black rapper to spread their political agenda. In a world where Black pop culture reigns supreme, Black rappers are far too often taken advantage of as political puppets by people who don’t even see them as full human-beings.
In a world where Black pop culture reigns supreme, Black rappers are far too often taken advantage of as political puppets by people who don’t even see them as full human-beings.
And no, Trump hasn’t been a beacon for criminal justice reform in the slightest. On the contrary, he has repeatedly dismissed concerns about police violence and criminal injustice, even calling the Black Lives Matter emblem a “symbol of hate.” And it’s well documented that Trump has made countless racist remarks, from suggesting that former president Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., to calling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” to saying that Haitian immigrants looking to enter the U.S. “probably have AIDS.”
As for those stimulus checks, Trump did the bare minimum to support Americans during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Also, Biden gave us some checks, too.) And some measly stimulus checks are nothing in comparison to Trump’s persistent lie that he has directly improved the financial state of Black Americans. According to an Associated Press fact-check, the household median income was higher for Black Americans prior to Trump taking office.
Yes, Trump administered some stimulus checks, but he also denied the existence and gravity of an entire pandemic, making it that much harder for folks to financially recover from its impacts. Is a stimulus check really all it takes?
Rather than attacking Sexyy Red for supposedly being too “ghetto” and “misguiding” Black women with her openly sexual lyrics and behavior, people should redirect their energy into holding celebrities like her accountable for spreading political misinformation. As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, it’s of paramount importance that we don’t carelessly feed into the lies spread by Trump and others, or blindly support a candidate that doesn’t care for your very own well-being and ultimate liberation. We deserve better than that, and so does Sexyy Red.
