When Mac Miller released the viral hit “Donald Trump” in 2011, he was rapping about Donald Trump the business magnate and television star. “He was, like, a symbol of money when I was younger,” Miller recently told Rolling Stone. “Now he’s just a symbol of, like, ‘Hell, no!’”
Today, Pittsburgh rapper and activist Kellee Maize has remade Miller’s hit and turned it into a searing rebuke of the Republican presidential candidate.
Wiz Khalifa’s mom Peachie Wimbush joins Maize on the video, which includes cameos from Rusted Root’s Liz Berlin, members of Anti-Flag, and DJ Bonics.
Maize’s video begins with clips of Trump speaking on the campaign trail interspersed with political commentary from CNN’s Jon Snow stating the “swing state” importance of Pennsylvania and Allegheny County in particular.
The song kicks in after the first minute after some banter between Maize and Peachie. Rapping over the beat from Mac’s original track (itself taken from a Sufjan Stevens track), Maize and others lay out their political argument against Trump.
Maize also argues that Trump’s rhetoric is physically harmful to the brain by causing stress and inflammation, but the damage can be undone through love, humor, and time spent with friends and family, something she wrote about in a corresponding article for the Huffington Post.
Maize is not the first musician to speak out against the Republican candidate. YG And Nipsey Hussle teamed up for “FDT,” while REM, Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney and others have joined on to Dave Egger’s 30 Days, 30 Songs project, which is releasing an Anti-Trump song every day for the 30 days leading up to the election.
(Grammy-winning Nashville country artist and Fox News contributor Larry Gatlin penned an anti-Hillary Clinton song entitled “Stand Up and Say So.”)
Local streetwear line Daily Bread is printing a limited run of “Make Love Not Trump” shirts for the occasion. Profits from their sale go to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Dakota Access Pipeline Donation Fund.
For reference, here’s Mac’s original, apolitical version of “Donald Trump”:
