Kendrick Lamar And Hip Hop Had Some Power Over The Chicago Protests Against Donald Trump

The violent rhetoric and actual violence reported at Donald Trump’s rallies and overall presidential campaign came to a head on Friday, when protestors successfully got his campaign event canceled. While Trump himself lamented that the protests were an attack on free speech (I wonder what right these protestors were exercising, then), other candidates like Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders said that Trump brought this on given his downplaying of violence at his events, or even his outright encouragement of it.

Some of the victims of violence at his rallies have been from Black Lives Matter. Last November, Trump encouraged his supporters to kick one such protestor out, which they did by literally kicking and punching him. His utter disregard for the Black Lives Matter message, and the wellbeing of their group members was not lost on last night’s protestors. According to a tweet from the Chicago Reader, people chanted “we gon be alright.” This refrain is from from Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright,” which is about black resilience in the wake of state violence and other issues.

Protestors chanted the same line at demonstrations over the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by police. It speaks to the resonance of Lamar’s song, and the anger over Donald Trump and his tactics, that people also chanted it in Chicago last night.