It only took two months for “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar’s diss track towards Toronto rap behemoth Drake, to become fodder for the larger project of hollow identity politics. At the BET Awards on June 30th, Taraji P. Henson joined Vice President Kamala Harris for a TV spot, where the two of them discussed the upcoming Presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. “Madam VP, I know you’ve been traveling across the country. What are you hearing,” Taraji asks, with her intensely passionate voice. Vice President Harris responded, in the kind of uplifting corporate speech that the Democrats tend to rally behind, and said: “The majority of us believe in freedom and equality, but these extremists, as they say, they’re ‘not like us.’” A face palm couldn’t even soften the shame that entails from something like this. Although it is always fun to see Taraji in a commercial, the Democratic Party trotting Kamala out to cater to the Black vote is unflinchingly corny.
Never underestimate the politician’s ability to use hip-hop to cater to Black voters, the same group of people most affected by the monstrous 1994 crime ball. During the 2016 election Hillary Clinton pandered to “us,” flattening the glaring issues Black people had with her entire political career, by attempting to dab and doing the Mannequin Challenge. The true humiliation of attempting to garner votes she didn’t deserve was what caused Clinton’s eventual downfall in the election. Voters didn’t show up for her like they did former president Barack Obama. Instead of campaigning in areas in the Rust Belt that were on the fence—states Obama had won—she talked about carrying hot sauce on her bag on The Breakfast Club.
If Hillary Clinton is the Ken Griffey Jr. of pandering, then it looks like Kamala is becoming the Barry Bonds of it. Clinton’s pandering isn’t quite as bad as Kamala’s because her existence—as a mechanical robot politician—is already hollow. Kamala has already had a campaign controversy involving hip-hop—in 2020 there was an awkward exchange where she might or might not have said she listened to Snoop Dogg and 2Pac in college. And, as a Black woman, the community’s impartial distrust in her cultural knowledge is like a Hulk Hogan headlock for her political career.
I should add it’s not just the Democrats doing this. This election cycle, Donald Trump has been shameless with his pandering efforts, too. He has also embraced hip-hop, aligning himself with a different class of artist, burgeoning street rappers. In the Bronx, he hit the stage with Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow; in Detroit he linked with Peezy and Icewear Vezzo; in Philadelphia, Trump invited OT7 Quanny to one of his rallies, then took a photo with him on his private plane. There’s always been a connection between Trump and hip-hop, but the connection exists within personality. Rappers are often loudmouths who move through the world with gut instincts, which is not unlike the way Trump moves. They see a big man talking about himself and admonishing his enemies, and Trump is capitalizing on that dynamic. What makes hip-hop titillating is not politics but rather the id of the American male run amok and Trump connects with that side of the rap brain. However, none of that makes his pandering any less pathetic than how Democrats do it.
“Not Like Us” is supposed to be a celebration of community in the face of the interloper that can only wish to be us, but can’t totally sell the drastically Black mindset that the men and women with Black skin have. Kamala Harris, the former district attorney who was successful in increasing conviction rates, doesn’t fit what (hopefully) Kendrick Lamar had in mind when he made that song.
