We’re all just “Singing the Blues”
Rapper Taylor Bennett recently performed his song “Singing the Blues” featuring Femdot on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on July 12. Bennett set the performance up like a political debate, with both rappers behind a podium: Bennett in a blue sweatshirt and Femdot wearing a red sweatshirt with both sweatshirts reading “Be Yourself.” This was done because the song, off of Bennett’s recently released EP “The American Reject” is set up as a conversation between a Democrat (Bennett) and a Donald Trump supporter (Femdot). But the way Bennett describes it is more accurate: “It seems like often we be talking, but we arguing too.”
“Singing the Blues” is a politically charged song, though it doesn’t sound like it. The music of the song is laid back with only a simple beat in the background. The lyrics delve into the minds of Americans who have loved ones who disagree politically. The song’s chorus begins “What do you do when you realize/Your best friend’s family do not share the same views?” Bennett’s singing has a melancholy, tired tone to it. As if he’s asked himself this question many times, but he’s frustrated because he still doesn’t have an answer. Contrarily, his raps are fast and harsh. He feels he is on the right side of history and doesn’t want to listen to anyone speak positively about Trump.
Bennett raps about growing up black in Chicago. He discusses police brutality, gun violence, “crooked politicians,” and he believes if you support Trump, you are a traitor to fellow Chicago-ans. He raps “If you a Trump supporter, how you talkin’ to me?/How you arguin’ me, tryna bargain with me?/It ain’t my traits to be a traitor/But you treadin’ slim water if you think that you can barter with me.” He feels betrayed by his best friend and his family for supporting Trump. However, the last line of Bennett’s verse brings up a valid point. Neither side has sympathy for the other and perhaps that’s a large part of the problem. Everyone thinks they’re right, but no one is willing to listen to anyone else.
“My halo matching your MAGA hat energy
How could we both have no sympathy? Damn”
- “Singing the Blues”
Femdot’s verse starts immediately after Bennett’s ends, making this seem like a real conversation. Femdot is acting as the best friend in the song trying to convince Bennett that supporting Trump hasn’t changed him as a person. He compares his own father to Trump because he concludes they are both hard-working, a trait he admires in the current president. He believes Trump will provide “more jobs, more growth, more hope/You know that hope that we never really got under Obama?” Femdot is not the only person to criticize Obama’s presence in Chicago. In a tweet that went viral in April 2018, Kanye West wrote “Obama was in office for eight years and nothing in Chicago changed.” West even met with Trump in the White House to discuss political issues because he trusts that Trump can make a difference and he’s not the only one. Both Bennett and Femdot believe what they are doing will ultimately benefit Chicago; they have the same end goal, to make Chicago a better place, they just have entirely different ideas on how to get there.
“I mean, to be honest
Don’t know why you have such a problem with what Donald does
My mom say he wanna make everything better for all of us”
-“Singing the Blues”
Femdot doesn’t want his friend to see him differently, he just wants him to understand why he’s supporting Trump. He raps “I mean what do you need me to prove?/That I really ain’t evil, dude?/What you mean? We got on the same Yeezys too… We was friends before, so what I mean to you?” By saying that they’re wearing the same Yeezys he’s trying to explain that they still have a lot in common. He supports Trump, but also he doesn’t want Trump’s presidency to affect their friendship. They were friends before Trump became president and he doesn’t understand why their friendship has to change. Yet they both realize Trump’s presidency has already had a negative effect on their friendship. Femdot ends his verse with “But since we can’t agree to disagree/And you can’t see what I see/Now, man, it’s a problem.”
After the 2016 election, it was common to see people say things like ‘if you voted for Donald Trump unfriend me on Facebook’ or ‘unfollow me on Twitter or Instagram.’ On my college campus, if someone wore a MAGA hat or T-shirt, it was normal to scoff and give those people dirty looks. People really just shut friends and family out of their lives when Trump became president, and I don’t think that’s the solution.
To this day, I hate politics. I always have, but as I’ve gotten older it’s only gotten worse. I hate how it divides people, how you can never have a rational, calm political discussion without it turning into a personal attack, how I hate and blame Trump for making people completely polarized from each other. However, some of the people I care about most in my life, voted for and continue to support Trump. For example, one of my neighbors had a Trump 2016 sign in his yard and occasionally walks around our neighborhood with his MAGA hat. However, I can’t hate him because he chooses to support Trump. He shovels our driveway when it snows because he knows both my parents work. He let me use his lunar eclipse glasses to watch the phenomenon last summer. He’s never asked my dad if he needs help with one of his outdoor projects, he just comes over with his tool belt ready to do what he can.
This song resonates with me on a personal level because there are times, I really don’t know how to react when someone says they support Trump. There are times I fundamentally disagree with people and can’t help but roll my eyes at their politics. But as much as I can, I believe people are not solely their political beliefs. I breathe and remember all the times they’ve been there for me, the good times we’ve had, and I can’t just cut them out of my life, but I can’t help but be disappointed in their political beliefs either.
The song never offers an answer to the main question, “what do you do when you realize your best friend’s family do not share the same views?” which is really a bummer. Because I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, so what do we do?
We just keep on singing the blues.
