It’s well known that Ben Shapiro has a ridiculous and unfounded distaste for rap. However, after claiming rap isn’t music and trying to criticize Nicki Minaj’s rap lyrics, Shapiro suddenly decided to become a “rapper” himself in the worst so-called “song” ever created.
Right-wing pundit Shapiro has frequently touted the claim that rap isn’t music. In one viral Tweet, he wrote, “Fact: rap isn’t music. And if you think it is, you’re stupid.” This is the formula that most of his hateful stances take, in which he falsely labels something as “fact,” provides no evidence for his claim, and then uses his fictitious fact to call others “stupid,” the most sophisticated insult he can think of.
Several times, he has repeated the unoriginal argument that rap only has rhythm, and its supposed lack of melody and harmony means it’s not music. In the real world with the rest of us, almost anyone can agree that music comes in many forms and doesn’t have to adhere to a formula to qualify as “music.”
Additionally, arguing about rap feels very arbitrary in the face of larger social and political issues. At some point, one has to ask why it’s so crucial to Shapiro and if it has anything to do with rap’s African American roots. Still, anytime a conservative personally dislikes something, they are desperate to ruin it for everyone else. Hence, Shapiro has continued his campaign, going as far as to tell rappers to their faces that their music isn’t music and making a fool of himself reading Minaj’s “Pound Town” lyrics, only to get roasted by her. Now, after years of his bizarre anti-rap campaign, he is pretending to be a rapper.
Ben Shapiro makes a fool of himself in bizarre rap music video
Despite hating rap with a passion, Shapiro jumped at the chance to become a rapper himself when he recognized it as an opportunity to be racist. Unsurprisingly, he teamed up with Tom MacDonald to make a rap video. MacDonald is a rapper who rose to fame not for his musical talents but because his songs constantly regurgitate right-wing rhetoric. He won the hearts of white nationalists with his song “Whiteboy” and has continued to capitalize on the right-wing’s hatred. There are questions as to whether he even believes the things he raps or is just a troll encouraging right-wing hatred for his own gain.
So, after years of attacking accomplished rappers, Shapiro teamed up with a right-wing troll to create a rap song and music video called “Facts.” As you might guess from the title, it is a horrific song that spews tons of racist and transphobic rhetoric and claims they’re “facts,” with one of the very first lines being, “There’s only two genders.”
A lot of it also gloats about getting rich off of their hateful rhetoric, as MacDonald claims he’s “the biggest independent rapper in the whole freaking world,” and Shapiro talks about being “on television” and how his “pockets are fat.” As if the hateful, self-glorifying, deluded, and narcissistic lyrics aren’t bad enough, Shapiro actually attempts to rap.
It sounds just about how you’d expect: a talentless, overconfident man pretending he can rap. The results are bizarre, but Hotep Jesus came closest to describing it as sounding “like an AI-generated version of his own voice.”
He also looks like an 11-year-old boy who thinks putting his hoodie up makes him tough and cool. Meanwhile, just hours after the release, Shapiro was childishly calling himself “America’s #1 rapper” and claiming to be superior to artists like Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion. Even in his song, he had to urge everyone to get it to #1 on Billboard to inflate his ego further. Of course, while going wild reposting his song every five seconds, he has seemingly forgotten his stance that rap isn’t music. According to him, wouldn’t all the people listening to his song be considered “stupid,” and shouldn’t his Billboard placement be labeled illegitimate since that’s not “real music”? I think we should all do what he has been doing for the past five years and incessantly yell in his face that his song isn’t real because we don’t like it.
All within a matter of hours, Shapiro created the worst song in history, embarrassed himself even more than he has before, and reiterated for the umpteenth time that he’s a hypocrite who will immediately abandon his views to get attention. He can be smug all he wants about his song’s listeners, but we all know no one is listening to it because it’s good. It’s the same way conservatives ran to Chick-fil-A in hordes when they found out the CEO was homophobic or ran out to buy 15 copies of Hogwarts Legacy because J.K. Rowling is transphobic: They’re not doing it because they like it; they’re doing it because they’re so unhinged that they have to make huge public displays of their hatred.
Shapiro really shouldn’t be gloating about getting attention for being hateful instead of talented, especially when nearly the whole nation is laughing at what a hypocritical fool he is right now.
(featured image: Keith Griner/Getty)
