Rapper Chingy is receiving backlash for his participation in a GOP-led rights summit with the nation’s original and largest organization representing LGBT conservatives and straight allies.
His name appeared on the “Red White & Rock” flyer posted by the sponsoring organization, alongside people like Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. as headliners.
When The Jasmine Brand posted the flyer, many of their followers chimed in with a plethora of thoughts about his booking.
🔥🎸READY TO ROCK? 🇺🇸🔥
Log Cabin is heading to music city on Sunday, September 29th!
TICKETS: https://t.co/LNV2xPWZdp pic.twitter.com/77LzeE96Xa
— Log Cabin Republicans (@LogCabinGOP) September 20, 2024
Despite his attempt to deflect political associations, many social media users compared him to Chrisette Michele, who faced similar criticism for performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“They better do him like they did Chrisette Michele,” one comment read, while another agreed and said, “Drag him, like yall did Chrisette Michele! @tyrese Where are you? Cause you had a lot of heat for Chrisette.”
Chingy’s planned appearance at the event has reignited the conversation about artists aligning with controversial causes for money.
“Let Chingy do what he gotta do for a pork chop and pay his light bill in peace. Cause his performance ain’t gone sway my vote one bit,” One commenter bluntly put it.
Someone else wrote, “All money ain’t good money, Chingy. This is the difference between chasing a dollar and crafting a brand.”
A third comment read, “At least he said it was for money only most people wouldn’t even admit that.”
Chingy was so overwhelmed by people blasting him for participating at the controversial Log Cabin event that he addressed his fans and critics with a statement.
The “Right Thurr “ chart-topper wrote, “I’m a say this one time. MY JOB IS TO PERFORM AND I GET PAID TO PERFORM, NOT CAURR ABOUT POLITICS. NOW YALL FIND SUMIN ELSE TO DO WITH YURR TIME.”
He added, “HEY YALL THE MAYOR JUST MADE SEPT 14TH CHINGY DAY IN ST LOUIS! WHY IS THAT NOT ON YALL BLOGS PAGES?”
One person told him, “Just tell us that you’re down bad,” according to Baller Alert, to which he replied, “You can’t be down bad when you just bought a 500k house pimp.”
“Those people don’t hate me because they love my music. Music isn’t racist and that’s how I play it. All this nonsense y’all creating bothers me none,” he continued.
He added, “I’m a performer, whether these people are political, homosexual, or whatever—they all love music. I have classic records they all love, and I will perform them for them. So I hope that helps you innerstand that my job as an artist is to perform and make timeless music. That I did.”
Chingy continued to make attempts to plead his case across social media. One Instagram flat out asked the rapper, “Damn you a Trump Supporter now?” to which he replied, “No, correction I’m a Chingy supporter. My job is performing not politics.”
This wouldn’t be the first time Chingy’s support of Donald Trump has gotten pushback.
In 2016, the rapper sent out a tweet endorsing Trump.
“Politics vs society. People should innerstand that politics is a business jus like the job you work at. I vote for @realDonaldTrump,” he wrote in January 2016. After posting the tweet, the rapper was hit with a barrage of reactions, resulting in him walking back his endorsement and admitting that he was not fully informed.
“Everything I wrote has been taken completely out of content…but I’m trending, though. lmao #LiveofACeleb #TwitterIsTheDevil #NoEndorsement,” he tweeted later that day.
He later said, according to Billboard, “I saw that as being some good things. Of course, we want to keep terrorism out of the country. I didn’t know about some of the negative things he had to say about some of the races out here and about the hip-hop community. I didn’t know a lot of the negative things, I was kind of commenting off reading that article and reading some of the good things that he said, so that’s kind of where my comments came from.”
The Red White & Rock event that is causing so much discourse is a fundraiser for the Republican party and will be held on Sept. 29 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Nashville.
St. Louis native has not formally endorsed any candidate this go-round and does not seem to share any political content on his active Instagram account. However, after receiving mounting pushback, he has decided to pull out of the event.
“YOU KNO WHAT JUS CAUSE I DONT WANT RO BE IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS MESS. I HAVE DECLINED PERFORMING AND NO IM MOT A TRUMP SUPPORTER NOR SUPPORTER OF ANYONE ELSE BUT CHINGY. THUR YOU HAVE IT,” Chingy stated, according to an Instagram screenshot captured by TeaWithTia.