Will Donald Trump Be the First Hip-Hop President?
by Bob Schwartz
Hip-hop may be the most influential cultural movement of the past few decades. It is certainly the basis for the most popular and prevalent global music of the century so far.
Listen to it, like it, love it or loathe it, it is complex art. Among its elements is a brutal honesty, not only about conditions in life and the world, but about personal behavior and attitudes. And some of those behaviors and attitudes can reflect self-centeredness, narcissism, and an embrace of materialism and success, all of it verging on a very aggressive artistic id set free. Others will analyze the source of this, but there it is.
Here’s the irony, or maybe not ironic at all.
The above describes Donald Trump perfectly. Word for word, behavior for attitude, id for id.
Which suggests that Donald Trump, unknown to all of us, is one of the great hip-hop artists of the age. Even his talks are more like raps than speeches. That is not meant to reflect badly on hip-hop. Just an observation, contributing to answering the question of how this is happening.
So if Bill Clinton was the first black President (wrong; sorry Toni Morrison), maybe Donald Trump will be the first hip-hop President. Just don’t tell his supporters.
Bob Schwartz 
Trump is like hip-hop the same way the crazed muttering of a homeless schizophrenic is like a poetry slam – not much.
Thanks, Invisible Mikey.
As for “crazed”, readers know that I have previously written about Trump’s mental health.
But as for his being artless or artful, I do think he is an artist. Not “The Art of the Deal” (his book title, not mine) or a bull artist (which he may be). But an artist nonetheless, channeling pure instinct (“Id: The primitive, unconscious part of the personality that operates irrationally and acts on impulse to pursue pleasure.”) into public art—art that has been “bought” by millions.
1. Donald Trump didn’t write either the book or the title “Art of the Deal”. Those were authored by your “cousin”, Tony Schwartz. Trump signs his name to the work of others, like Bill Bennett did with “The Book of Virtues”.
2. Hip-hop, like all other poetic language arts, requires organized thought. Trump improvises without having a theme. It’s why he can’t dance.
1. Thanks for mentioning Tony Schwartz (yes, no relation). In a New Yorker piece this summer, he does reveal what it was like to work with Trump (Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All ). Among unsurprising revelations, Trump has practically no attention span and does not read books (or write them).
2. I have no idea about Trump’s dancing. As for organization and improvisation, I think he is a natural at certain limited but significant 21st century skills, such as media hogging. That may not be an art, but it is a talent. As I say, limited. Sort of an idiot savant.
Thanks. Supports the point that Trump can’t dance. Supports the point that Trump has mass media skills. What is unsettling about the clip, along with all Trump coverage/appearances from almost a year ago, is how he was viewed and treated back then. It was no more appropriate to treat him as a joke then than it is to treat him as a plausible President now.