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A few of the songs on Eminem‘s The Death of Slim Shady: (Coup de Grâce) album hit a bit too close to home for the rapper’s daughter, Hailie Jade Scott. On this week’s episode of her Just a Little Shady podcast, Hailie tackled her emotional reaction to a pair of songs on Em’s Billboard 200 chart-topping twelfth LP that have a very personal message.
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“Speaking of things I watched this past week, which I guess I’ll say watched, but I refused to watch again — the ‘Somebody Save Me’ music video is out and I did watch the thing,” Hailie, 28, said of the emotional clip featuring footage of her as a child underneath lyrics from her dad lamenting the countless hours and days he missed due to his struggle with drugs and alcohol; Em celebrated 16 years of sobriety in April.
“I watched it in its entirety. I don’t think I can do it again. I definitely cry every time I hear it at all,” Hailie said of the song featuring Em lashing himself for his shortcomings as a father. “Another pill as I start to spiral/ Message to my daughters/ I don’t even deserve the father title/ Hailie, I’m so sorry/ I know I wasn’t there for your first guitar recital,” Eminem raps on the tune featuring a mournful chorus from Jelly Roll about seeking salvation. “Didn’t walk you down the aisle/ Missed the birth of your first child/ Your first podcast, lookin’ down, sweetie.”
The clip features home video footage of Hailie playing the guitar at a recital, walking across the stage for graduation and celebrating her birthday as well as video of Em’s other children, Alaina Marie Scott, 31, Stevie Laine Scott, 22 and his younger brother Nate in scenes that bring Em to his knees as he seeks forgiveness.
Hailie said in addition to getting emotional over the heartbreaking lyrics and video for “Somebody Save Me,” she also can’t quite bring herself to listen to another one of her dad’s new songs, the Skylar Grey collab “Temporary.” That song features audio of Hailie as a baby and Marshall rapping, “A lot of people ask me, am I afraid of death?/ The truth is, I think what scares me the most/ Is not being able to say all the things I wanna say to you/ When I’m no longer here/ So this song is for Hailie for when that day comes/ Where’s Hailie? Where’s she at?”
Co-host and BFF Brittany Ednie said she wasn’t sure when she’d be able to watch “Save Me” either. “I’m gonna have to brace myself for that one.” Ednie had listened to “Temporary,” however, and she said the song “broke me.”
For now it’s to too much for Hailie. “I audibly sobbed… I think for both songs, but especially ‘Temporary.’” However, after watching the video and listening to the songs, Hailie praised her parents for “doing such a good job” when she was growing up to shield her from the reality of “how bad things were. But now as an adult in hindsight it’s so scary to think about and I think that’s why I get emotional… I will say if you’ve ever lost an addict or loved one, I feel for you,” she added on the verge of tears.
Eminem shares Hailie with ex-wife Kim Scott and as any Slim Shady fan knows, the rapper and his ex have had a tumultuous history over the years. Hailie said she really enjoyed the video and watching clips of her and her siblings when thy were younger, though she noted that another very personal Eminem track, “Mockingbird,” is yet another one she can’t listen to anymore without getting very emotional. “The older I get the less I can listen to any of the songs,” she said.
Watch Hailie discuss her reaction to “Somebody Save Me” below.
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Macklemore said he canceled an upcoming October concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates’ role “in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan through its reported support of the paramilitary force that’s been fighting government troops there.
The announcement by Macklemore reignited attention to the UAE’s role in the war gripping the African nation. While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the Rapid Support Forces and supporting its leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, United Nations experts reported “credible” evidence in January that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad.
Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions including Darfur. Estimates suggest over 18,800 people have been killed in the fighting, while over 10 million have fled their homes. Hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.
At a contentious U.N. Security Council meeting in June, Sudan’s embattled government directly accused the UAE of arming the RSF, and an Emirati diplomat angrily told his counterpart to stop “grandstanding.” The UAE has been a part in ongoing peace talks to end the fighting.
The Emirati Foreign Ministry offered no immediate comment on Macklemore’s public statement Sunday, nor did the city-state’s Dubai Media Office. Organizers last week announced the show had been canceled and refunds would be issued, without offering an explanation for the cancelation.
In a post Saturday on Instagram, Grammy winner Macklemore said he had a series of people “asking me to cancel the show in solidarity with the people of Sudan and to boycott doing business in the UAE for the role they are playing in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis.”
Macklemore said he reconsidered the show in part over his recent, public support of Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. He recently has begun performing a song called “Hind’s Hall,” in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab killed in Gaza in a shooting Palestinians have blamed on Israeli forces opening fire on a civilian car.
“I know that this will probably jeopardize my future shows in the area, and I truly hate letting any of my fans down,” he wrote. “I was really excited too. But until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there.”
He added: “I have no judgment against other artists performing in the UAE. But I do ask the question to my peers scheduled to play in Dubai: If we used our platforms to mobilize collective liberation, what could we accomplish?”
The RSF formed out of the Janjaweed fighters under then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.
Dubai, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and other tourist destinations, long has tried to draw A-list performers in the city-state at a brand-new arena and other venues. However, performers in the past have acknowledged the difficulties in performing in the UAE, a hereditarily ruled federation of seven sheikhdoms in which speech is tightly controlled.
That includes comedian Dave Chappelle, who drew attention in May in Abu Dhabi when he referred to the Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide” while also joking about the UAE’s vast surveillance apparatus.
Macklemore, a 41-year-old rapper born Benjamin Hammond Haggerty in Kent, Washington, won Grammy awards in 2014 for his breakout song, “Thrift Shop.”
The Isaac Hayes estate is taking Donald Trump to court.
On Friday (Aug. 23), the late soul singer’s son Isaac Hayes III announced on social media that a federal judge had granted his father’s estate an emergency hearing in their lawsuit against the former president, who has been using “Hold On, I’m Coming” without authorization during multiple campaign rallies.
“The Federal Court has granted our request for an Emergency Hearing to secure injunctive relief,” Hayes III wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Donald Trump, the RNC, Trump, Trump for President Inc. 2024, Turning Point and The NRA are required to appear in court September 3rd, 2024 at the Northern U.S. District Federal Court in Atlanta. See you in court.”
On Aug. 11, lawyers for Isaac Hayes Enterprises filed a notice of copyright infringement and threatened further legal action against the Trump campaign over its use of the Sam & Dave classic at multiple Trump rallies without authorization from 2022-2024.
“Today, on the anniversary of my father Isaac Hayes’ death we have repeatedly asked Donald Trump, the RNC and his representatives not to use ‘Hold on I’m Coming’ written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter during campaign rallies but yet again, in Montana they used it,” Hayes III wrote on X on Aug. 10.
He added the following day, “We demand the cessation of use, removal of all related videos, a public disclaimer, and payment of $3 million in licensing fees by August 16, 2024. Failure to comply will result in further legal action.”
Hayes died Aug. 10, 2008, at the age of 65. He and David Porter wrote “Hold On, I’m Coming,” which was recorded by soul duo Sam & Dave, and issued on the Stax label in 1966, peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has had numerous run-ins with other musical acts. Scores of top artists and songwriters have objected to his campaign’s use of their songs at political rallies since he first ran for president in 2015, among them The Rolling Stones, Adele, Rihanna, Sinead O’Connor‘s estate and Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler.
“It is most unfortunate that these artists have publicly posted on their social media and asked Team Trump and other candidates not to use their music — and yet their candidates keep using their music,” James L. Walker Jr., an attorney for Hayes Enterprises, previously stated.
On Friday, Foo Fighters joined the list of artists who are opposed to Trump using their music during his events. The Dave Grohl-fronted group’s 1997 anthem “My Hero” was played while Trump welcomed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage Glendale, Ariz., after the independent presidential candidate suspended his campaign and endorsed the Republican nominee.
“Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were, they would not have granted it,” a spokesperson tells Billboard of the unauthorized usage. Furthermore, “appropriate actions are being taken” against the campaign, the spokesperson continues, and any royalties received as a result of this usage will be donated to the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign.
The move marked the second time in the week — and third time in August — Trump’s campaign had run afoul of a superstar for using music without permission. On Tuesday (Aug. 22), Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung posted a 13-second video on his X account of footage of Trump stepping off a plane as Beyoncé’s “Freedom” played. The video arrived long after his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Harris, had been using the song (with permission) for weeks.
Beyoncé’s record label and music publisher sent a cease-and-desist notice on Wednesday (Aug. 21) to Trump’s campaign over its use of “Freedom.” Later that evening, the video was deleted from Cheung’s X account.
See Isaac Hayes III’s posts on X below.
🚨Breaking 🚨The Federal Court has granted our request for an Emergency Hearing to secure injunctive relief.Donald Trump, @realdonaldtrump, the RNC, Trump, Trump for President Inc. 2024, Turning Point and The NRA are required to appear in court September 3rd, 2024 at the…— Isaac Hayes III (@IsaacHayes3) August 23, 2024
A 26-year-old man has turned himself into police, saying he was responsible for the Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary, German authorities announced Sunday (Aug. 25).
Duesseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor’s office that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack.”
“This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement said.
Federal prosecutors said they were investigating on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and membership in a foreign terrorist organization. The suspect, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, was taken later Sunday from the police station in Solingen to make a first appearance before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.
The suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, police confirmed to The Associated Press. The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year.
On Saturday (Aug. 24), the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
The claim couldn’t be independently verified. Only a small number of claims on the site have turned out to be completely baseless, said Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London. However “ISIS’ strategy for a number of years has been to claim attacks which are merely ‘inspired’, in other words, in which the link between organization and attacker is merely ideological.”
Friday’s attack plunged the city of Solingen into shock and grief. A city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf, Solingen was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary.
People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.
The festival, which was due to have run through Sunday, was canceled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. Instead, residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.
“Warum?” asked one sign placed amid candles and teddy bears. Why?
Among those asking themselves the question was 62-year-old Cord Boetther, a merchant fron Solingen.
“Why does something like this have to be done? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts,” Boetther said.
Officials had earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.
The attack comes amid debate over immigration ahead of regional elections next Sunday in Germany’s Saxony and Thueringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four more people injured.
The IS militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.
Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.
Donald Trump may consider Robert F. Kennedy Jr. his hero, given he played the Foo Fighters’ 1997 anthem “My Hero” to welcome him to the stage at a rally Friday (Aug. 23) in Glendale, Arizona, after the independent presidential candidate suspended his campaign and endorsed the Republican nominee — but the band is calling the move a big zero.
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“Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were, they would not have granted it,” a spokesperson tells Billboard of the unauthorized usage. Furthermore, “appropriate actions are being taken” against the campaign, the spokesperson continues, and any royalties received as a result of this usage will be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign.
“I don’t think too many of you people have heard of him, he’s very low-key,” Trump said before the chorus of “My Hero” began blaring as Kennedy joined Trump onstage and a row of flash pots went off. “He’s a very low-key person, but he’s highly respected. He is a great person. I’ve known him for so long. For the past 16 months. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
Additionally, in a response to being asked by the X account with the name Wu-Tang Is for the Children if the band “let Trump use ‘My Hero’ to welcome RKJ Jr. on stage,” the Foo Fighters account simply replied, “No,” and then posted the exchange, adding, “Let us be clear.”
The move marks the second time this week — and third time this month — Trump’s campaign has run afoul of a superstar for using music without permission. On Tuesday (Aug. 22), Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung posted a 13-second video on his X account of footage of Trump stepping off a plane as Beyoncé’s “Freedom” played. The video arrived long after his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, had been using the song (with permission) for weeks.
On Wednesday (Aug. 21), Beyoncé’s record label and music publisher sent a cease-and-desist notice to Trump’s campaign over its use of “Freedom.” Later that evening, the video was deleted from Cheung’s X account.
Additionally, on Aug. 11, lawyers for the Isaac Hayes estate filed a notice of copyright infringement and threatened further legal action against the Trump campaign over its use of Hayes’ “Hold On, I’m Coming” at multiple Trump rallies without authorization between 2022 and 2024.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Three people were killed and at least four were seriously wounded in a knife attack on Friday at a festival in the western German city of Solingen, police said.
Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9.30 p.m. to an unknown perpetrator having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof. Police said that the perpetrator was on the run, and that they so far had only very thin information on the assailant.
One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked festivalgoers to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.” He said many people had been wounded by “a knifeman.”
At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while many police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights were on the road and several streets were closed off.
Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post that “this evening, we in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament.”
“It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,” he added.
The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt quoted Celine Derikartz, its reporter covering the festival, as saying that “the atmosphere is spooky.” She said a party atmosphere had turned to shock within minutes and she saw festivalgoers weeping.
The “Festival of Diversity,” marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
Germany’s top security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, recently proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimeters (4.7 inches), which is allowed now.
This story was originally published by the Associated Press.
Kamala Harris is a big music fan.
The Democratic presidential nominee took part in the music game Track Star, where she had to guess a song by a few seconds of its instrumental, winning money for each correct answer. Harris easily identified a song from Stevie Wonder, whom she called “one of the greatest musicians who ever lived. […] He’s a lyricist, he’s a poet, he’s very active on social justice issues and he’s actually a friend.”
Harris also admitted that because of her schedule lately, gearing up for the presidential elections, “this is probably the most music I’ve listened to in a long time.” She continued, “Both of my parents loved music. It was part of my childhood. We would go to sleep with them playing music all the time.”
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She concluded by noting that the song everyone should know is Roy Ayers Ubiquity’s 1976 hit, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.” She admitted, “It’s one of my favorite songs.”
Harris recently sat down with her Vice President selection, Tim Walz, for a wide-ranging discussion, where they brought up the music that shaped their lives. For Walz, it started with Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 album The River, which he called a “transformational piece of music” for him. He also shared his love for Bob Seger. “My first car, it was the summer of 1980 and I’d been saving up. I buy a 1973 orange Chevy Camaro,” he recalled. “Got an eight-track player in it. The previous owner left Bob Seger’s Night Moves in there. I listened to it, and it’s kind of the soundtrack of my life. […] What’s really great about it is I’ve got a ’79 international that’s my car and it’s got an eight-track player in it. I have the very eight-track to this day.”
Harris added that while Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis and John Coltrane were main fixtures within her family home, one of her “personal favorite musicians” is Minnesota’s own Prince. “My husband Doug and I — I’m more of a hip-hop girl, and he’s more Depeche Mode,” she shared. “However, in the Venn diagram of things, Prince he and I love the same. Talk about how Prince was with that guitar, man. I almost know by heart every one of those songs.”
John Rich has thoughts about a potential Taylor Swift endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The Big & Rich musician took to X on Friday (Aug. 22) to write, sarcastically, “I can’t wait for Taylor Swift to tell me how to vote.” I can’t wait for Taylor Swift to tell me how to vote. […]
Presidential politics has been its own form of pop stardom for decades — certainly since Bill Clinton worked the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, and probably since actor Ronald Reagan won the White House. At some point during that time, the party conventions became less like political meetings and more like pop concerts — staged presentations, usually in arenas that also host concerts, where icons perform their greatest hits. This year former president Barack Obama even came out during the Democratic National Convention to present a sly remix of his own tag line as a tribute to vice president Kamala Harris: “Yes she can.”
Like most remixes, this requires some knowledge of the original, so it’s not aimed at everyone — a 25-year-old voter would have been nine when Obama’s “Yes we can” campaign slogan first got big. The point is to rally superfans, excite influencers and inspire enough enthusiasm to pull in some undecided voters. It’s politics as cinematic universe — now with blinking LED wristbands and the “politics of joy.”
Increasingly, the modern way of expressing a worldview is to join a fan army, of a musician, a content creator, or even a politician. Now that pop culture has swallowed everything, fan relationships help people define what tribe they belong to, the way class or place of origin did before the Internet made those things so much less relevant. Supporting former president Donald Trump isn’t so much about favoring his policies, whatever they are, as about liking his frankness (or his insanity) or sharing his sense of grievance. (Isn’t everything rigged?)
The idea of a fan “army,” as opposed to a “club,” implies some kind of tension — or at least a tendency for devotees to define themselves against other tribes. Part of supporting Trump is condemning the media and “the deep state,” just like part of loving BTS is bemoaning that journalists just don’t get how great they are. Sides have always been chosen — think about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — but now who fans don’t like is as important as who they do.
Not so long ago, politics involved… well, it involved more actual politics. Democrats wanted a bigger role for government, while Republicans like Grover Norquist wanted to drown it in the bathtub. Obama and Trump made it more about personality and worldview — “Yes we can” or “Make America great again.” (To Obama, the arc of history was bending toward justice; to Trump, everything was just going downhill.) Obama had plenty of policy ideas, but he campaigned on hope and change, which are hard to be against — who could run on despair and stasis? Besides, it’s harder than ever to pass ambitious legislation these days.
The conventions, which started as actual meetings and then became appointment viewing for people interested in politics, are now aimed more at fans of a certain party. And they deliver. Most people I know, most of whom are Democrats, think Harris did great, and I agree. But how could she not? She had an enthusiastic audience, good warm-up acts, even nice lighting. Most important, she has the momentum of momentum. The real question is how she’ll do with journalists and how she’d fare in a debate against Trump.
The closest thing to an open question was the potential for disruptive protests over the war in Israel and Gaza, which seemed like they could echo the ones that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, also in Chicago. (With Hamas and Hezbollah firing rockets at Israel daily, it seems weird to refer to this as a war in Gaza.) Back then, anti-war protesters in Grant Park chanted “the whole world is watching” — a line from a Bob Dylan song — as police beat and arrested them. Recently, some did the same, but these days the whole world can now see everything on social media, though they can sometimes struggle to tell if it’s real or generated by AI.
After every big pop culture moment comes the fan army drama. In this case, that means Harris supporters have to convince far-leftists that they’re better off voting for her than staying home. Robert Kennedy plans to endorse Trump, because maybe he can get a look at the Roswell files. And Trump will complain that he’d be much more popular if only the charts were tabulated differently.
In November, we’ll figure out who’s No. 1. Until then, we have to wait and see if Taylor Swift will endorse a candidate — and whether either one will be half as effective as she is at using her dedicated fans to generate mainstream attention.
During a chilly week on the cusp of autumn (Aug. 19-22), history was made in Chicago, IL. On Thursday (Aug. 22), the final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris officially became the first Black woman and first Indian-American to accept a major party presidential nomination.
Throughout the week, the Democratic party’s biggest and rising stars joined forces with a few members of Hollywood’s A-List to help Vice President Harris along her path to the Oval Office. Emmy winner Kerry Washington and SAG Award nominee Tony Goldwyn — who famously played ruthless fixer Olivia Pope and fictional U.S. President Fitzgerald Grant on Shonda Rhimes’ hit ABC political drama Scandal — were two notable actors who served as emcee, as were Tony winner Mindy Kaling, Emmy winner Kenan Thompson, comedian-actor Hughley, and Emmy nominee Eva Longoria. Of course, the star power wasn’t limited to entertainers, with a host of Democratic Party titans delivering rousing speeches, including former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz.
Each night featured several musical performers that showcased the breadth of America’s musical history, from country and hip-hop to soul and Americana. On Monday night (Aug. 19), Grammy-nominated country star Mickey Guyton delivered a gorgeous rendition of her unity anthem “All American,” while Jason Isbell performed the moving “Something More Than Free,” the title track from his 2015 LP. Night two (Aug. 20) saw Patti LaBelle belt her way through “You Are My Friend” to soundtrack the in memoriam segment, and Common thrilled the packed arena with “Fortunate,” a cut from his recently released joint album with Pete Rock. For the convention’s third night (Aug. 21), Maren Morris performed “Better Than We Found It,” the great Stevie Wonder gave a lengthy speech before launching into a groovy rendition of his 1973 Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Higher Ground” (No. 4), and John Legend and Sheila E. joined forces for “Let’s Go Crazy” in tribute to Prince, who shares a home state with Walz in Minnesota. To close out the convention (Aug. 22), The Chicks opened the primetime portion with the National Anthem and P!nk wailed a heart-wrenching version of “What About Us” alongside her talented daughter, Willow Sage.
Led by Harris’ adoption of Charli XCX‘s brat aesthetic in the earliest moments of her presidential campaign, the 2024 election cycle has become incredibly intertwined with pop music. That trend continued at the DNC, with the campaign’s official anthem — Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar‘s 2016 duet “Freedom”– blaring through the speakers what felt like every five minutes. Jon Batiste’s “Freedom” — a cut from 2021’s We Are, which made him the first Black artist in 14 years to win the album of the year Grammy — also played before and after every campaign ad aired as an interlude between speakers. From the delightfully zany roll call to the “surprise appearance” that never happened, the DNC was a large-scale demonstration of how music and pop celebrity can be wielded by politics that placate at best and pedal platitudes and paltry promises at worst.
Here are the five best moments of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Common Puts On For Chi-Town