Over the weekend, when the lineup for the upcoming Red White & Rock concert — a Republican LGBT event in Nashville, Tenn. — was announced, people noticed an odd figure included atop the promotional poster.
Next to Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberley Guilfoyle was once-popular rapper Chingy, among the musical acts scheduled to perform at the event next weekend along with other country and pop singers.
This led to backlash on social media, with many clowning him for doing the event for a check.
Naturally, the St. Louis rapper caught wind of the conversation on social media and responded in the comments of Baller Alert’s Instagram page, which posted about the event.
He 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.”
In another comment, he responded to the jokes about him being broke. “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,” he wrote. “All this non sense yall creating bother me none. I’m a performers wether theses people political, homosexual or whetever 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 peform and make timeless music. That I did.
Following the social media criticism, the “Right Thurr” rapper shared that he is backing out of the Republican event. He returned to the comment section of Baller Alert’s IG to leave his explanation. “YOU KNO WHAT JUS CAUSE I DONT WANT TO 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. THURR YOU HAVE IT.”
It seems that Chingy did not want to face the same criticism that Chrisette Michele received after she performed at former president Donald Trump’s Inaugural Ball after the 2016 election. Many other Black artists had declined invitations, and Michele’s hopes for her performance to be “a bridge” were dismissed by music fans and longtime supporters.