Photo: Getty Images North America
A pair of pro-Trump artists has released a new song that glorifies lynching and racial violence, sparking widespread outrage online.
MAGA rapper Forgiato Blow and country singer JJ Lawhorn, both vocal supporters of Trump, released the controversial song, titled "Good vs. Evil," that includes lines like "We need a big tall tree and a short piece of rope" and "Hang 'em high at sundown."
The song, clearly invoking the history of lynchings in the Jim Crow South, was released within days of the death of Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a Black college student found hanging from a tree at Delta State University,
“3 days ago @ForgiatoBlow47 makes a song about lynching and then yesterday a Black man is lynched at his college. What else do you call this other than a call for violence?” one X user questioned.
More lyrics from the song make an apparent reference to "sundown towns," historically racist communities that violently enforce segregation after dark.
“Leave ’em swinging so the folks all know / you don’t mess around in our town," Lawhorn sings.
Another verse from Forgiato Blow, whose real name is Kurt Jantz, further escalates the rhetoric by referencing recent crimes involving Black and Latino suspects, including the murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley. He uses a racial slur while describing one of the suspects.
“We ought to do it like they did it way back in the day because granddaddy’s way works best,” Lawhorn sings in the chorus.
Social media users condemned the song for promoting dangerous rhetoric.
"Crazy to use hip hop a genre created by black Americans to promote lynching something that’s been done historically to black Americans and is an extreme act of hate and violence. This is disgusting," one person said.
"How fitting; that two days after this song’s release a young black man was found hanging in Mississippi (Delta State University)," another wrote.
“Where’s the RICO charge for this kind of incitement?” a third commenter wrote.
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