Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff dance to live hip-hop music during a 50th anniversary celebration of hip-hop at the Vice President’s residence. (Image: AP Photo)
Kamala Harris hosted a party at her residence to commemorate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop but trolls chose to attack her for having fun.
Vice President Kamala Harris last week hosted a party in celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary at the vice presidential residence. Videos on social media went viral where the Indian-origin Black American leader from California was seen shaking a leg with the music genre’s pioneers and stars.
Common, Jeezy, MC Lyte and Roxanne Shante were among the hip-hop artists invited to join Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff for the party. The video where Kamala Harris is seen dancing to a song produced by Q-Tip, of the influential alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, attracted trolls and Kamala’s political adversaries, who were quick to rebuke the leader for taking time off.
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Podcaster and political strategist Joey Mannarino took to X, formerly Twitter, to say that the timing was not right, while lacing it with indecent, sexual remarks. “It’s mid-September and our country is burning down: inflation rages, an economic depression looms, illegal immigration tears us apart at the seams. Joe Biden is somewhere sleeping and Kamala Harris is dancing to Q-Tip at a backyard party. Hopefully she doesn’t get too drunk and go OG Throat Goat on someone!”
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Anthony Brian Logan, another ‘political strategist’, rebuked Kamala Harris for her “granny moves”.
However, Kamala Harris was unfazed during the entire party. “Hip-hop culture is American culture,” she told the crowd while pointing out that hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every aspect of America’s popular culture”.
“It has always channelled the voices of the people. It tells the stories that don’t make the news,” she further added, as she greeted guests with her husband Doug Emhoff.
“This is a hip-hop household!” Emhoff said.
Hip-hop’s 50th birthday has inspired a host of anniversary events this year across the United States and also in England. Music researchers and enthusiasts trace the genre’s creation to an August 11, 1973, back-to-school party where 18-year-old Clive Campbell, also known as DJ Kool Herc, deejayed at a Bronx apartment building in New York City.
Hip-hop, now a global artform, has become one of the world’s most influential cultural forces, embedding itself into social and racial justice movements and creating a multibillion-dollar industry built on generations of rapping, emceeing, deejaying, breaking and graffiti.
Harris also in a tribute to Public Enemy rapper Chuck D has described rap as “Black America’s CNN”.
The trolling of Kamala Harris brings back memories of Sanna Marin, the former Finnish Prime Minister, who was trolled by critics and her adversaries, when a video leaked showing the leader dancing with friends at a party.
(with inputs from Associated Press)
