Anti-Trump Protest Song Brings Battle to the Dance Floor

Country music leans Republican, but the dance floor is Democrat territory and one of clubland’s reigning divas isn’t hiding her disdain for the President of the United States.

“It is difficult to respect corruption,” says Amuka, a popular music vocalist who appears in several tracks on the latest Public Enemy album, The Evil Empire of Everything. Her new song with Grapefruit Sound Lab is a 5-alarm siren to fans, urging them to beware of the proclamations coming from today’s White House. The song’s title? “Don’t Fall For It.”

"Our country has never experienced such division,” she argues. "(Trump) is encouraging all the racists, haters, bigots and unsavory characters to take off their masks, let their hate flags fly and create havoc.

"It’s time to get our minds right again," she says.

Of course, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of anti-Trump songs released since 2016, from emerging artists to some of the biggest in the industry. Often the most powerful have been those that refuse to mention him by name, like Janelle Monae’s “I Got the Juice”, from her 2018 album Dirty Computer, and A Tribe Called Quest on “We the People”. Bruce Springstein took aim at Trump and branded him a “con man” in his song “That’s What Makes Us Great”, released in April 2017.

“Don’t Fall For It” is not Amuka’s first anti-Trump single. She released "Natural Born Loser" with Radioinactive, Kamal Humphrey's band (musical director for American idol), in 2016. It ended up among the top five of the year’s 30 Days, 30 Songs, a playlist of songs written and recorded by musicians for a Trump-free America.

Robert Cotnoir of Grapefruit Sound Lab, who wrote and produced “Don’t Fall For It", feels it is important that artists like Amuka lend their voices and talent to the resistance. “The micro is analogous to the macro,” he says, referring to today's dance floors being a reflection of the bigger world. “All of my songs are political in one way or another,” he adds.

Amuka admits to being a Never Trumper, though says she did try to give him and his administration a chance at the beginning of his term. “Then I watched how he allowed innocent people - including women and children, who do not look like him and who are obviously poor - to be abused at the border and treated like animals.”

She feels that the political situation is so dire today, she must do even more than sing her messages into the mic. She is whispering them to God. “Prayer changes things. I am praying for the President and everybody associated with his sinking ship. I am an American and I love my country.”

“Don’t Fall For It” is available on Apple Music. Visit https://www.grapefruitsoundlab.com.