A controversial Trump tweet of a video mocking former President Barack Obama’s endorsement of Joe Biden has drawn fire from a musician whose song was used in the viral video.
DJ Kool voiced his disapproval in a video posted to Instagram, joining a list of artists who have protested President Trump’s use of their work during rallies, campaign stops, and other public events.
“Let me clear my throat,” Kool said, reprising the name of his 1996 song. “I just want all of y’all to know that I didn’t have a damn thing to do with that. … I had nothing to do with the music that was being played in that Trump Twitter post. … And that’s me clearing my damn throat.”
In a post accompanying the video, D.C. native Kool, 62, said his management was addressing the issue, and he thanked his supporters, asking that they share the clip.
The video, which appears in the following tweet by Trump, has racked up more than 14 million views since it was posted Monday.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2020
Other artists have come after Trump for using their music at his events in playlists that the president is said to have selected. “Remember: the more inappropriate for a political event, the better,” a volunteer in charge of music at one event told the New Yorker about Trump’s selections. Among them have been Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” music from Broadway musicals Cats and Phantom of the Opera, and a handful of songs by the Rolling Stones, including the 1968 hit “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which often plays at the end of Trump rallies.
The Rolling Stones asked Trump to “cease all use” of the group’s music, but as singer Mick Jagger told fans during a live Twitter Q&A, they don’t have the power to stop him. “We said, like, ‘Don’t use our music,'” Jagger said.
He added: “So the thing is, when you appear in America … if you’re in a public place like Madison Square Garden or a theater, you can play any music you want, and you can’t be stopped. So, if you write a song and someone plays it in a restaurant that you go to, you can’t stop them. They can play what they want.”
In February, Neil Young wrote an open letter to the president complaining about Trump’s use of his music. Trump announced his bid for president to the sound of Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” and has continued to play it at events, frustrating the artist.
“’Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World’ is not a song you can trot out at one of your rallies,” he said in the letter.
“Every time ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ or one of my songs is played at your rallies,” Young continues, “I hope you hear my voice. Remember it is the voice of a tax-paying U.S. citizen who does not support you. Me.”
Trump has been spotted at several Young concerts and is known to be a fan. “He’s got something very special,” Trump told Rolling Stone magazine in 2008. “I’ve listened to his music for years. … I’ve met him on occasions, and he’s a terrific guy.”
Last year, after the Trump campaign played Prince’s “Purple Rain” at a Minnesota campaign rally, the musician’s estate published a 2018 letter from a Trump campaign attorney agreeing to no longer play the song.
“President Trump played Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis, despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music,” the estate wrote on Twitter with the letter attached.
After Trump played Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” at a political rally in Illinois on the same day as the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an attorney for Williams sent Trump a cease-and-desist letter. “There was nothing ‘happy’ about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday, and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose,” wrote Howard King, Williams’s attorney.
