Nelly is back in the hot seat. After already catching smoke for performing at Donald Trump’s 2025 Liberty Ball, the St. Louis rapper is reportedly keeping the Trump (and Trump-related) bookings alive with a performance at Executive Branch, the members-only Washington, D.C. club connected to Donald Trump Jr. Just like last time, the internet did not need a full press conference to form an opinion. Folks saw the headline, did the math, and started cooking.
The reason the reaction is so strong is bigger than one rapper taking one check. For a lot of Black fans, performing at Trump-related events feels like more than “just music.” Trump’s politics, rhetoric and history with Black communities have made him a hard line for plenty of people, so when rappers — especially rappers who came up off Black culture — pop out for his inauguration, his family’s club, or his political circle, fans see it as betrayal. It gives off a “the bag was bigger than the backbone” energy, and once that narrative sticks, good luck shaking it.
To be fair, most of the artists who got dragged tried to explain themselves. Nelly said his inauguration performance was about respecting the office, not necessarily endorsing Trump. Soulja Boy basically said he got paid and claimed he did not know how political the Crypto Ball would be. Snoop Dogg responded to the backlash by saying he was answering hate with love. But explanations only go so far when fans feel like the optics are nasty.
And that is where the conversation gets messy. Some rappers treat it like business. Some treat it like access. Some seem fully aligned with the movement. Either way, when Hip-Hop artists step on a Trump adjacent stage, people are going to have something to say. So, with Nelly’s latest reported booking bringing the whole debate back around, here are the rappers who have performed, appeared, or otherwise helped soundtrack Trump.
Nelly
Nelly is the easy starting point because he has been here twice now. He performed at Trump’s 2025 Liberty Ball during inauguration festivities, then defended the decision, saying it was not about politics and that he respected the office of the president. Now, with reports that he is set to perform at Donald Trump Jr.’s private D.C. club, the backlash has basically picked up right where it left off.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg shocked a lot of people when he performed at the Crypto Ball during Trump’s 2025 inauguration weekend. The event celebrated the crypto industry and Trump’s incoming administration’s pro-crypto posture, which made Snoop’s appearance feel wild to fans who remembered how hard he had criticized Trump years earlier. After the backlash, Snooped hopped online and said he was responding to hate with love, but plenty of people still looked at the whole thing sideways.
Rick Ross
Rick Ross was also part of the Crypto Ball conversation, performing alongside Snoop Dogg and Soulja Boy at the Trump-adjacent inauguration weekend event. Ross did not become the main face of the backlash the way Snoop and Nelly did, but his name was still in the mix because the optics were the same: a major Black rap figure showing up at a celebration connected to Trump’s return to power.
Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy performed at the Crypto Ball, too, and his response was very Soulja Boy. After fans got on him, he pushed back, saying he got paid and that he was “somewhat misled” about the event’s political nature. That explanation did not exactly save him from the jokes, but it did separate him from artists who seemed more openly aligned with Trump politically.
Lil Pump
Lil Pump did not just quietly take a check — he became one of Trump’s most visible rap supporters during the 2020 election. Trump brought him onstage at a Grand Rapids, Michigan rally the night before Election Day, even famously introducing him as “Little Pimp” before correcting himself. Pump’s moment was less a musical performance and more a full MAGA cameo, which might actually be worse depending on who you ask.
Waka Flocka Flame
Waka Flocka Flame has been one of the more openly pro-Trump rappers in recent years. He was announced as a guest at the Black Conservative Federation’s Legacy of Freedom Ball, held around Trump’s 2025 inauguration, an event framed to celebrate Trump’s second term. Waka’s inclusion drew backlash because this was not a “wrong place, wrong time” situation — he has publicly stood on his support, even when fans were not trying to hear it.
Fivio Foreign
Fivio Foreign was also listed among the expected celebrity guests for the Black Conservative Federation’s Legacy of Freedom Ball, the same inauguration adjacent event that featured Waka Flocka Flame. That matters because even when it is not a traditional concert performance, showing up at a political celebration tied to Trump still puts a rapper directly in the conversation — especially when fans are already questioning why Hip-Hop figures keep lending their names to these spaces.
Every artist on this list has a slightly different story. Some say it was about respect. Some say it was about money. Some say it was not that deep. Some are clearly standing ten toes down in MAGA world. But for fans, especially Black fans, the question is simple: When your career was built on Black audiences, Black culture and Black cool, what does it say when you choose to perform for — or publicly celebrate with — a political movement a lot of those same people feel harmed by?
That is why these moments keep turning into full-blown debates. It is not just about who rapped where. It is about what the stage represents. And whether they like it ot not, once these rappers step on it, the culture is going to ask them exactly who they were performing for — and what they were willing to ignore to do it.
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