Mentions of Trump and Clinton in Hip Hop Lyrics

The fight for the White House isn’t just about picking one candidate over the other, more and more it seems like an outright clash of cultures. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will take each other on at Washington University on October 9 in St. Louis, Missouri, for the second presidential debate. It’s not going to be like an all-out freestyle battle, but a little hip hop state of mind probably wouldn’t hurt either of them.

Actually, both nominees have made their inroads into hip hop a long time ago. Their names have been mentioned in hip hop lyrics for over twenty years, as data compiled by FiveThirtyEight shows. Hillary has been on the rappers' radar ever since she lived in the White House first time around with Bill in the 1990s. Trump’s name has been dropped in rap lyrics as far back as 1989 because of his previous entrepreneurship.

As our infographic shows, Trump beats Clinton by far in terms of mentions. Even though most African Americans don’t favour his politics today, in hip hop he’s been an often cited reference when braggin’ & boastin’ about financial prowess and status signified by high towers. Then again, Trump's street cred has seriously crumbled on his way to becoming presidential candidate. Still, there might be one or two (battle) rappers out there secretly diggin' his uncompromizing in-your-face style.