Not Too Much Politics at Grammys—Until Busta Rhymes

Rapper called Trump 'President Agent Orange' during Tribe Called Quest set
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 12, 2017 11:21 PM CST
Not Too Much Politics at Grammys—Until Busta Rhymes
Busta Rhymes (right) performs at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards with A Tribe Called Quest on Sunday in Los Angeles.   (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

Jennifer Lopez mentioned artists standing up during tough times, and Katy Perry offered some subtle subtext during her own performance, but there wasn't too much in-your-face politics exhibited at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards Sunday night—until Busta Rhymes took the stage. A Tribe Called Quest gave one of the most animated performances of the night, with a special appearance by rappers Rhymes and Anderson .Paak for the already political song "We the People." The song, off ATCQ's 2016 album We got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service, includes the lyrics: "All you Black folks, you must go / All you Mexicans, you must go / And all you poor folks, you must go / Muslims and gays, boy, we hate your ways / So all you bad folks, you must go."

But Busta, who quickly started trending on Twitter after the group's performance, turned it up a notch in his apparent diss of President Trump. "I just wanna thank President Agent Orange for perpetuating all of the evil that you've been perpetuating through the United States," Rhymes said, per People, also throwing in a reference to the president's "unsuccessful attempt at the Muslim ban." As the Tribe members and .Paak broke through a wall set up on the stage, extras of all races, some wearing hijabs, joined them on the stage, and the performers raised their fists as "Resist!" was yelled, per Vox. (Check out the night's winners.)

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