American rapper, Tauheed Epps or 2 Chainz, formerly known as "Tity Boy" from the southern Hip Hop duo, Playaz Circle, released a visual for his single, “100 Joints," from his joint album with Lil Wayne titled "Collegegrove" where he subtly addresses Muslim Americans in rebuttal to Donald Trump’s comments towards them. The song is the solo effort, done without Lil Wayne. Though 2 Chainz is not Muslim, he has ties to the religion with his name being Tauheed, which means “unity to God, one with Allah." Ironically enough, his name symbolizes the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam, the religion’s most fundamental concept.
The video opens with two quotes pulled directly from Trump’s website where he states that America should ban Muslims from entering the United States, then switches to the actual video that portrays a Muslim American family eating dinner and running errands throughout their day. It ends with a message from 2 Chainz stating “Muslim Americans live their day to day life just like all other Americans . . . They are not all terrorists that hate America.” After listening to the song, you realize that it has absolutely nothing to do with Islam, but that’s the point. The parallel between the irrelevance of the visual to this song proves a greater message that most Americans and even Trump supporters need to understand.
Islam is a religion that consists of people from all over the world, people of all races. In fact, there are white American Muslims living among us today. So, it is primitive to constrain a religion to a certain region, race of people and the acts of those that practice Islam. Trump is not the only candidate to (bluntly) express his Islamophobic views. When his statement was released, Hillary responded by telling Trump he doesn’t “get it” and that his proposal will only make us “less safe." It is easy to miss that the other half of this tweet is Islamophobic. She is suggesting that the ban of Muslims will awaken the "angry" gene that only the descendants of Ishmael inherited.
However this year’s presidential race has created great speculation among millennials and non-millennials that care about who the next leader of the free world will be. Artists all over have been criticizing the candidates, through song, snap chats and Twitter polls. And with the raising of awareness among the youth who have been responsible in protecting and urging the protection of our LGBT, POC and Muslim youth, it is commendable for 2 Chainz to have chosen this concept for his music video.
