When Rob Base died on May 22 after a private battle with lung cancer, it hit Young MC hard. Base was a close friend who had attended his wedding in Phoenix just a few years earlier. When Young MC’s agent offered him, So he agreed to take over Base’s slot on June 26th at a concert in Washington, DC called “Freedom 250: The Great American State Fair”.
What Young MC says he didn’t know at the time: The event had connections to the Trump administration.
On Wednesday (May 27th) the organizers published an Instagram flyer with the lineup – and the backlash came promptly. The program, steeped in 90s nostalgia, included Vanilla Ice, Young MC, Milli Vanilli and C&C Music Factory as well as the Commodores, Flo Rida, Bret Michaels, Martina McBride and Morris Day and the Time. Within hours, Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory and Morris Day and the Time distanced themselves from the event. Morris Day released a statement on social media denying his band’s participation.
Morris Day cancels
“Contrary to rumors to the contrary, Morris Day & the Time will not be performing at the Great American State Fair,” Day wrote on Instagram. The caption read: “That’s out of the question for me.”
Shortly afterwards, Young MC also withdrew his appearance. Commenters had flooded his page – some calling him a “MAGA idiot” and pillorying him for accepting the gig. Young MC says the event was misrepresented from the start.
“I have informed my agent that I will not be performing at the Freedom 250 event,” he wrote on Facebook. “The artists were never told of any political involvement in the event. And despite organizers’ claims that the event was non-partisan, SPIN Magazine describes it as ‘Trump-backed.’ I hope to perform in DC soon at an event that is not so politically charged.”
Young MC, who helped shape ’90s hip-hop with his massive solo hit “Bust a Move,” explained why it was important for him to jump ship.
“Bait and switch” from the start
“I had no idea it was considered a ‘Trump-backed’ event – that was new to me,” says Young MC. “My thing was, ‘Tell me what the event is, what it’s about, who you are, and then give me the choice whether I want to participate or not.’ I was never given that choice. I was told one thing and then it was a bait-and-switch. From all the comments I’ve seen from the artists who dropped out, they all thought it was just a normal show in DC.”
Young MC has performed under various administrations since George HW Bush was in office. He supported Bill Clinton and was Presidential Partner for Barack Obama. But like many Americans, he says he has become increasingly alienated from the two-party system over time and now describes himself as an independent.
“I perform in front of audiences who have a wide variety of political beliefs – that’s not a problem for me,” he says. “I’ll keep it that way, that’s just the way it is. But if an event is sold to an artist as apolitical and non-partisan and then turns out to be hyper-partisan like a campaign event, then I have a problem with that.”
Fans applaud his transparency
Young MC decided to give up his slot late on Wednesday evening. He also personally responded to several negative comments, and many fans praised his candor. The user who called him a “MAGA idiot” finally apologized.
For Young MC, music is something sacred – he doesn’t want it to be used as a weapon.
“I see music as where you go to escape politics and the news. The division that you feel in a political space – that’s what I want to dissolve when you listen to my music,” he says. “I don’t ask people who they’re voting for when they come to my show or hear a song, and I don’t try to steer them one way or the other.
“Personally, I’m a political independent – not just because of my beliefs, but because of who I am. I’m so apolitical in my music that if I’m going to get into a controversy, I want it to be about something I really stand for – not a bait-and-switch where people suddenly say, ‘Oh, he’s doing a MAGA show.’ And I’m like, ‘Where does that come from?’”
No reason to fire the agents
Some fans have called on Young MC to fire his agents, but he says he has played more than 500 shows with them and has no reason to believe they tried to sabotage his career or deceive him.
“It just doesn’t make financial sense,” he says. “Once you get associated with a group on one side or the other, you’re costing yourself money by losing potential gigs on the other side – that’s how they see it. Regardless of my personal views, they want me to have the opportunity to perform in front of as many people as possible. I take the same approach and keep politics out of my music.”
And for anyone wondering whether the dropped artists coordinated their responses, Young MC insists they didn’t.
Everyone said the same thing
“Have you ever experienced something where all the artists involved say exactly the same thing?” he asks. “It’s not like we got together and said, ‘Let’s construct this story.’ No, everyone says the same thing. We didn’t know. For us it was a normal show in DC. I’m at the point where that’s really the more important point – not, ‘Oh, you gave in to the pressure.’ It really isn’t. I don’t see how anything positive could have come from this show, so I responded accordingly.”
