As certain sects of Democrats continue to seriously eye Vice President Kamala Harris as a replacement for President Joe Biden atop the ticket for the 2024 Presidential Election, voters are reflecting on their perception of the history-making VP. Among those voters are Billboard-charting rapper and actor Guapdad4000.
On Thursday (July 11), Guap took to his official X page to quote a post featuring a clip from a 2019 Vice YouTube video in which Jamal Trulove, reflected on Harris’ role in sending him to prison for six years during her time as San Francisco’s district attorney.
“Kamala Harris basically sent my mom to jail, changing the course of me and [my] siblings’ lives,” Guap wrote. “She never looked up from whatever she was reading, she never even looked moms in her eyes in court.”
The “Bali” rapper’s tweet helped reignite social media conversations regarding Harris’ history as a “progressive prosecutor” and Black voters’ relationship to her — particularly in the wake of Biden’s disastrous debate performance and the subsequent hysteria about his viability as a candidate. In an exclusive statement to Billboard, Guapdad 4000 contextualizes his X post and opens up about the emotional impact of Harris’ role in his mother’s imprisonment.
“[First,] I have to highlight my momma to see if she wants me to divulge the full details,” he says. “I wrote the tweet thinking like, ‘Man, it just sounds like I’m not putting any accountability on my momma for committing a crime.’ But where we from and what’s illegal now, and especially the laws that was put in place in California during the Biden administration, it just feels like a slap in the face to the s—t that we had to go through.”
“The removal of a parent from my little sister’s life — even if it was briefly, even if it was a long time — no child should be going through that on purpose,” the Black and Filipino rapper continues. “Now, am I proud that my mom was moving illegally? No, but I understand the pressures of the hood when you were a parent, especially with kids like us. Literally, imagine taking care of me. Some support is needed.”
Harris’ record as a prosecutor came under heavy scrutiny during her first presidential campaign back in 2020. Though she touted herself as a “progressive prosecutor,” several instances throughout her time as both San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general highlighted her tendencies to fall in line with the status quo rather than pursuing true criminal justice reform.
“Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent,” wrote Lara Bazelon, the former director of Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent, in a 2019 New York Times op-ed. “Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony, and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.”
“The feeling that [my mother] described of [Harris] not being able to look somebody [she’s] sending to jail in their eyes is 1) unnerving and 2) dehumanizing as f—k,” says Guap, who celebrates the five-year anniversary of his Billboard Hot 100 debut next week. On the chart dated July 20, 2019, he debuted alongside several other rappers with “Costa Rica” (No. 75), a fan-favorite from Dreamville‘s 2019 compilation, Revenge of the Dreamers III.
As more and more voters continue to voice their disillusionment with the presumptive nominees from both the Democratic and Republican parties, some folks are making the tough choice to sit out the upcoming election, including Guap. According to FiveThirtyEight, 57% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Biden — that’s the highest his unfavorability rating has been since Jan. 1, 2022. Comparatively, just 53% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of former President Trump.
“Even knowing all of this, I still ended up voting for Biden [in 2020,]” notes Guap. “Now, would I vote for them? Honestly, [no.] We funding and are a part of a whole genocide. This country was built on so much racism. I’m not surprised, but as much as I wanted to cheer for a f—king Blasian vice president — and our president is so old, so she might as well be the pseudo president — [Kamala’s] done nothing to change my opinion about her… I ain’t voting for nobody.”
Billboard has reached out to Harris’ team for comment.
Check out Guapdad4000’s tweet below.
