Ed. note: As long as humans have been making music, it’s been used as a form of protest. As part of KQED Arts’ 100 Days project, documenting artists’ responses to our new administration in its earliest days, I’ve asked Bay Area musicians to get in touch with songs they’ve written or recorded that serve as reactions to our current political climate. Over the next couple months, I’ll be highlighting the most compelling entries I receive, along with a few words from the artist about their inspirations and intentions.
Robin DuPont, “He Will Not Divide Us”
“Usually it takes me hours, sometimes days, and on occasion months to write a song,” says Robin DuPont, a 20-year-old rapper living in Hayward, of his track — the lyrics of which take Pres. Trump to task for how his proposed policies will affect immigrants and people of color. “[This time] I felt so angry and disappointed … I had so much bottled up about this election and the person the American people voted for that I wrote my verse in less than five minutes.”
DuPont is a first-generation American. He was born in Southern California to parents who had immigrated from Mexico, were undocumented, and lived in fear of deportation — a fear that came to fruition in 2012, when DuPont’s father was ordered to leave the U.S. with 30 days notice. The musician was 15.