Rap-hating conservative pundit Ben Shapiro is now a rapper.
Shapiro, the founder of right-wing media empire The Daily Wire, teamed up with MAGA rapper Tom MacDonald—yes, MAGA rap is a real genre—on the lib-owning track “Facts,” which debuted Friday. Much like the rest of MacDonald’s oeuvre, this latest song centers on well-worn right-wing culture war talking points.
This time around, though, there’s the extra bonus of Shapiro—who has long complained that rap is not a real art form—busting out his own rhymes.
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Of course, the whole thing is purposely cringe, which is the entire point. Whether it’s MacDonald wearing an “I Don’t Care If I Offend You” hoodie in the video, or Shapiro spitting verses like “Homie I'm epic/don't be a WAP,” the song is merely another lazy exercise in titillating easily entertained conservatives while supposedly enraging “snowflake” liberals.
And that is Shapiro’s entire brand now. The Daily Wire’s modus operandi is providing its audience with an entire universe of “anti-woke” products. After first whipping up right-wing outrage over Disney becoming too gay or Hershey's chocolate offering “She/Her” bars or Harry’s Razors pulling its advertising from the conservative site, The Daily Wire then swoops in and sells pricey sub-par conservative alternatives to its loyal readers.
This also appears to be the case here. Trading off of his famous “facts don’t care about your feelings” motto, Shapiro awkwardly rattles off a bunch of trolly lyrics with the sole purpose of creating a viral clip. The expected outcome, naturally, is to capitalize on the recent trend of right-wing grievance songs that have stirred up controversy and found themselves topping the Billboard Hot 100.
Shapiro, in fact, explicitly spells that out at the end of his verse.
“Dogs, no one knows who you are/Keep hating on me on the internet,” he raps. “My comment section all woke Karens/and I make racks off compound interest.”
Shapiro continues: “Y’all live with your parents/Nikki take some notes. I just did this for fun/All my people download this, let's get a Billboard number one.”
But Shapiro and his colleagues flooding the zone on social media and urging everyone to download (and purchase) the song predictably appears to have worked. Within hours of the video debuting, “Facts” had climbed into the Top 5 of the iTunes Charts and #2 on the iTunes rap charts, ahead of superstar rappers Nikki Minaj and Eminem—prompting the right-wing commentator to gloat online.
This is going to be a long year.
