The election of U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden spurred reactions from across the music industry and caused tracks such as Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.,” NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” and YG’s “FDT” featuring Nipsey Hussle to return to the Billboard Charts. The commercial success has been especially large for “FDT” as the single saw 740 percent growth in sales following Biden’s electoral win over the weekend.
The song began experiencing steady 2,000 a day downloads, jumping to 3,000 downloads on November 7. “FDT” is an acronym for the song’s hook “Fuck Donald Trump,” a simple, catchy and recognizable mantra against Trump’s moral behavior and prejudice.
“FDT” was just one of the many collaborative singles both Compton rappers shared together, as their working partnership goes back to at least 2012. YG was a close friend of the late Nipsey Hussle, and performed at a tribute to the rapper at this year’s Grammy’s, which also featured John Legend, DJ Khaled, Meek Mill and Kirk Franklin.
Hussle passed away in March of 2019, following a shooting outside of the rapper’s store in Hyde Park on Slauson Ave near Crenshaw Blvd. The rapper would go on to posthumously win Best Rap Performance for “Racks In The Middle.”
YG released a song styled similarly to “FDT” called “FTP,” which is an acronym for “Fuck The Police.” He would go on to organize protest in Hollywood in support of Black Lives Matter and eventually showed footage from the demonstration in his music video for the new track. He recently appeared on a new version of Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power.”
Photo Credit: Brett Padelford
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