20 artists who weren't afraid to get political in 2017

The unofficial anthem for January's Women’s March on Washington was “Tiny Hands,” a minute-long response to Donald Trump’s crude exhortation on the notorious Access Hollywood tape made public just before the 2016 election. Over a funky piano riff, with a sample of Trump’s gratuitous phrase, Apple chants “We don’t want your tiny hands anywhere near our underpants.”

2016 may have been the moment of Beyoncé’s great public political awakening, but she proved in 2017 that it’s not a phase. Her bilingual performance on the remix of J Balvin and Willy William’s Spanish-language reggaeton hit was a statement of Latin unity by the world’s biggest pop star and propelled the song to the upper reaches of the pop charts. The remix also raised money for disaster relief in the Caribbean and Mexico.

The country bro duo didn’t actually make much of a statement with the video for “It Ain’t My Fault,” unless you think a pair of pawn-shop stick-up artists wearing Donald Trump and Barack Obama masks counts as cogent satire. In today’s Nashville, this is what passes for political engagement. 

At MTV’s Video Music Awards in August, freshly minted hip-hop star Cardi B took her brief moment on stage introducing Demi Lovato’s performance to shout out support for Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who kicked off the NFL’s national anthem protests in 2016.

It wasn’t the most nuanced or graceful protest, but Eminem’s incendiary anti-Trump freestyle at the BET Awards in October shocked conservative commentators and provoked fence-sitters with its line drawn in the sand. 

The Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit demonstrated that they’re capable of more than just pretty folk ballads with “You Are the Problem Here,” a fuzzed-out, pissed-off rock anthem released for International Women’s Day. It’s a direct message to men who commit sexual assault, and a clear statement on the persistence of rape culture. 

Alynda Segarra’s Caribbean/folk/funk band released its sixth album, "The Navigator," in March, but “Rican Beach” turned out to be a prescient commentary on Hurricane Maria, the devastation it wrought in Puerto Rico (Segarra is of Puerto Rican descent), and the inadequate response from the federal government: “And they left us to die on Rican Beach.”

Hip-hop’s biggest name has never shied away from offering his opinions. On “The Story of O.J.,”  from "4:44," Jay-Z muses on race and economic inequality over a Nina Simone sample. Later, he expanded on his perspective (and offered insight into his relationship with Beyoncé) in a long, candid interview with The New York Times.

The title of his new album indicates where Brooklyn conscious rapper Joey Bada$$ is coming from. On "AmeriKKKan Bada$$," Joey’s nostalgic ’90s-style hip-hop catches up with history and comes into focus – he sounds less like an imitator of Nas and more like a 21st-century incarnation of New York’s hip-hop elder statesman, and the mix of personal vulnerability and political forthrightness, especially on “Land of the Free,” recalls the spirit of Kendrick Lamar’s "To Pimp a Butterfly."

"DAMN." might be Kendrick Lamar’s personal, private counterpart to the public and political statement on "To Pimp a Butterfly," but, well, the personal is political, and probably never more so than in 2017. On “XXX,” Lamar considers the cycle of racism and violence, first from a street-level, microscopic perspective, then from a historical one. “XXX” condenses all the concerns and anxieties of 2017 into four tense, anguished minutes, but like the best political music, it will outlast the current circumstance.

Their Soul2Soul tour returned Faith Hill and Tim McGraw to the spotlight in 2017, and the royal couple of country music – a conservative industry that’s not noted for political advocacy – used the occasion to make some earnest nonpartisan pleas for common sense and political unity. Hill and McGraw adroitly leveraged their status this summer and fall to make impassioned statements against white nationalism and for gun control.

The mastermind of the groundbreaking musical "Hamilton" turned to Broadway for inspiration for his all-star benefit single in support of Puerto Rican disaster relief – “Almost Like Praying” rewrites “Maria,” from "West Side Story" as a modern Latin pop song.

The reliably provocative songwriter didn’t mention a certain U.S. President by name on his new album, "Dark Matter," but he didn't really have to – he mocks Donald Trump’s BFF in “Putin” and mulls the conflict between science and fundamentalism on “The Great Debate.”

She persisted: Pop star Katy Perry, who enthusiastically performed at Hillary Clinton rallies in 2016, remained outspoken in 2017, criticizing celebrities who don’t take political stands and wearing a Clinton-inspired white pantsuit at the Grammys.

The video for “What About Us,” the first single from Pink’s "Beautiful Trauma," depicts a Los Angeles dystopia populated by the marginalized and targeted populations – gay men and women, people of color – dancing and defying the police. It says something about the political moment that simply asserting your existence can be controversial.

The rising Nashville star presents a bleak portrait of Middle America on her new album, "All American Made" – economic despair, disappearing rural communities, political cynicism and corruption, and that’s just on the title track. Price’s greatest fear on "All American Made" is that the American Dream is just a dream.

Politics and hip-hop have never been far apart, and Killer Mike and El-P rely on a particular populist point-of-view as the increasingly popular duo Run the Jewels. On their 2017 album, "Run the Jewels 3," they take on consumerism and U.S. foreign policy, and radical rock provocateur Zack de la Rocha joins them for “A Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters.”

The notoriously nonconformist Simpson wasn’t invited to November’s CMA Awards in Nashville – an event that infamously tried to prevent journalists from asking “political” questions during their coverage. Simpson took part in his own way, though, busking outside the venue to raise money for the ACLU and offering commentary on gun control and civil rights (he’s in favor of both). 

The recently reformed Sleater-Kinney indicated that they’re back to stay with “Here We Come,” a leftover track from the sessions for their 2015 comeback "No Cities to Love." The bracing rocker was part of a series of 7-inch singles released to benefit Planned Parenthood that also included Björk, Feist, the National, and Bon Iver.

Even an instrumental jazz track can be political, especially if it’s accompanied by a 14-minute video depicting lyrical, poetic images of people of color, from all across America and all across the economic spectrum, living their lives – at home, at work, with friends and family, alone and together.