
Janelle Monáe attends the 67th GRAMMY Awards on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
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Janelle Monáe attends the 67th GRAMMY Awards on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Janelle wasn’t happy with the St. Louis rapper Nelly, who said that the inauguration wasn’t the same as political promotion for Trump.
Nelly turned a lot of his fans against him when he performed at President Donald Trump’s inauguration ball last month, and it looks like fellow Missouri native Janelle Monáe is one of them.
While performing Nelly’s hit 2002 single, “Hot In Herre” during a post-Grammys event on Sunday, Monáe took a moment to condemn. Nelly’s actions. "Fuck you!" she exclaimed. "I used to like Nelly but then he went to perform for Donald Trump."
“Nelly, you sold out,” she continued in an impromptu freestyle. “I used to think he was cool, but now you look like a motherf---ing fool."
Monáe’s condemnation arrives a few weeks after Nelly’s performance at the Liberty Ball on January 20. Speaking on the matter, Nelly defended his show, explaining that he didn’t really believe it was a matter of political opinion.
“This is not a campaign trail,” Nelly explained to News Nation’s Cuomo. “This is not anything that I feel like I’m influencing people to sway how they feel, but it’s more about the respect and the honor of being invited for what I like to call the greatest country on the planet.”
Nelly might not feel it’s political, but upon his re-election, Trump once again began living up to his status as one of the most controversial political figures alive. As NPR reports, Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs in the government, among many other executive orders.
Watch Monáe speak out against Nelly for yourself below.