Trump Inauguration 2017: Moby rejects DJ offer, curates playlist of protest music
On the surface, Moby might seem like the perfect target to perform at President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration: He's white, Christian enough and enjoyed his peak in the early '00s. How wrong Trump's team was to ask.
The electronic musician revealed on Instagram Monday that he'd been approached by Trump's struggling inauguration team. He literally filled his post with laughter.
"Hahahahaha, I was just asked by a booking agent if I would consider DJing at one of the inaugural balls for #trump," he wrote. "Hahahahaha, wait, hahahaha, really?"
After a moment of pause though, Moby came up with a trade: He'll DJ at Trump's inauguration if Trump agrees to release his tax returns:
I guess I'd DJ at an inaugural ball if as payment #trump released his tax returns. Also I would probably play public enemy and stockhausen remixes to entertain the republicans. I'm still laughing. Hahahaha. So #trump what do you think, I DJ for you and you release your tax returns?
Moby is one of the latest in a long line of very public rejections of Trump's inauguration office's advances. On Jan. 2, Rebecca Ferguson made her own request of Trump's team: She would sing if she was allowed to perform "Strange Fruit," an anti-lynching anthem and song of black resistance. Elton John, Celine Dion and David Foster have also all notably turned down offers with varying degrees of vitriol.
It seems that Trump's team didn't bother to look into Moby's politics even the slightest. The electronic artist contributed two songs to the 30 Days, 50 Songs compilation of anti-Trump hymns, "Trump Is on Your Side" and "Little Failure," and he wrote a November op-ed for Rolling Stone, calling Trump an "actual sociopath."
Moby wrote:
With Trump, you get a belligerent racist who's most likely a sociopath [and] definitely a racist and misogynist with no governing experience. And with Hillary, you get an incredibly bright, progressive, strong, experienced legislator. There's no choice unless you're ignorant, delusional or racist.
There is kind of a special thrill in imagining Moby accepting the offer quietly and then using his entire set to remix those quotes over quick electronic dance instrumentals to troll the whole show. Thankfully, for those interested, the artist put together a playlist of the songs he might have chosen in a piece for Billboard.
Imagine the look on all the faces under those Make America Great Again brims hearing Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" blast into an unsuspecting ball room.
