Snoop Dogg reignites Trump feud after taking aim at the president in new 'Make America Crip Again' track

Donald Trump and Snoop Dogg were two names you rarely heard in the same sentence until the US President caused something of an uproar by suggesting the rapper should be sent to prison last spring.

But the Long Beach musician has now reignited the feud by taking aim at the president in a new track titled “Make America Crip Again” which is accompanied by artwork of a blue hat with the identikit phrase. This is an obvious take on President Trump’s trademark campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”.

The Crips, also known by their moniker Original Crip Homies, are a predominantly African-American gang who were founded in Los Angeles back in 1969.

“The president said he wants to make American great again. F*** that shit, we’re going to make America crip again," the rapper says in the opening lines of the single from his new album of the same name.

The rapper, who has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, then goes on to criticise President Trump’s recent tweets berating NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.

"As I look around I see so many millionaires with skin like mine, don't pretend that I'm with that bulls*** your president been tweeting,” he raps.

He also defends Colin Kaepernick - an American football quarterback who is currently a free agent - who first protested by sitting during the anthem back in August 2016 before opting to kneel instead. Kaepernick has filed a grievance against NFL owners and accused them of colluding to keep him out of the league.

"Ima line ya'll on up, then start my own league. Ima sign ya'll on up," Snoop Dogg adds. "I'm thinking who my heroes be. Thank God for the negro league. Colin Kaepernick was blackballed, oh n*****, please. This still America with three K's, believe that s***."

In a statement sent to CNN, Snoop Dogg said the song is "not a statement or a political act: it's just good music."

He also elaborated on his reference to the Crips and said their initial function was not gang activity but rather the “reflection of the Black Panthers” - a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organisation founded in Oakland in California in the 1960s to fight police brutality.

"Certain people feel like we should make America 'great again,' but that time they're referring to always takes me back to separation and segregation, so I'd rather Make America Crip Again,” the rapper said. “What I mean by that is, in my lifetime, that's when young black men in impoverished areas organised to help their communities and to take care of their own because society basically left them for dead.”

"A lot of people glorify the gang banging and violence but forget that in the beginning, the Crip's main and sole purpose was to be the reflection of the Black Panthers," he added. "They looked after kids, provided after school activities, fed them and stepped in as role models and father figures."

According to a press release, "Make America Crip Again" is a response to the Trump team’s neglect of some communities and serves as an explicit call upon the community to reclaim power and “look after itself”.

Snoop Dogg and President Trump’s unlikely spat first emerged last March when the billionaire property developer suggested Snoop Dogg should be arrested for pretending to shoot him in a music video.

"Can you imagine what the outcry would be if Snoop Dogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time!" President Trump wrote on Twitter.

The artist shot a toy gun at a clown resembling Mr Trump called “Ronald Klump” in the video and the gun released a flag with the word "bang" on it.

At the time, the President's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, told TMZ he was "shocked" by the video, saying: "It’s totally disgraceful. Snoop owes the president an apology”.

He added: "There’s absolutely nothing funny about an assassination attempt on a president, and I’m really shocked at him, because I thought he was better than that."