WHY?
45 lies SO incessantly that we’ve become desensitized to his falsehoods which inordinately impact the Black community. Hip Hop culture contains the talent, the reach, and the credibility to battle these lies, especially in time to encourage action and dynamic response during election season. #45Lies is an organized and viral campaign to hone and unleash our potential when democracy is literally on the line.

The makers and descendants of hip-hop culture have a justifiably uneasy relationship with electoral politics. The election of 2020 however is less about two primary candidates, and more about the extremely fragile breaking point between democracy and fascism. Many of us have always assumed that politicians lie to us, but the current president has institutionalized un-truth in a way that's led to at least 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 and correlated assaults on the economy, housing, public education, and EVERY other aspect of American life. Who in our community has the ability to make this  plain to younger voters and historically disenfranchised? WE do…because we MUST!

WHAT?
Wordsmiths and artists from around the country each take 45 seconds to directly challenge one of 45's blatant and dangerous falsehoods. In self-filmed videos, each artist makes it clear WHY a particular lie is so dangerous, WHO it affects most, HOW the distorted truth connects to more systemic harm for historically stigmatized communities, etc. As part of the #45Lies Challenge, we are asking each lyricist to perform their video to an instrumental of the Honey Drippers’ iconic “Impeach the President” and artists can  download the instrumental for themselves at 45Lies2020.com and create their own videos. Think of it as the "ice bucket challenge" for lyricists who care about the survival of our democracy.

On the morning after the first Presidential debate, artists began posting their videos to their respective Instagram accounts using the tag #45Lies, creating a digital flash mob and hip hop driven fact checking of the President in (almost) real time.  When posting their video, each lyricist challenges two OTHER artists to follow suit, passing the baton and expanding the cipher. In less than a month our page has attracted 20.5K+ followers,  reached over 250K people and  the hashtag #45Lies has made  over 1 million impressions across Instagram.  At this urgent moment in time, we owe it to ourselves to ignite a deep engagement with our political truths, encourage our most respected peers to do the same, and fight back against 45’s assault on the honest word and the communities who are most vulnerable to the repercussions of his pathology. 

WHO? 
The organizers of #45Lies are Emmy and Tony winners, TED Fellows, and independent producers with current projects at HBO, Hulu, and Broadway. The current lyricists range in reach from Billboard’s Top 100 to the Oscars to the underground battle rap scene to BET’s Verses and Flow to The New York Times Bestseller List.