Chrisette Michele Responds to Inauguration Criticism with ‘No Political Genius.’

Chrisette Michele

News of Chrisette Michele’s planned performance at a Trump Inauguration event caused quite a bit of controversy last week. The singer even faced condemnation from former collaborator Questlove as well as Spike Lee, who announced that he would be removing her song from his upcoming Netflix series.

After releasing a pretty bizarre open letter to justify her decision, Michele has followed up with “No Political Genius” a spoken-word track that doubles down on her defense.

“I am the black song Spike Lee won’t sing/I am the black voice inauguration bells ring,” Michele says at the start of the track.

She also hits back at her most prominent critics:

“For John Lewis and Ben Carson/Questlove, Spike Lee, and before them/I won’t divide now/That’s not smart now/God before me, I won’t back down/This is my damn America now.”

Listen below.