Joe Rogan: “Rap Has Fallen Off the Charts ‘Cause USAID Got Defunded”

Joe Rogan is pushing a conspiracy theory that “rap has fallen off the charts,” because “USAID got defunded.” Rogan was speaking with his podcast’s ‘Protect Our Parks’ lineup with Shane Gillis, Mark Normand, and Ari Shaffir when he made the claim. “USAID, the Agency for International Development, is well known to have been funding a bunch of radical anti-government rappers overseas,” he said. “Funding a ton of them. It was basically all about regime change. That was a big part of what USAID was about. And the thought is that USAID had some — look, [Trump admin speechwriter and frequent Rogan guest] Mike Benz, he has a famous quote that USAID was there for things that were too dirty for the CIA.” This is not true, though if you squint you can find a kernel of truth. In 2009, USAID did work with a government contractor called Creative Alliance Institute to support Aldo, an anti-Castro rapper in Cuba. After multiple arrests, he eventually relocated to Tampa, Florida. That is the only publicly-known anti-regime rapper supported by this program, though USAID also funded the Tulonge Afya program in Tanzania, where students were encouraged to make music about AIDS and other public health i...