Ben Shapiro and Tom MacDonald's Rap Song "Facts"

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About

Ben Shapiro and Tom MacDonald's Rap Song "Facts" refers to a collaborative hip-hop song between independent conservative rapper Tom MacDonald and conservative media personality Ben Shapiro, which was released in late January 2024. Online, Shapiro's verse on the song, in particular, was widely discussed and mocked, with many perceiving it as cringe.

Origin

On January 25th, 2024, conservative rapper Tom MacDonald released a rap song with Ben Shapiro titled "Facts." The song was posted to YouTube by MikeTheGamerX, gaining 1,800 views in two days (seen below).

Much of the song finds MacDonald rapping against woke ideology. Shapiro delivers the second verse, featuring some references to his previous memes and viral moments,^[1] including a reference to Okay, This Is Epic and a namedrop of "WAP," which Shapiro infamously criticized (full verse shown below).

Spread

As the track spread online, social media users voiced surprise to learn of its existence, particularly because Shapiro has infamously and consistently criticized rap music in general as "not a form of music."^[2] The track was shared on various hip-hop subreddits, though it generally did not receive positive reception.

For example, on January 26th, 2024, it was posted to /r/hiphop,^[3] where it gained zero upvotes in 12 hours but did gain 44 comments, mostly featuring jokes about Shapiro's rap. There, some users voiced suspicion Shapiro's part could be AI-generated due to its slowness and lack of flow. Some users on Twitter / X, including users @theficus_tree^[4] and TravisHouze,^[5] also voiced suspicion that Shapiro's part was AI-generated (shown below).

Also on January 26th, YouTuber @bradtaste^[6] tweeted a graphic showing the song's initial poor reception, gaining over 30 retweets and 1,200 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, left). That same day, Twitter user @mossstreetsf^[7] posted Shapiro's rap, ironically asking "VERSE OF THE YEAR?" in a tweet that gained 20 retweets and 110 likes in hours (shown below, right).

On January 25th, 2024, Tom Macdonald tweeted that there would be a music video coming of the song, gaining over 1,800 retweets and 5,600 likes in one day (shown below).

The video was then released on Tom Macdonald's YouTube^[8] channel on January 26th, 2024, accumulating over 315,000 views, 81,000 likes and 16,000 comments in three hours (shown below).