Grammy- and Oscar-winning artist Rhymefest extended an invitation to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday.
“I’m inviting Donald Trump to Chicago. I will walk you down a block, Mr. Trump, and I guarantee you won’t get shot,” Rhymefest, whose legal name is Che Smith, said in an interview with CNN’s Carol Costello.
Although Smith was robbed at gunpoint Saturday morning, he said not everyone in his city is dangerous.
“Chicago is in a fragile state. However, it’s not what Donald Trump is saying it is,” Smith said. “I live in a South Side community. I can walk down my block without getting shot. I can walk down many blocks without getting shot. But it is the decades of disinvestment in the community that makes us not able to really come together.”
The rapper’s invitation comes after a tweet Saturday in which Trump linked the shooting death of basketball star Dwyane Wade’s cousin in Chicago to his own efforts to reach black voters.
“Dwyane Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!” Trump wrote.
CNN political analyst David Gergen said Trump is painting all African-Americans as living in poverty and in fear of guns. He advised Trump to take Rhymefest up on his offer to gain a broader understanding of the black community.
“He needs to be in African-American communities, not in white communities talking about African-Americans,” Gergen said. “Go out on the streets of Chicago, understand there is an ever-larger black middle class.”
Trump’s campaign canceled a rally in Chicago earlier this year after fights broke out between supporters and demonstrators, and protests in the streets raised concerns that the environment at the event was no longer safe.
