On Tyranny: Hip-Hop MC TINO Says of His New Trans-Rights Song: ‘[They] Just Want to Be Loved Too’
No Kings 3, which took place last week and drew an estimated 8 to 9 million participants – exceeding the turnouts of the first two protests – provided more wind in the sails of the pro-democracy movement that is barreling toward a critical juncture at the November midterm elections.
One of the many, many musicians who turned out at one of the 3,000-plus actions – in his home state of Ohio – was TINO. Since the early 2010s, the hip-hop hero from Dayton has kept his mind trained on educating and galvanizing his audience with socially conscious messages while he keeps his lips trained on spitting transcendent rhymes. He got a big bump at the beginning of his career thanks to a grant made available through a now-extinct public funding program for the arts.
While activism is a through line in TINO’s career, the affable and down-to-earth musician was so inspired by the latest No Kings edition that he released a song inspired by it, “People Too,” on the Tuesday following the protest. (TINO stipulated that he actually wrote the track two years ago.)
“This is me taking the opportunity to stand up and support women, immigrants, and trans people through my art,” he stated in a description accompanying the song, which is priced at a pay-what-you-can rate on his Bandcamp page. “All sales from this song will be donated to organizations supporting those causes.”
He further noted one of the most commonly spoken and heard refrains that have reverberated among the resistance who continue to warn the public about the horrors at democracy’s doorstep in the U.S.: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
The Bad Penny fortuitously found TINO on Bandcamp a few days ago, and the artist graciously leapt at the chance to participate in our On Tyranny series, in which more than 100 musicians have now participated. We found TINO’s reflections on fascism and the current state of affairs in the country and the world to be so enlightening that we spoke with him longer than any other artist featured in our series thus far.
Don’t be intimidated: We instinctually infused our conversation with some levity when appropriate, and it’s likely most who listen to the conversation will find it to be of the common-sense variety, even if warnings about authoritarianism’s attack on artists are laced throughout.
Check out the first part of our conversation here:
And part two here:
For more on TINO, go to his website, X account, Facebook page, Instagram feed and Soundcloud hub.
Check out more installments of The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny series here.
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