Commentary duo Aba N Preach used a recent episode to push back on Joe Rogan after he suggested that USAID funding cuts explain a supposed collapse of rap music’s commercial standing.
On his podcast, Rogan claimed hip-hop had disappeared from the charts and tied the decline to the defunding of the U.S. Agency for International Development, arguing the agency had been funding “radical anti-government rappers overseas” as part of efforts toward “regime change.”
One host on the reaction show mocked the premise directly, noting that Drake’s “Iceman” sat at number nine on the Billboard 200 and Pooh Shiesty had just debuted at number seven, undercutting the idea that rap had vanished from the charts at all.
The hosts also picked apart the specifics of Rogan’s claim, asking which foreign rap acts topping the charts had ever received USAID money. When someone jokingly suggested Drake, the segment devolved into laughing at the absurdity of the theory.
The hosts noted this narrative traces back to Mike Benz, a former State Department official who has alleged that USAID used cultural influence operations, including commissioning rap groups, to spark protests and destabilize foreign governments.
One host raised a complaint about podcasts hosting former intelligence officials, saying, “I remember the first time I saw one of these former guys who worked for the government go on these podcasts. I’m like, oh yeah, I’m ready to learn. And you watch the podcast and they don’t say anything. They don’t tell you any groundbreaking information.”
The host pointed out that public statements from former agency employees typically require agency approval, which limits how revelatory the conversations can actually be.
The hosts also flipped the logic back on Rogan, arguing that if funding ties are evidence of manipulation, Rogan’s own platform deserves scrutiny too. They pointed to his reported Spotify contracts, reportedly worth more than a hundred million dollars, as a bigger financial entanglement than anything alleged about rap acts and USAID.
Beyond the USAID claim, the hosts offered their own explanation for why hip-hop’s chart presence fluctuates, pointing to str3aming algorithms, genre fatigue, and listeners simply having more music options than in past decades.
They argued no genre stays dominant forever and that treating a temporary dip as evidence of a intelligence operation ignored basic patterns in music consumption.
The segment ended with the hosts characterizing the USAID theory as part of a wider pattern of unverified claims spreading across podcasts and social media, noting how quickly the same talking points get repeated across platforms.
