By Kristine Parks
Published July 10, 2023
Two "anti-woke" rap songs recently bumped Taylor Swift and a popular K-Pop singer from their number one spots on Billboard and iTunes. For singer Jimmy Levy, he believes their surprising success reveals "patriots" have more influence than the cultural gatekeepers want you to believe.
"That shows that we're the majority no matter what, the mainstream and Hollywood—and the industry wants to promote whatever agenda they want to promote and try to make us look like we're the minority— people of God, patriots, Americans. It's just not the truth. And no matter what, God prevails," Levy told Fox News Digital.
The Gospel artist's "Boycott Target" song with "MAGA rapper" Forgiato Blow took the No. 1 spot on the iTunes sales chart when it dropped at the end of May, bumping Taylor Swift. About a month later, his Christian hip-hop song with "Reclaim the Rainbow," by Bryson Gray and Shemeka Michelle, reached the top spot on Billboard's rap digital song sales chart, knocking K-Pop singer Jimin of the band BTS from the top position.
Levy was amazed by how quickly the songs rose to popularity.
"[It] was really, really crazy," he recalled.
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"We gonna clean up on every aisle, wash it with the blood of Christ," Levy sings on "Boycott Target." "God is coming for revenge, Target is targeting our kids."
Levy was inspired to help create the protest song when he saw Target was "collaborating with Satanists to make children's clothing."
"It really hurt me," he said. The song also speaks out against transgender treatments for children.
The retail giant received backlash from customers after it partnered with a self-described Satanist whose brand features occult imagery and messages like "Satan respects pronouns" on brand apparel.
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Even though the Target-affiliated products did not feature Satanic imagery, the retailer pulled the designer's products off shelves shortly afterward. The response angered LGBTQ activists, who demanded Target reverse course and show support for their community.
Levy said while he wanted his music to focus on God more than politics, he viewed the conflict part of a "spiritual war."
Target has lost billions in market value after social media users drew attention to the company's pride merchandise for children and infants as well as swimsuits for transgender individuals to "tuck" their genitals ahead of gay pride month.
Despite their song reaching the top of the charts, Levy and Blow believed it was shadow-banned on social media and Apple's music platform.
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"It took like a couple of days for people to be able to actually search it on iTunes. The only way they were able to find it was on the charts. They were not allowing it to be searched," Levy claimed. After the artists drew attention to the perceived censorship, Levy said "suddenly it was searchable again." He said he and others also faced censorship on Instagram and TikTok for trying to share the song.
"And it's like, 'why is a song that's speaking out against people that are basically grooming our children, getting taken down?' It's just very weird. Why are we protecting that? But we allow all these other horrible things online to just stay on, you know?" he argued.
Apple Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Reclaim the Rainbow," a Christian rap song Levy is also featured on, was released during June and climbed to the top of digital rap charts. The song implores Christians to "reclaim" the biblical meaning of the rainbow in Genesis with the lyrics, "It is a promise, It isn't pride."
"We made it basically like musical history, getting No. 1 with a song about God's promise. And, you know, they try to flip it and say that we're hating on people," he said.
The song was labeled "homophobic" by some media outlets, but Levy pushed back against the term.
"If you know me, I love everybody. I've never treated anybody different. I have friends that have all different types of views and I give them the biggest hugs like they're my close friends. We never let our disagreements affect us. However, I don't ignore the truth. And love also means the truth," he said.
"We are not scared of anybody. We love everybody," he added. "They just want to put a label in order to defame the song, defame our character…it's wrong."
Both songs also earned him intense backlash and hateful messages online, he said.
While he thought he was taking a polarizing stance when he put out anti-mandate songs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the pushback he received for these songs he says was much worse.
"I never received so much hate, death threats and just horrible things sent to me after these two songs," he recalled.
The Christian artist said he received messages telling him "horrible things that I could not even imagine saying to my worst enemy," such as orders to kill himself. But he said he was praying for these critics.
"I just I pray for them and I send them love," he said.
Levy said he is currently working on a worship album. His newest single, "Amen," dropped on Friday.
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