Pusha T & Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns

Abstract
Existing aesthetic approaches to interpretating trap and ganga-rap music frequently conceptualize the lyrical performances as being done by someone responding to economic precarity and a low-level likelihood of upward social mobility with an entrepreneurial mindset.

This article seeks to subvert that paradigm and understand it as an expression of wholesale rejection of the existant political institutions which enforce laws. Because of the lyrics of popular artists and the numerous arrests made for those involved with rap labels that are fronts for illicit drug acitivty – most famously the Black Mafia Family – it is my claim that this music is more appropriately situated in a context of transnational drug-trafficking networks, just as narcocorridos are.

By looking at Pusha T’s recent rap-album Daytona in such a light, it appears that it could be interpretated as an articistic confession of participation in drug trafficking operations that involved the FARC, the Venezuela’s Cartel of the Sons, and the Cuban Communist Party.

Keywords: Trap music, aesthetics, drug-trafficking networks, PSUV

Pusha T and Roger Waters and Venezuela

The first two lines of Daytona establishs a connection between the luxury goods that Pusha T enjoys and Pink Floyd.

Given the braggadocio typical of King Push this seems an interesting choice given Roger Waters doesn’t isn’t even listed amongst the top ten richest rockstars.

Another reason that Pusha T could be citing this particular individual is their mutual connection via Nicholas Maduro Moros – who recently gave a “new toy,” a guitar, to Roger Waters. Waters received this because he had promoted and performed a concert to keep Hands Off Venezuela, a phrase often used by Communist political organizers and activists. Considering Nicholas Maduro Moros and Hugo Chanvez before him has given praise and money to African-Americans they considered to be “fighting their cause” – such as Ajamu Baraka and Danny Glover – this raises the likelihood of such an interpretation being true.

The two musicians also share an avowed animosity towards President Donald Trump. Whereas Waters is significantly more ostentatious in his declarations, in an interview on the Angie Martinez Show, Pusha expresses disdain towards Kanye West for his support of the President and his Christianity.

While rapping about cocaine, as Pusha T often does, doesn’t lend the same political cachet as producing the types of songs which Pink Floyd has – it’s worth considering that the valorization of his behavior has a sort of Ninotchka effect – i.e. the development of desires and aspirations within the audience that leads to the normalization of “new” behaviors – in this case accepting cocaine trafficking as the behavior of an anti-hero rather than a law-breaker.

Pusha T’s Knowledge on Cocaine Prices

In the same first song, Pusha T states that many of the rappers currently singing about the prices their connects offer them aren’t accurate. More than that, in additino to proclaiming that many of these rappers turned trappers are fake – he periodizes how long it’s been lower. Because he claims to be a “trappers turned rappers”, he knows the “real price”.

Here are some of the geopolitical events that helped drive down the cost of cocaine.

(1) Venezuela’s Begins Sponsoring Narcotrafficking Operations

In the book Bumerán Chávez: Los Fraudes que Llevaron al Colapso de Venezuela by Emili J Blasck, Chávez’s former bodyguard Leamsy Salazar states that Hugo Chávez met with the high command of FARC somewhere in rural Venezuela in 2007. Chávez created a system in which the FARC would provide the Venezuelan government with drugs that would be transported in live cattle and the FARC would receive money and weaponry from the Venezuelan government. According to Salazar, this was done in order to weaken Chávez’s perceived enemy, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. This drastically reduced the risk costs associated with cocaine production

(2) Rise of Bitcoin as a Means of Managing Drug Money

Bitcoin was first launched on 3, January 2009. The coins were first announced and promoted via an email list populated by numberous computer security specialists with connections to international anarchist organizations and Communist Party Activists. Actors connected to Occupy Wall Street – a Situationist-inspired political festival organized in coordination with above mentioned international Anarchist and Communist activists – were some of it’s first promoters. Their ability to get enough “real people” involved with Bitcoin provided cover for the FARC-EP to use it and thus drastically reduce the risk costs associated with moving money.

While both of these facts are within the public record – neither of them are “general knowledge” and indicate that Pusha T has insider information, that is the information of a co-conspirator.

Pusha T – Confessions of being Under Cuban Surveillance and Relation to Broader Conspiracy

In verse two of If You Know You Know, Pusha T states that amongst  the members of a “fraternity of drug dealers” there are still people looking at him with “one eye”. When one consider’s Fidel Castro’s role in cocaine trafficking, and that ten years ago the Cuban Five were released and CubaInformation – who’s logo is a single eye – was founded then this makes much more sense. This “news network” was formed as it allowed Cuba’s Intelligence services to  operate in much the same way that the spy-ring did, but with more legal cover.

Following this admission of being under surveillance, he makes two other cryptic statements that can be related to his participation in a transnational-drug trafficking network connected to the FARC, the PSUV, and the PCC.

“The company I keep isn’t corporate enough” 

This seems to be criticism levelled by the fraternity of drug dealers against Pusha T because his closeness to the street prevents him from being able to easily diversify his money laundering operations and corruption networks.

“Child Rebel Soldier, You Ain’t Orphan Enough.”

While Child Rebel Soldier was the name of a “rap supergroup” it’s also the appropriate categorical name for the 5000+ children that were recruited by the FARC for combat.

It’s in this context that we see that this is another criticism levelled by the “fraternity of drug dealers” against Pusha T.

Specifically they seem be upset that he cannot manage “real” artists – like the musicians in Child Rebel Soldier – in the same way that orphans – like Puff Daddy – can be.

This tension between Pusha T and this Fraternitiy; those – to quote from the chorus of this song – which are “coachin from the side of the ball courts” is important and comes up again later in the album.

Pusha T & Cuban Cocaine Trafficking Networks

Lest all the above seem like a reach, let’s look at Santeria, track five on Pusha T’s album Daytona.

For appropriate context, it’s important to understand that as a religion, Santeria is most appropriately associated with Cuba. According to RT, the state media outlet of Cuba’s long-time ally Russia – Cuba is a paradise for santeros.  But the connection between Santeros and Cuba goes even deeper…

In his book Fidel and Religion, the theologian Frei Betto – one of the Liberation Theologists involved with the creation of the Sao Paulo Forum – transcribed his conversations with Fidel Castro. Betto asks him about Castro’s relationship with Santeria. While he denies being a practitioner, he does say that many santeros who supported the Communist Revolution saw in him a spiritual liberator for Cuba, and that there are many who consider him the son of the deity Elegguá. Also worth noting is that in the book Los Brujos de Chavez David Placer provides ample documentation that Hugo Chavez has engaged in Santeria practices.

Pretext done, to the song lyrics.

By Pusha T’s own admission, the song opens with a reference to his road manager’s murder – for reasons that the courts were never able to determine.

Cursory research shows that not only is “CHE” the name of the location of where Pusha’s tour manager DayDay Pickett was stabbed, but that the sign outside the building includes a red rose at the top – which is one of the symbols of the FARC-EP!

Given this graphic, and that restaurants (and concert tours) are often cash-based businesses that provide amble opportunity for money laundering – I would speculate that the “payola” Pusha T mentions relates to contested percentages considered due for such services – be it transporting cocaine or laundering money.

Thus we can come to understand that Pusha T’s equation of himself with a priest is to put himself on the level of Hugo Chavez – who helps grow cocaine – and Raul Castro – who helps ship cocaine.

Is Pusha T a Drug Dealing Money Launderer working on behalf of The Cartel of the Suns, the Cuban Communist Party and the FARC-EP?

Given the above – I’m curious as to what it is you think? Is Pusha T currently just a rapper – or, like his idols Big Meech and Sosa – is he engaged in cocaine trafficking with artistry as a cover..?

Leave your comments below…