The producer behind hits by the J6 Prison Choir and Lara Trump is teaming up with a legendary hip-hop impresario in a joint venture that aims to tap into the power of MAGA music fans.
LJ Fino helped turn a rough recording of 20 prisoners imprisoned for their role in the January 6 attack on Congress singing along a telephone line into a hit single featuring Donald Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
He told DailyMail.com that other hits, featuring Trump allies such as Kari Lake and daughter-in-law Lara, showed there was a market for a new “counterculture” musical movement.
Now he’s teaming up with Chris Schwartz, the record executive who made Cypress Hill, Kris Kross and the Fugees household names, in a joint venture. They want to bring a new type of artist to a larger audience.
“With this counterculture, America First music, there’s a void in the marketplace, and major labels aren’t going to do anything about it,” Fino said.
But he said his experience, and the examples of Oliver Anthony’s ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ and Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’, showed there was a significant audience.
Not to mention that Donald Trump won the popular vote in the last election by over 77 million votes, which equates to 77 million potential buyers.
It means that Fino, a frequent visitor to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago headquarters, has the backing of Schwartz and the main industrial force of his distributor Universal.
Music producer LJ Fino with Lara Trump during the shooting of one of her videos
Fino teams up with legendary hip-hop music manager Chris Schwartz, who built his reputation with the likes of Fugees and Kriss Kross
Fino said the success of singles such as ‘Justice for All’ featuring the J6 Prison Choir and Donald Trump showed there was an American first market for music.
They signed a deal in September and are now drafting artists for their roster.
“I partnered with LJ Fino because, like any emerging music genre, there are key players who have relationships across the board with the community of artists and managers who are part of this movement,” said Schwartz.
“LJ is invaluable in tapping into the participants in this genre.”
Schwartz has an impeccable hip-hop pedigree, becoming one of the early players in the movement in the 1980s. In 1985, he distributed Schoolly D’s “PSK/Gucci Time,” a single considered the first gangsta rap record and the inspiration for such as Ice-T and NWA.
His record label, Ruffhouse Records, became the launching pad for some of the most successful hip-hop and electronic acts of the 1990s, such as Wyclef Jean and Lauren Hill.
Fino said he was a pioneering music manager then, who now still has an eye on the next big thing.
“He’s one of those guys in the ’80s and ’90s who discovered rap music and realized there was a huge market for it and major labels were ignoring it,” he said.
“And it just turns out that he’s a Navy veteran and a big supporter of Trump, the only music mogul that I had actually discovered who actually loves Donald Trump and is a Republican and isn’t afraid to tell people… because most of that they are.’
Trump while filming a music video
He said his experience with the J6 Prison Choir showed there was a huge untapped market.
He became involved in the project after meeting former Fox News host Ed Henry, who sent him a recording of twenty inmates behind bars signing the national anthem.
“It sounded like absolute nonsense,” Fino said. “I said, we can do something with it, but we have to re-record it.”
Fino already had experience recording imprisoned rappers, so knew how to route it all through a professional recording studio.
Kash Patel, now appointed by the president-elect to head the FBI, delivered the polished recording to Trump.
“We wanted to see if he would support it. We didn’t expect President Trump to say, I’ll put my voice on it too, and you can use my name and likeness. But he did,” Fino said.
“He did the Pledge of Allegiance in one take… for 15 seconds, walked out and we had it.”
It debuted on Billboard’s digital sales chart at number one in March 2023, selling over 30,000 copies in its first week.
Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras of the Fugees perform on stage during Global Citizen Festival 2023 in Central Park on September 23, 2023 in New York City
Fino also collaborated on ’81 Million Votes, My ass’ by The Truth Bombers and Kari Lake
Another hit came weeks later, when Kari Lake appeared on a single titled “81 Million Votes, My Ass,” a reference to the number of ballots Joe Biden won in the 2020 election.
It peaked at number one on the Billboard Alternative Digital Song Sales chart.
Those songs, with their novelty value, form one market. But Fino said the real market was with people who didn’t want to be lectured by the Taylor Swifts of the world.
He pointed to the success of Lara Trump’s version of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” which reached No. 10 on the Billboard download chart.
She followed it up with “Anything is Possible,” co-written by Stacy Barthe, who has worked with Rihanna, Britney Spears and Katy Perry, among others.
Fino said the goal ultimately was to cover a range of genres with a wide range of artists.
“It doesn’t really matter, as long as the lyrical content resonates with those individuals,” he said. “I mean, it’s 76 million people who voted for President Trump.
‘It’s a big market where a lot of people sell the music to.’