Swedish rapper Lilla Namo trashes Trump in catchy song

Cliches are usually true and there's a familiarity to them that resonates but they're also lazy and unimaginative, which makes the ego in a writer go "I'm better than this".

But there is something to them. Like "Music transcends language". Regardless of the language it's sung in, we can connect with the song regardless of whether we understand the words.

Look at La Macerena, Asereje, aka The Ketchup Song, or Gangnam Style. We know those songs are about having a good time (also, they all came with simple dances so white people can dance to them at weddings).

We know Rammstein's music means "The world sucks and we should burn it all down". And we get that Cypress Hill's Spanish songs are mostly about smoking weed and doing gangster sh*t.

I bring this up because of a Swedish rapper, Lilla Namo, who recently put out an up-tempo pop song telling Donald Trump to shut up, which we can all relate to.

Håll Käften has had me dancing around my bedroom singing into a hairbrush, which is awkward because I don't really know the words - yet.

I had a brief email chat with Namo about telling the POTUS (president of the US) to shut up, Swedish politics and using humour and satire in her music.

"Håll Käften" means "Shut Up" and is aimed US President Donald Trump. Tell me more.

It's absurd, but I wasn't shocked that Trump won the election. In history things move in cycles. The song started as a shut up to the bullsh*t that comes out from his mouth. People laughed, created memes and his popularity increased.

Trump is like an evil character from a Disney movie, but he's real and now one of the most powerful people in the world. The shut up was just me being tired of hearing his name and his capitalist, sexist, racist statements. It was also a shut up to people around me who had disappointed me in life.

LISTEN to Lilla Namo's track Håll Käften featuring Kaah

What made you write a song about a foreign politician?

A lot of my music is about the issues we have in Sweden. Writing about Trump was fun because it becomes fictitious. Both Sweden and the US are invasive but in different ways. Everything is relative to the context. I love Sweden and can't even imagine how it is to live in the States with a carrot as a president. Basically he's a vegetable.

Would you rap in English to appeal to a broader audience, or is relating to your local audience more important?

Rapping in Swedish makes it more real for me; Swedish is a simple language. It's how we choose to build up sentences, or play with slang. That I can't do with English. - bubblegumclub.co.za

• This article was originally published in The Times.