He needed some of the swagger reflected on the Spotify playlist he recently released, featuring Tupac’s “Changes,” as well as Flo Rida, Pitbull, The Sugar Hill Gang, Kanye, Big Sean, devoted Obama supporters Jay-Z and Will.I.Am, and a Foster the People song about “a cowboy kid” who finds a gun in his dad’s closet and goes after “all the other kids with the pumped up kicks.”
Rubio told GQ that he loved the documentary on Tupac, “Resurrection,” and his song, “Killuminati,” and that 30-year-old hip-hop is now “indistinguishable” from pop. (Sorry, Tipper.)
He said that Tupac, who loved Shakespeare and called “Romeo and Juliet” “serious ghetto,” wrote poetry. Tupac’s “Changes” lyric — “You see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do what we gotta do to survive” — could be an anthem for the busted Republican Party.
Maybe Rubio is siding with West Coast rap in an early bid to nail down California’s 55 electoral votes. But in The Atlantic Wire, Elspeth Reeve argues that, message-wise, it would make more sense for the ambitious G.O.P. senator to go with B.I.G., who had “up-from-his-bootstraps small-business acumen” and a mom who immigrated from Jamaica and ended up, as Biggie rapped, pimping an Acura with “minks on her back.” Tupac’s mother and stepfather were Black Panthers.
Asked by BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith about this recently, Rubio said that he was in school at the peak of Death Row music and preferred it.
He demurred when asked if he had learned any life lessons from Tupac — “I don’t listen to music for the politics of it” — and noted that mostly, rappers were not “condoning a certain lifestyle” as much as reporting on “what life was like in South Central.”
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.
I think what Republicans are doing here is the same spirit as that. It reads as such a desperate attempt to say, "Hey, we're with it kids!" that it's cringe inducing. That's not to say it won't work, but it's so transparent that it is a huge turn-off.
I'm not saying Rubio's music tastes aren't genuine. They probably are. It's how they are being used that is so eye-roll worthy. The article here also comes across as dated and out of touch when it tries to have fun with Rubio being a hip-hop fan. It seems locked in the 1990's. The article, unlike Rubio, seems to really associate hip-hop with the stuff of that era's gangsta posturing, which seems pretty silly in retrospect. The most popular hip-hop song right now is about the virtues of thrift shopping for good values.
Yeah, I don't see this form of reaching out to minorities producing that many votes for Republicans. In fact I don't see how Republicans will capture any votes from these people without becoming socialists themselves. You might find a handful of people that value work and self reliance but that's the exception in human nature, not the rule. Most people are out looking for a way to take advantage of other people.
With Barry O in power Quasi knows with certainty He's gonna live the sweet life on social security!
We coudn't pay it all by cutting national defense so we hiked income taxes at the working man's expense
When they wouldn't take a job No matter how high we bid We started paying single women to have a lot of kids.
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
ajax18 wrote:Yeah, I don't see this form of reaching out to minorities producing that many votes for Republicans. In fact I don't see how Republicans will capture any votes from these people without becoming socialists themselves. You might find a handful of people that value work and self reliance but that's the exception in human nature, not the rule. Most people are out looking for a way to take advantage of other people.
With Barry O in power Quasi knows with certainty He's gonna live the sweet life on social security!
We coudn't pay it all by cutting national defense so we hiked income taxes at the working man's expense
When they wouldn't take a job No matter how high we bid We started paying single women to have a lot of kids.
I think you might have a future in Republican Rap, ajax. It's a wide open field. You should think about finding a music agent. It's good to remember that hand signs are very important.
You might have to make some changes to them to suit your audience:
I hope you decide to make this career move. I'm sure you will be financially very successful and I'm depending on you to pay more into Social Security to support my retirement.
This, or any other post that I have made or will make in the future, is strictly my own opinion and consequently of little or no value.
"Faith is believing something you know ain't true" Twain.
I think you might have a future in Republican Rap, ajax. It's a wide open field. You should think about finding a music agent. It's good to remember that hand signs are very important.
