Rappers or Republicans?

In May, we posited that southern hip-hop and Fox News share much in common. Possessing both an anti-intellectual streak and a populist one, they’re beloved by red-staters and hated on by the coastal elites, be they liberals, hipsters, Ghostface or Nas. The piece concluded:

If you're still not convinced that Southern rap and Fox News are one and the same, consider the countless Southern rap odes to big cars and the wasteful misuse of fossil fuel, an indulgence the global-warming deniers on Fox News certainly endorse.

Lo and behold, seven weeks later who should jump on the bandwagon but The Daily Show, via this report from “senior political image consultant” Wyatt Cenac. Cenac responds to a clip of Virginia Republican congressman Virgil Goode riding in a Hummer at a parade by showing a clip from Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” video, in which the emcee rides around in a limousine semi. “It’s got a Hummer limo inside of it where they’re shooting a Jay-Z video,” he says.

“Rappers, Republicans, what’s the difference?” he goes on. “They both love money, they both love guns, gay people scare the sh-t out of them, every other word out of their mouth is n-gger!”

When we see John McCain in Timbalands, we’ll know this trend has legs.

- Ben Westhoff